Performed Literature: Words and Music by Bob DylanBob Dylan is not a poet. He is a singer-songwriter, a performing artist. The unit of his art, as collected and documented by his intended audience, is the live performance. Right now, no existing technological tool can give researchers ready access to his entire corpus of work. Revised from the author's Ph.D. dissertation (UC Berkeley, 1978) and again from its first edition (Indiana UP, 1982), Performed Literature develops a methodology for close analysis of verbal art that is heard, not seen, using as comparative examples 24 performances of 11 songs by Bob Dylan. The second edition adds a preface, two major appendices and one minor one, and a detailed index. |
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Page 140
... verse literally describe a rock star's public life— " They're planting stories in the press , " for example , though the next line's " cut it out " puns about the newspaper . Such literalness would fall flat without the accompanying ...
... verse literally describe a rock star's public life— " They're planting stories in the press , " for example , though the next line's " cut it out " puns about the newspaper . Such literalness would fall flat without the accompanying ...
Page 149
... verse , as do guitar and piano flourishes , before sharp tambourine strokes and loud drumming , including cymbal crashes , finish the song . The last verse of the outtake lyrics , I will show , methodically resurrects each of the song's ...
... verse , as do guitar and piano flourishes , before sharp tambourine strokes and loud drumming , including cymbal crashes , finish the song . The last verse of the outtake lyrics , I will show , methodically resurrects each of the song's ...
Page 154
... verse of the outtake picks up on and expands each of the earlier strands of poetic imagery , so that a listener experiences each emotion one more time before the narrator's abrupt switch to first - person - plural acceptance of blame in ...
... verse of the outtake picks up on and expands each of the earlier strands of poetic imagery , so that a listener experiences each emotion one more time before the narrator's abrupt switch to first - person - plural acceptance of blame in ...
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic ain't album alliteration appear artistic audience Babe Baby beat becomes begins Blues Bob Dylan breaks chords closing comes concert continues contrast couplet create culture drums Dylan's voice effect emotional example express eyes fall feel female final follow four fourth give guitar hard harmonica Idiot Wind imagery instrumental Isis it's Italy John lady lead leave less listener live Lonely looking mark meaning measures Miss move narrator narrator's never notes opening oppositions organ outtake patterns performance phrase pitch plays poetic rain recorded refer refrain released repeated response rhyme rock Rolling Stone sad-eyed scene seems sense shift Side sings song song's sound stands stanza structure studio suggests sung tell third throughout tradition understand verse vocal voice Warner Bros woman words York