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 50
... begins as the man , after Isis marries and then leaves him , strikes out into a wilder- ness where he can tell wrong from right and dark from light . " I cut off my hair , " he begins . Hairstyle indicates social status in almost every ...
... begins as the man , after Isis marries and then leaves him , strikes out into a wilder- ness where he can tell wrong from right and dark from light . " I cut off my hair , " he begins . Hairstyle indicates social status in almost every ...
Page 102
... begins . In the other two concert ver- sions , the distinctive opening instrumentation gathers in audience at- tention with each descending set of pitches , until “ Once upon a time " begins at a low point in the music . In Newport '65 ...
... begins . In the other two concert ver- sions , the distinctive opening instrumentation gathers in audience at- tention with each descending set of pitches , until “ Once upon a time " begins at a low point in the music . In Newport '65 ...
Page 119
... begins , but not yet loud or conspicuously offbeat . A brief organ upbeat leads into the first DEFE segment . The " plonk " effect starts in , apparently ready to replace the tambourine in marking mea- sures . But after one line the ...
... begins , but not yet loud or conspicuously offbeat . A brief organ upbeat leads into the first DEFE segment . The " plonk " effect starts in , apparently ready to replace the tambourine in marking mea- sures . But after one line the ...
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Common terms and phrases
ABCB aesthetic ain't Al Kooper album artistic audience aural Babe Baby Ballad bass Beatles Blonde on Blonde Bob Dylan chord change couplet culture drums Dylan's songs Dylan's voice effect electric guitar emotional feel female Ferry's Folklore four fourth stanza Freewheelin Hard Rain hard rain's a-gonna harmonica Highway 61 Revisited Idiot Wind Idiot wind Blowing imagery imitate instrumental break Isis John Wesley Harding listener listener's melody meter Miss Lonely musical beat musicians narrator narrator's oral organ chords outtake Oxford Town performance phrase piano pitch plays poetic rain's a-gonna fall recorded refrain released Retrospective rhyme word riff rock rock music Rolling Stone sad-eyed lady scene second stanza Shelter shift singers sings someone song's sound stanza studio version Subterranean Homesick Blues suggests sung lines sweet lady syllables tambourine tape textual third stanza throughout the song tion verse woman Woody Guthrie words and music York