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. |
From inside the book
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Page 10
... listener into interaction with the song but also can make a responsive listener take action outside the song , to change what is wrong . The songs of politi- cal protest that preceded Dylan's usually pose problems and suggest solutions ...
... listener into interaction with the song but also can make a responsive listener take action outside the song , to change what is wrong . The songs of politi- cal protest that preceded Dylan's usually pose problems and suggest solutions ...
Page 19
... listener's response to that " roar of a wave , " however . Images keep piling up ; the tidal wave is closely linked ... listener both hears and pictures each line . In midsong , thus , listener and narrator begin to merge . And then the ...
... listener's response to that " roar of a wave , " however . Images keep piling up ; the tidal wave is closely linked ... listener both hears and pictures each line . In midsong , thus , listener and narrator begin to merge . And then the ...
Page 114
... listener at a high pitch of anticipation , not finality . The song need not be over ; each listener can resolve in her own way the ominous senti- ments expressed by the minor chords of Babe's romantic expectations . A listener is aided ...
... listener at a high pitch of anticipation , not finality . The song need not be over ; each listener can resolve in her own way the ominous senti- ments expressed by the minor chords of Babe's romantic expectations . A listener is aided ...
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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