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 37
... suggests the olden days , when religion could provide meaningful goals , and equally suggests religion blared from a newspaper headline . " Streetcar visions " is the first image to use metal in a harsh / gentle oxymoron . She places ...
... suggests the olden days , when religion could provide meaningful goals , and equally suggests religion blared from a newspaper headline . " Streetcar visions " is the first image to use metal in a harsh / gentle oxymoron . She places ...
Page 90
... suggests both outright rape and cold - hearted seduction . The two uses of " it " in the couplet reinforce sexual overtones : β ain't it hard " refers to the theft but also suggests an erect penis , and β where it's at " suggests the ...
... suggests both outright rape and cold - hearted seduction . The two uses of " it " in the couplet reinforce sexual overtones : β ain't it hard " refers to the theft but also suggests an erect penis , and β where it's at " suggests the ...
Page 151
... suggests whirlwind , confusion ; in Dylan's pronunciation , it also suggests " sucker round my skull , " perhaps a sinister , clinging snake . The next line β the only one in its position without " blowing " βin a few words again evokes ...
... suggests whirlwind , confusion ; in Dylan's pronunciation , it also suggests " sucker round my skull , " perhaps a sinister , clinging snake . The next line β the only one in its position without " blowing " βin a few words again evokes ...
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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