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 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 political 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 political protest that preceded Dylan's usually pose problems and suggest solutions ...
Page 18
... 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 111
... listener can resolve in her own way the ominous sentiments expressed by the minor chords of Babe's romantic expectations . A listener is aided by the harmonica's gradual progression from voicelike inflections to its decidedly ...
... listener can resolve in her own way the ominous sentiments expressed by the minor chords of Babe's romantic expectations . A listener is aided by the harmonica's gradual progression from voicelike inflections to its decidedly ...
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Common terms and phrases
ABCB aesthetic ain't album artistic audience aural Babe Baby Ballad bass Beatles becomes Blonde on Blonde Bob Dylan chord change concert version couplet culture drums Dylan's songs Dylan's voice effect electric guitar emotional feel female Ferry's four fourth stanza Freewheelin Hard Rain harmonica Highway 61 Highway 61 Revisited Idiot Wind Idiot wind Blowing imagery imitate instrumental break Isis Joan Baez John Wesley Harding listener listener's melody meter Miss Lonely musical beat musicians narrative narrator narrator's oral organ chords outtake Oxford Town patterns performance phrase piano pitch plays poetic recorded refrain released rhyme word riff rock Rolling Stone Sad-Eyed Lady scene second stanza sexual 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 Univ unresolved verse vowel woman Woody Woody Guthrie words and music York