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 62
... shift in Dylan's vocal inflection on the word “ girl ” can so shift the meaning of the song : as pearl mediates between natural and cultural values , be- tween crystal and oyster , between excrement and jewel , so also " little girl ...
... shift in Dylan's vocal inflection on the word “ girl ” can so shift the meaning of the song : as pearl mediates between natural and cultural values , be- tween crystal and oyster , between excrement and jewel , so also " little girl ...
Page 133
... shift , " is clearly articulated like the stanza - ending slogans . A listener , straining to understand , focuses on the choppy , fast - rhyming words such that each clearly pronounced slogan stands out , demanding to be remembered and ...
... shift , " is clearly articulated like the stanza - ending slogans . A listener , straining to understand , focuses on the choppy , fast - rhyming words such that each clearly pronounced slogan stands out , demanding to be remembered and ...
Page 134
... shift kid / hid jump / bum / gum / pump manhole / candle / sandals / scandals / vandals / handles A vowel / consonant progression like girl / whirlpool / looking / fool / follow , forced toward rhyme in performance , may suggest the ...
... shift kid / hid jump / bum / gum / pump manhole / candle / sandals / scandals / vandals / handles A vowel / consonant progression like girl / whirlpool / looking / fool / follow , forced toward rhyme in performance , may suggest the ...
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Common terms and phrases
ABCB aesthetic ain't Al Kooper album artistic audience aural Babe Baby Ballad bass Beatles becomes 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 give you shelter 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 shift 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