Thomas O Beebee
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195339383
- eISBN:
- 9780199867097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195339383.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature
No other recording artist has tapped into the reimagined roots of the old, millennial America to the extent Bob Dylan (1941- ) has. He represents something unique: a millionaire purveyor of ...
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No other recording artist has tapped into the reimagined roots of the old, millennial America to the extent Bob Dylan (1941- ) has. He represents something unique: a millionaire purveyor of technologized, capitalist popular culture whose work projects a consistent though often subliminal message of the end of the world. Dylan’s songs are also a prime example of the hybridity of American apocalyptic thought. Dylan has invoked millennium throughout his career, including times when he was seen as a nihilistic radical of the counter-culture. Furthermore, the technologies of recording, radio, television, and other media has meant a broader diffusion of this imagery among the general public than at any previous time in history. This chapter shows that each musical idiom that Dylan has chosen to deliver his message, together with his tendency to mix popular culture imagery with that drawn from the Bible, has deflected and obscured this eschatogical message. The very eclecticism of Dylan’s sources acts to distance him from any single tradition, and his career has seen every possible take on the theme of millennium, from postmodern pastiche to sincere gospel.Less
No other recording artist has tapped into the reimagined roots of the old, millennial America to the extent Bob Dylan (1941- ) has. He represents something unique: a millionaire purveyor of technologized, capitalist popular culture whose work projects a consistent though often subliminal message of the end of the world. Dylan’s songs are also a prime example of the hybridity of American apocalyptic thought. Dylan has invoked millennium throughout his career, including times when he was seen as a nihilistic radical of the counter-culture. Furthermore, the technologies of recording, radio, television, and other media has meant a broader diffusion of this imagery among the general public than at any previous time in history. This chapter shows that each musical idiom that Dylan has chosen to deliver his message, together with his tendency to mix popular culture imagery with that drawn from the Bible, has deflected and obscured this eschatogical message. The very eclecticism of Dylan’s sources acts to distance him from any single tradition, and his career has seen every possible take on the theme of millennium, from postmodern pastiche to sincere gospel.
Andrea Cossu
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter discusses how Bob Dylan's past artistic achievements are sculpted in public memory, and are still being reproduced in the present through records, images, the work of critics, and the ...
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This chapter discusses how Bob Dylan's past artistic achievements are sculpted in public memory, and are still being reproduced in the present through records, images, the work of critics, and the mythical role Dylan plays for modern popular music. However, so much has gone on since the release of “Love and Theft” that it is difficult to connect to the commonplace idea of Dylan as either a prominent rock star or as a troubadour from the foggy ruins of the 1960s. Instead, the modern, contemporary Dylan is a kind of trailblazer. He has moved away from his myth and headed toward other, decidedly subtler musical references, references that are external and sometimes antithetic to the established reputation of Bob Dylan as the source and end of his own genius.Less
This chapter discusses how Bob Dylan's past artistic achievements are sculpted in public memory, and are still being reproduced in the present through records, images, the work of critics, and the mythical role Dylan plays for modern popular music. However, so much has gone on since the release of “Love and Theft” that it is difficult to connect to the commonplace idea of Dylan as either a prominent rock star or as a troubadour from the foggy ruins of the 1960s. Instead, the modern, contemporary Dylan is a kind of trailblazer. He has moved away from his myth and headed toward other, decidedly subtler musical references, references that are external and sometimes antithetic to the established reputation of Bob Dylan as the source and end of his own genius.
David Brown
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231829
- eISBN:
- 9780191716218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231829.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores the aesthetics of pop music in general and then focuses on how specific artists might facilitate religious experience. It examines not just ‘light’ popular music, but also the ...
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This chapter explores the aesthetics of pop music in general and then focuses on how specific artists might facilitate religious experience. It examines not just ‘light’ popular music, but also the various types to which Christians have sometimes taken most exception, among them hard rock and rap. Artists considered include the Beatles, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Nick Cave, and The Bad Seeds.Less
This chapter explores the aesthetics of pop music in general and then focuses on how specific artists might facilitate religious experience. It examines not just ‘light’ popular music, but also the various types to which Christians have sometimes taken most exception, among them hard rock and rap. Artists considered include the Beatles, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Nick Cave, and The Bad Seeds.
Fahri Öz
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter talks about how Bob Dylan is a highly productive composer and singer, and the changes in his style and manner of singing his own songs attest to his performative nature. As Betsy Bowden ...
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This chapter talks about how Bob Dylan is a highly productive composer and singer, and the changes in his style and manner of singing his own songs attest to his performative nature. As Betsy Bowden elucidates in Performed Literature: Words and Music by Bob Dylan, Dylan's songs cannot be treated as rigid forms or texts in print because they are not intended as poems but songs to be performed. Though such performative accounts of Dylan's work are valid, the chapter argues that his lyrics deserve a poetic analysis, and that it is possible to treat his studio recordings as performative acts too. It aims to reconcile the treatment of Dylan the poet with Dylan the singer.Less
This chapter talks about how Bob Dylan is a highly productive composer and singer, and the changes in his style and manner of singing his own songs attest to his performative nature. As Betsy Bowden elucidates in Performed Literature: Words and Music by Bob Dylan, Dylan's songs cannot be treated as rigid forms or texts in print because they are not intended as poems but songs to be performed. Though such performative accounts of Dylan's work are valid, the chapter argues that his lyrics deserve a poetic analysis, and that it is possible to treat his studio recordings as performative acts too. It aims to reconcile the treatment of Dylan the poet with Dylan the singer.
Alberto Brodesco
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter discusses how Masked and Anonymous certainly does not mark a peak in Bob Dylan's long artistic journey. Precisely set between “Love and Theft” and Modern Times, however, it is an ...
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This chapter discusses how Masked and Anonymous certainly does not mark a peak in Bob Dylan's long artistic journey. Precisely set between “Love and Theft” and Modern Times, however, it is an important key to understanding his commitment and intention in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Also in the film are plenty of what Dylan calls “appropriations” from a large spectrum of sources. Intertextuality is indeed a major attribute of Bob Dylan's work, particularly from “Love and Theft” onward. Masked and Anonymous's references go from the speeches of U.S. presidents to novels, plays, sports books, and religious texts.Less
This chapter discusses how Masked and Anonymous certainly does not mark a peak in Bob Dylan's long artistic journey. Precisely set between “Love and Theft” and Modern Times, however, it is an important key to understanding his commitment and intention in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Also in the film are plenty of what Dylan calls “appropriations” from a large spectrum of sources. Intertextuality is indeed a major attribute of Bob Dylan's work, particularly from “Love and Theft” onward. Masked and Anonymous's references go from the speeches of U.S. presidents to novels, plays, sports books, and religious texts.
Laurence Coupe
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719071126
- eISBN:
- 9781781702079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719071126.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter tries to align Bob Dylan with Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and to determine which of the two serves as Dylan's mentor, noting that Kerouac and Ginsberg had been closely identified with ...
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This chapter tries to align Bob Dylan with Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and to determine which of the two serves as Dylan's mentor, noting that Kerouac and Ginsberg had been closely identified with each other and with the Beat movement of the 1950s. The two discovered their irreconcilable differences during the 1960s; Kerouac became disenchanted with the mass counterculture inspired by the Beats' minority subculture, while Ginsberg became a countercultural figurehead. The chapter reveals the tension that informs Dylan's remarkable achievement and places him firmly within the Beat legacy.Less
This chapter tries to align Bob Dylan with Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and to determine which of the two serves as Dylan's mentor, noting that Kerouac and Ginsberg had been closely identified with each other and with the Beat movement of the 1950s. The two discovered their irreconcilable differences during the 1960s; Kerouac became disenchanted with the mass counterculture inspired by the Beats' minority subculture, while Ginsberg became a countercultural figurehead. The chapter reveals the tension that informs Dylan's remarkable achievement and places him firmly within the Beat legacy.
Nina Goss and Eric Hoffman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
Bob Dylan is many things to many people. Folk prodigy. Rock poet. Quiet gentleman. Dionysian impresario. Cotton Mather. Stage hog. Each of these Dylan creations comes with its own accessories, ...
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Bob Dylan is many things to many people. Folk prodigy. Rock poet. Quiet gentleman. Dionysian impresario. Cotton Mather. Stage hog. Each of these Dylan creations comes with its own accessories, including a costume, a hairstyle, a voice, a lyrical register, a metaphysics, an audience, and a library of commentary. Each Bob Dylan joins a collective cast that has made up his persona for over fifty years. No version of Dylan turns out uncomplicated, but the postmillennial manifestation seems peculiarly contrary—a tireless and enterprising antiquarian; a creator of singular texts and sounds through promiscuous poaching; an artist of innovation and uncanny renewal. This is a Dylan of persistent surrender from an engagement with a world he perceives as broken and enduring, addressing us from a past that is lost and yet forever present. This book participates in the creation of the postmillennial Bob Dylan by exploring three central records of the twenty-first century along with the 2003 film Masked and Anonymous, which Dylan helped write and in which he appears as an actor and musical performer. The book does justice to this difficult Bob Dylan by examining his method and effects through a disparate set of viewpoints. Readers will find a variety of critical contexts and cultural perspectives as well as a range of experiences as members of Dylan's audience.Less
Bob Dylan is many things to many people. Folk prodigy. Rock poet. Quiet gentleman. Dionysian impresario. Cotton Mather. Stage hog. Each of these Dylan creations comes with its own accessories, including a costume, a hairstyle, a voice, a lyrical register, a metaphysics, an audience, and a library of commentary. Each Bob Dylan joins a collective cast that has made up his persona for over fifty years. No version of Dylan turns out uncomplicated, but the postmillennial manifestation seems peculiarly contrary—a tireless and enterprising antiquarian; a creator of singular texts and sounds through promiscuous poaching; an artist of innovation and uncanny renewal. This is a Dylan of persistent surrender from an engagement with a world he perceives as broken and enduring, addressing us from a past that is lost and yet forever present. This book participates in the creation of the postmillennial Bob Dylan by exploring three central records of the twenty-first century along with the 2003 film Masked and Anonymous, which Dylan helped write and in which he appears as an actor and musical performer. The book does justice to this difficult Bob Dylan by examining his method and effects through a disparate set of viewpoints. Readers will find a variety of critical contexts and cultural perspectives as well as a range of experiences as members of Dylan's audience.
Nina Goss and Eric Hoffman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This introductory chapter provides an overview of Bob Dylan's output in the new millennium. It traces how Dylan's embrace of capitalist culture is perhaps not so much a resignation as it is a final ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of Bob Dylan's output in the new millennium. It traces how Dylan's embrace of capitalist culture is perhaps not so much a resignation as it is a final rejection of a generation whose voice he did not want to represent. For Bob Dylan's voice is not the voice of a single postwar American generation, but rather a voice that is in many ways outside time, an American voice that derives from a rich musical tradition, from folk music to rock and roll, from Tin Pan Alley to bluegrass, from jazz to Western swing, from blues to ballads. It is, moreover, a uniquely poetic voice, and one that brings with it a lyrical tradition that stretches back to the French trouvères, forward to the Beats and beyond.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of Bob Dylan's output in the new millennium. It traces how Dylan's embrace of capitalist culture is perhaps not so much a resignation as it is a final rejection of a generation whose voice he did not want to represent. For Bob Dylan's voice is not the voice of a single postwar American generation, but rather a voice that is in many ways outside time, an American voice that derives from a rich musical tradition, from folk music to rock and roll, from Tin Pan Alley to bluegrass, from jazz to Western swing, from blues to ballads. It is, moreover, a uniquely poetic voice, and one that brings with it a lyrical tradition that stretches back to the French trouvères, forward to the Beats and beyond.
James Cody
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter examines how Bob Dylan's places confound, and the songs on Together Through Life may be the collection that best exemplifies such assertions. Dylan has mapped out the world for people, ...
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This chapter examines how Bob Dylan's places confound, and the songs on Together Through Life may be the collection that best exemplifies such assertions. Dylan has mapped out the world for people, and the creation of an interactive map indicating all the places his songs bring them awaits the inspiration of some technologically hip go-getter. The chapter shows how Dylan's places are ephemeral, partly due to being places that “don't make sense no more.” But the place of the song, the landscape of it, or more exact, the soundscape created by lyrics, voice, instruments, and performance are habitable, even if only for the duration of the song, habitable in the sense of where listeners can be carried if they are open to what Dylan demands.Less
This chapter examines how Bob Dylan's places confound, and the songs on Together Through Life may be the collection that best exemplifies such assertions. Dylan has mapped out the world for people, and the creation of an interactive map indicating all the places his songs bring them awaits the inspiration of some technologically hip go-getter. The chapter shows how Dylan's places are ephemeral, partly due to being places that “don't make sense no more.” But the place of the song, the landscape of it, or more exact, the soundscape created by lyrics, voice, instruments, and performance are habitable, even if only for the duration of the song, habitable in the sense of where listeners can be carried if they are open to what Dylan demands.
Jonathan Hodgers
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter demonstrates how Bob Dylan has shown a fondness for narrative both in his songwriting and his public persona, as seen from his self-mythologizing days in Greenwich Village to his memoir, ...
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This chapter demonstrates how Bob Dylan has shown a fondness for narrative both in his songwriting and his public persona, as seen from his self-mythologizing days in Greenwich Village to his memoir, Chronicles. It focuses on how “Love and Theft,”Modern Times, and Tempest continue to reflect Dylan's playful and experimental approach to the organizational framework of narrative, which in its broadest sense refers to the representation of a series of events. The chapter shows Dylan divesting from his work the idea of an autonomous, self-sufficient text, and situating his work in a longitudinal spectrum of literary influences where narratives are suggested laterally throughout an album, as well as historically via the use of preexisting text.Less
This chapter demonstrates how Bob Dylan has shown a fondness for narrative both in his songwriting and his public persona, as seen from his self-mythologizing days in Greenwich Village to his memoir, Chronicles. It focuses on how “Love and Theft,”Modern Times, and Tempest continue to reflect Dylan's playful and experimental approach to the organizational framework of narrative, which in its broadest sense refers to the representation of a series of events. The chapter shows Dylan divesting from his work the idea of an autonomous, self-sufficient text, and situating his work in a longitudinal spectrum of literary influences where narratives are suggested laterally throughout an album, as well as historically via the use of preexisting text.
Nick Smart
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter concentrates on Bob Dylan's last record and how it will carry his whole career. By consistently living and writing and playing, Dylan burdens himself with the obligation not just to meet ...
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This chapter concentrates on Bob Dylan's last record and how it will carry his whole career. By consistently living and writing and playing, Dylan burdens himself with the obligation not just to meet but to elevate the standard of his greatness. If it is ever really concluded that Dylan is done being Dylan, as was thought during the time of the Christian records, and the seemingly unremarkable stretches between Infidels (1983) and Oh Mercy, and Time Out of Mind, a devaluation of the entire career will occur. Every new record will be the measure of existing potency. And now, six decades into this career, the new record might really be the last record—so the pressure becomes more intense.Less
This chapter concentrates on Bob Dylan's last record and how it will carry his whole career. By consistently living and writing and playing, Dylan burdens himself with the obligation not just to meet but to elevate the standard of his greatness. If it is ever really concluded that Dylan is done being Dylan, as was thought during the time of the Christian records, and the seemingly unremarkable stretches between Infidels (1983) and Oh Mercy, and Time Out of Mind, a devaluation of the entire career will occur. Every new record will be the measure of existing potency. And now, six decades into this career, the new record might really be the last record—so the pressure becomes more intense.
Jamie Lorentzen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter examines how the destruction of the 9/11 incident, the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, and other formidable fires and floods constitute a sort of paralyzing ...
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This chapter examines how the destruction of the 9/11 incident, the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, and other formidable fires and floods constitute a sort of paralyzing Mississippi River fog upon the currents of this dawning century. Bob Dylan navigates bracingly between this world's mighty opposites, as seen when he produced the album “Love and Theft”, the film Masked and Anonymous, the first volume of his autobiography Chronicles, his interview in Martin Scorsese's film documentary No Direction Home, and the album Modern Times. The chapter also shows how tensions between romantic love and divine love, violence and frivolity, and homelessness and homecoming become more seamlessly joined together even as their contrary parts conspire to break apart.Less
This chapter examines how the destruction of the 9/11 incident, the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, and other formidable fires and floods constitute a sort of paralyzing Mississippi River fog upon the currents of this dawning century. Bob Dylan navigates bracingly between this world's mighty opposites, as seen when he produced the album “Love and Theft”, the film Masked and Anonymous, the first volume of his autobiography Chronicles, his interview in Martin Scorsese's film documentary No Direction Home, and the album Modern Times. The chapter also shows how tensions between romantic love and divine love, violence and frivolity, and homelessness and homecoming become more seamlessly joined together even as their contrary parts conspire to break apart.
Steve Redhead
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748643448
- eISBN:
- 9780748652945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748643448.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
It is possible to trace the emergence of Bob Dylan's late style to the New York Supper Club shows in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, too, Bob Dylan was shaking off the debilitating curse of his ...
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It is possible to trace the emergence of Bob Dylan's late style to the New York Supper Club shows in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, too, Bob Dylan was shaking off the debilitating curse of his Born Again Christian period, which dated back to the late 1970s. There is, it seems, a lost moment in this history of modernity in popular music culture: the early 1990s. This was a period where Bob Dylan finally emerged from the relative slumbers of more than two decades and prepared to haul himself back to the American, and global, marketplace. Dylan is not so much a ‘postmodern’ thief in the night, as so many critics have presented his supposed widespread and longstanding ‘plagiarism’. He is more than this. He is a seeker of the art of the ‘old, weird America’.Less
It is possible to trace the emergence of Bob Dylan's late style to the New York Supper Club shows in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, too, Bob Dylan was shaking off the debilitating curse of his Born Again Christian period, which dated back to the late 1970s. There is, it seems, a lost moment in this history of modernity in popular music culture: the early 1990s. This was a period where Bob Dylan finally emerged from the relative slumbers of more than two decades and prepared to haul himself back to the American, and global, marketplace. Dylan is not so much a ‘postmodern’ thief in the night, as so many critics have presented his supposed widespread and longstanding ‘plagiarism’. He is more than this. He is a seeker of the art of the ‘old, weird America’.
Daniel Karlin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199213986
- eISBN:
- 9780191803314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199213986.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the figure of the singer in the early songs of Bob Dylan. More specifically, it analyses the way the figure of the singer, literal in performance, is metaphorised in sound ...
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This chapter examines the figure of the singer in the early songs of Bob Dylan. More specifically, it analyses the way the figure of the singer, literal in performance, is metaphorised in sound recording. It first considers the question of whether Dylan is a poet or a songwriter before discussing various aspects of Dylan’s career, such as the opposition between an ‘original’ recording and an indefinite series of ‘live’ performances, to highlight the disharmony between poetic language and song. It also cites repetition in Dylan’s music, which is also repeated motif in poetry.Less
This chapter examines the figure of the singer in the early songs of Bob Dylan. More specifically, it analyses the way the figure of the singer, literal in performance, is metaphorised in sound recording. It first considers the question of whether Dylan is a poet or a songwriter before discussing various aspects of Dylan’s career, such as the opposition between an ‘original’ recording and an indefinite series of ‘live’ performances, to highlight the disharmony between poetic language and song. It also cites repetition in Dylan’s music, which is also repeated motif in poetry.
Anne Margaret Daniel
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter analyzes how Bob Dylan has been likened, yet again, to William Shakespeare upon the release of a record titled Tempest. Dylan himself tried to slide out of the comparisons and ...
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This chapter analyzes how Bob Dylan has been likened, yet again, to William Shakespeare upon the release of a record titled Tempest. Dylan himself tried to slide out of the comparisons and speculations in his Rolling Stone interview. However, dwelling in the admitted darkness of Tempest is romance, good humor, and intricate patterns of both rhyme and sound. The perfect-ten tracks of this record come straight from a bard's ear and a poet's pen—something that shows Bob Dylan to be every bit a Renaissance man. Dylan's Shakespeare references in the past have ranged from the patent—like “Shakespeare in the alley” (“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”, 1966) and “Ophelia 'neath the window” (“Desolation Row”, 1965).Less
This chapter analyzes how Bob Dylan has been likened, yet again, to William Shakespeare upon the release of a record titled Tempest. Dylan himself tried to slide out of the comparisons and speculations in his Rolling Stone interview. However, dwelling in the admitted darkness of Tempest is romance, good humor, and intricate patterns of both rhyme and sound. The perfect-ten tracks of this record come straight from a bard's ear and a poet's pen—something that shows Bob Dylan to be every bit a Renaissance man. Dylan's Shakespeare references in the past have ranged from the patent—like “Shakespeare in the alley” (“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”, 1966) and “Ophelia 'neath the window” (“Desolation Row”, 1965).
Britta Sweers
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195174786
- eISBN:
- 9780199864348
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174786.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
As a re-evaluation of Bob Dylan's folk rock performance at Newport highlights, one central controversy of fusion music has been centered on the relationship between traditional and popular music. ...
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As a re-evaluation of Bob Dylan's folk rock performance at Newport highlights, one central controversy of fusion music has been centered on the relationship between traditional and popular music. This discourse becomes especially apparent in the broader historical background of the partly strongly interrelated folk music revivals. The subsequent historical overview thus sketches the different Folk Revivals in America (1930s-1965) and American Folk Rock (1965-1970) and the Second British Folk Revival (1950s/60s), including the Skiffle Craze and the development of the folk club scene, which has strongly shaped the discourses regarding electric folk. As the focus of this study is set on electric folk from its emergence in the mid-1960s until its disappearance in the late 1970s, later developments after the re-emergence in the 1980s are only briefly sketched.Less
As a re-evaluation of Bob Dylan's folk rock performance at Newport highlights, one central controversy of fusion music has been centered on the relationship between traditional and popular music. This discourse becomes especially apparent in the broader historical background of the partly strongly interrelated folk music revivals. The subsequent historical overview thus sketches the different Folk Revivals in America (1930s-1965) and American Folk Rock (1965-1970) and the Second British Folk Revival (1950s/60s), including the Skiffle Craze and the development of the folk club scene, which has strongly shaped the discourses regarding electric folk. As the focus of this study is set on electric folk from its emergence in the mid-1960s until its disappearance in the late 1970s, later developments after the re-emergence in the 1980s are only briefly sketched.
Gordon Ball
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617031564
- eISBN:
- 9781617031571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617031564.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel specified that in literature the work must be “the most outstanding...of an idealistic tendency”; and that “during the preceding year” the honoree must “have conferred ...
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In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel specified that in literature the work must be “the most outstanding...of an idealistic tendency”; and that “during the preceding year” the honoree must “have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” Emphasis is placed on outstanding idealism and work that benefits mankind. This chapter examines the criteria used in awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature and argues that Bob Dylan deserves to be a recipient in light of his activism in early 1960s civil rights, antiwar songs, and beyond. It examines the debate on whether a literary prize can be given to a songwriter such as Dylan, and notes that Laureates Rabindranath Tagore and W. B. Yeats have addressed the connections between music and poetry.Less
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel specified that in literature the work must be “the most outstanding...of an idealistic tendency”; and that “during the preceding year” the honoree must “have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” Emphasis is placed on outstanding idealism and work that benefits mankind. This chapter examines the criteria used in awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature and argues that Bob Dylan deserves to be a recipient in light of his activism in early 1960s civil rights, antiwar songs, and beyond. It examines the debate on whether a literary prize can be given to a songwriter such as Dylan, and notes that Laureates Rabindranath Tagore and W. B. Yeats have addressed the connections between music and poetry.
Jesper Doolaard
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter explores how the release of “Love and Theft” coincided with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and how it strongly affected the album's immediate reception. This association was particularly ...
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This chapter explores how the release of “Love and Theft” coincided with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and how it strongly affected the album's immediate reception. This association was particularly strong due to the lyrical and thematic content of the album, which somehow seemed to “fit” the events of 9/11—fit them so well, in fact, that it led some reviewers to ascribe Bob Dylan with a prophetic quality. The connection between art and 9/11 has been a subject of lively debate ever since the terrorist attacks. Much of this debate has centered around the question of how “post-9/11 art” can help reflect on, or help deal with, the trauma of the 9/11 events.Less
This chapter explores how the release of “Love and Theft” coincided with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and how it strongly affected the album's immediate reception. This association was particularly strong due to the lyrical and thematic content of the album, which somehow seemed to “fit” the events of 9/11—fit them so well, in fact, that it led some reviewers to ascribe Bob Dylan with a prophetic quality. The connection between art and 9/11 has been a subject of lively debate ever since the terrorist attacks. Much of this debate has centered around the question of how “post-9/11 art” can help reflect on, or help deal with, the trauma of the 9/11 events.
George Cotkin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190218478
- eISBN:
- 9780190218508
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190218478.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, Cultural History
Both John Coltrane and Bob Dylan followed their own musical desires, sometimes alienating their fans. In this year, both of them broke out of their older modes. For Coltrane, always experimental, he ...
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Both John Coltrane and Bob Dylan followed their own musical desires, sometimes alienating their fans. In this year, both of them broke out of their older modes. For Coltrane, always experimental, he took jazz into the realm of the transcendent, seeking spiritual liberation through his music, especially in the recording A Love Supreme. It was excessive in sound and length but brilliant in conception and feeling. Dylan, at the Newport Folk Festival, signaled his break with folk and his embrace of rock. The rock beat of “Like a Rolling Stone” shocked and delighted, while his recording of “Visions of Johanna” would brilliantly blend poetry and rock, in a recording of unusual length and emotion. All of this is discussed within the context of the Great Society and racial conflict in this year.Less
Both John Coltrane and Bob Dylan followed their own musical desires, sometimes alienating their fans. In this year, both of them broke out of their older modes. For Coltrane, always experimental, he took jazz into the realm of the transcendent, seeking spiritual liberation through his music, especially in the recording A Love Supreme. It was excessive in sound and length but brilliant in conception and feeling. Dylan, at the Newport Folk Festival, signaled his break with folk and his embrace of rock. The rock beat of “Like a Rolling Stone” shocked and delighted, while his recording of “Visions of Johanna” would brilliantly blend poetry and rock, in a recording of unusual length and emotion. All of this is discussed within the context of the Great Society and racial conflict in this year.
Williams Martin
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195083491
- eISBN:
- 9780199853205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195083491.003.0054
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
The Beatles were't likely to be reviewed in “Down Beat” magazine, and after contemplating what a distinct decline this would be to the readers, the author decided to provide impressions of how the ...
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The Beatles were't likely to be reviewed in “Down Beat” magazine, and after contemplating what a distinct decline this would be to the readers, the author decided to provide impressions of how the next Beatles LP—whatever it might contain and whenever it might appear—might be received elsewhere by other commentators. Many had noticed that, with the rising popularity of coffeehouse “folk” singers, certain of the more established jazz journalists had turned their notice to the trend. Whatever their reviews may have revealed about it, they seemed to reveal something about our jazz writers. This chapter talks about an imaginary review of some of Bob Dylan's previous LPs.Less
The Beatles were't likely to be reviewed in “Down Beat” magazine, and after contemplating what a distinct decline this would be to the readers, the author decided to provide impressions of how the next Beatles LP—whatever it might contain and whenever it might appear—might be received elsewhere by other commentators. Many had noticed that, with the rising popularity of coffeehouse “folk” singers, certain of the more established jazz journalists had turned their notice to the trend. Whatever their reviews may have revealed about it, they seemed to reveal something about our jazz writers. This chapter talks about an imaginary review of some of Bob Dylan's previous LPs.
