About the Book
Few in popular music have had as varied a career and as lasting an impact as Bob Dylan. His songs have entered the cultural consciousness in a way that some have called revolutionary. In this bold and comprehensive new study—the definitive guide to Dylan's work—author Larry David Smith explores the convergence of biography, artistic philosophy, and musical style in Bob Dylan's oeuvre. Making the case that Bob Dylan is actually a persona carefully crafted by its maker, the former Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota, Writing Dylan represents a new and authoritative contribution to the study of this key figure of the contemporary era. Having been granted unprecedented use of Dylan's own lyrics in his analysis, Smith interprets Dylan's narratives, characters, plots, and values, and reveals the artist's mission-oriented approach to art. Writing Dylan tackles each period of its subject's five-decade career, offering an inventive and unprecedented investigation of Dylan's artistic imperative, cultural significance, and songcraft. The result is perhaps the most important work to date on this mercurial figure, whose songs have established a fully realized portrait of his personal mysteries.
Few in popular music have had as varied a career and as lasting an impact as Bob Dylan, whose songs have entered the cultural consciousness in a way that some have called revolutionary. In this bold and comprehensive new study—the definitive guide to Dylan's work—author Larry David Smith explores the convergence of biography, artistic philosophy, and musical style in Bob Dylan's oeuvre. Making the case that Bob Dylan is actually a persona carefully crafted by its maker, the former Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota, Writing Dylan represents a new and authoritative contribution to the study of this key figure of the contemporary era.
Having been granted unprecedented use of Dylan's own lyrics in his analysis, Smith interprets Dylan's narratives, characters, plots, and values, and reveals the artist's mission-oriented approach to art. Writing Dylan tackles each period of its subject's five-decade career, offering an inventive and unprecedented investigation of Dylan's artistic imperative, cultural significance, and song craft. The result is perhaps the most important work to date on this mercurial figure, whose songs have established a fully realized portrait of his personal mysteries.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
The Bob Zimmerman Story
The Folk Posturing Period
The Newport Mod Era
The Americana Period
The Crystallization Period
The Moral Period
The Pop Icon Period
The Jack Fate Era
Writing Dylan: The Songs of a Lonesome Traveler
References
Index
About the Author :
Larry David Smith is an independent writer and lecturer who specializes in narrative critiques of popular media. His work includes Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition (Praeger, 2004), Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American Song (Praeger, 2002), and Pete Townshend: The Minstrel's Dilemma (Praeger, 1999).
Review :
Drawing on a wide range of secondary sources and from Dylan's recent, and fascinating, autobiography Chronicles--and quoting from scores of Dylan's songs--the author provides detailed analyses and interpretations of seemingly the entire corpus of Dylan's songs, both those on his dozens of albums and those in numerous concerts and films…. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates and above.
Writing Dylan: The Songs Of A Lonesome Traveler by Larry David Smith, distinguishes itself from other studies by making the case that the public performer Bob Dylan is actually a series of characters created by the very private Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing. Minnesota. Smith analyzes the seven periods of Dylan's career from his arrival in Greenwich Village in 1960 to his post-Christian persona of the 1990s, Jack Fate, and blends biography with a close look at his lyrics, philosophies, and movie roles. Although he praises the poetry in Dylan's songs, Smith's treatment is no dry literary deconstruction; rather it's a mix of rollicking postmodernism and gonzo rock journalism.
In this new contribution to Dylan scholarship, Smith explores the convergence of biography, artistic philosophy and musical style in Dylan's work. Arguing that Bob Dylan is a persona carefully crafted by its maker, the former Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota, Smith reveals the artist's mission-oriented approach to art. Smith interprets Dylan's narratives, characters, plots and values throughout his career and considers Dylan's cultural significance and song craft.
Writing Dylan: The Songs Of A Lonesome Traveler provides a comprehensive, college-level study of Dylan's work, blending biography with music history and style analysis to consider how the image of Dylan was crafted by the real Bob Zimmerman. Both Dylan fans and students of modern music culture will find Writing Dylan more analytical and serious than most, using a song-by-song analysis to explore the lasting social and cultural implications of Dylan's works.
This massive volume is a definitive guide to Dylan's work. Having been granted unprecedented use of Dylan's lyrics in his analysis, the author interprets the narratives, characters, plots, and values Dylan's songs. In doing so he reveals the artist's mission oriented approach to art….[p]rovides deep insight into Dylan's artistic phiolsophy while tracing his evolution as a song craftsman, and a voice for humanity….Few artists in popular music have had as long a career or so strong an influence on social causes. This book is a comprehensive, authoritative portrait of Dylan--artist, philospher, activist and persona.
For those who just can't get enough, try Larry David Smith's Writing Dylan, The Songs of a Lonesome Traveler, an epic journey into the man's writing….[S]mith effectively, and impressively, turns the work inside out to convincingly make a case for his subject as one of the best, most influential poets of the 20th century….[S]mith succeeds at providing a cogent analysis of the work of a man whose writing deserves being looked at from every angle possible.
[A] well-researched, in-depth analysis of Dylan's work, from his song lyrics to his movie roles
