Writing of a Concert Review
Bob Dylan’s songs are filled with inspirational messages. The songs were composed with inspiration and creativity being the main elements of the song. The obvious messages that are presented in the songs make them some of the most inspiring and creative pieces that have ever been produced. While he was performing in the Aver Fish Hall, Dylan presented a performance of 22 songs that were performed by 21 different groups. The performance was meant to be a non-profit show, with the main focus being to raise money for educational purposes (Pareles 1).
Although Mr. Dylan was not in attendance during the show, many performances were conducted by other individuals who understood his artworks and shared the same concept with the singer. The songs were performed in their original versions although transposing was heavily employed in the performance (Pareles 1). This was influenced by the singers’ knowledge of the various aspects present in Dylan’s songs, which enabled them to present them in such a manner that they appeared similar to the original compositions.
One of the performances included that of Kirk Douglas, which was played in a different manner from the original version. In their performance, they presented the song ‘masters of war’, in which Kirk Douglas plays the guitar as an accompaniment. In the second performance, the Roots performed the song ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, which they turned into a hard-rock (Pareles 1). The performance attracted the audience of many other individuals that came to witness the different performances at the show. At the performance, the show was sorrowful and one filled with different emotions. This was influenced by the different themes that were presented in the son...
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...ect of mimicking Dylan’s performance instead of producing a creative version of his songs. The mimicked versions lacked creativity and left the audience unsatisfied.
There were some annoying incidences from some performers who targeted at overshadowing Dylan’s performances. This did not go well with the audience, who considered the show as Dylan’s. They vehemently opposed such individuals and their sympathizers.
Works Cited
O'Strange, Eddie. “[Nz-folk] Rolling Across the Decades with Dylan.” Kiwi Folk. n.p., 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2011.
Pareles, Jon. “Music Review; Rolling Across the Decades with Dylan.” The New York Times. New York Times, 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2011.
---. “Rolling Across the Decades with Dylan.” Alt-Country. n.p., 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2011
Wilson, Jenny. “From TIME's Archives: Dylan Through the Decades.” Time. Time, 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011
In Dylan’s Chronicles Volume One, he says, “folk songs are evasive – the truth about life, and life is more or less a lie, but then again that’s exactly the way we want it to be. We wouldn’t be comfortable with it any other way.” He goes on to also confirm the ambiguity of folk music, saying that “[a] folk song has over a thousand faces and you must meet them all if you want to play this stuff. A folk song might vary in meaning and it might not appear the same from one moment to the next. It depends on who’s playing and who’s listening” (71). One of the characteristics that Bob Dylan possesses, and that has helped him be such a successful folk artist, is his ability to recognize this ambiguity. His ears were and still are immune to the literalness of time, and upon hearing something new, he can apply what he does not know to his listening, instead of confining his interpretation to what knowledge he already has. This is the basis for what folk music taught Dylan in some of his most formative years, that “[i]f you told the truth, that was all well and good and if you told the un-truth, well, that’s still well and good” (35). Even old folk legends are unclear in their origin and factuality, such as the widel...
When first reading, the reader is met with a dedication before the story begins, “To Bob Dylan.” Though it seems like a silly dedication by a simple fan of his work, it is actually apparent once reading the story that the influence of Bob Dylan added an extra layer. Joyce Carol Oates in an interview with the Wall Street Journal said, “The beauty of the song is that you can never quite comprehend it. His character serves as a reminder that as humans reality is inevitable no matter how much we attempt to deny it.
The 1960’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because of not only the Vietnam War, but there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social turmoil of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A veritable pantheon of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular protest music, which has reached out to the youthful generations everywhere demanding for a revolutionary change. The protest music took the children of the 1960’s to a completely new different level. Musicians of this generation were not going to sit and do nothing while the government lied to the people about what was going on in Vietnam. Instead, they took their guitar-strumming troubadours from the coffee houses, plugged them in, and sent the music and the message into the college dorm rooms and the homes of the youth of America. However, as decades went by, protest music does not have much of an impact as it use to because of the way things have changed over the years. Through the analysis of the music during the 1960’s, there shall be an understanding on how the different genres of protest music has affected social protesters based on how musicians have become the collective conscience of that generation through their lyrics and music and the main factors that contributed to the lack of popula...
Today, the most difficult day in my family’s life, we gather to say farewell to our son, brother, fiancé and friend. To those of you here and elsewhere who know Dylan you already are aware of the type of person he was and these words you will hear are already in your memory. To those who were not as fortunate, these words will give you a sense of the type of man he was and as an ideal for which we should strive. My son has been often described as a gentle soul. He was pure of heart and had great sensitivity for the world around him. He had a way with people that made them feel comfortable around him and infected others to gravitate toward him. Dylan exuded kindness and pulled generosity and altruism out from everyone he touched. He was everyone's best friend.
Bob Dylan was considered one of the greatest influences on popular culture of all time, and though influential, Bob Dylan’s rise to idol status in popular culture was more brought about by historical factors, his life was affected by many historical events including, The Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassination and the civil rights movement, to name a few. His songs became known as protest songs, despite Bob Dylan’s apparent lack of understanding for the meanings the public attached to his writing.
In 1965, Bob Dylan released an album to the public titled Bringing it all Back Home and within, it contained one of his more popular songs entitled “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (USF P:7). In the Seagull Reader, it states the dedication ‘for Bob Dylan’ that Joyce Carol Oates placed before the short story Where are you Going, Where have you Been? and many have wondered why (Oates 337). This short story is based upon a realistic situation in Tucson, Arizona about a serial killer who seduced and murdered teenaged girls, much like Arnold Friend was in the process of doing so with Connie, our main character (336). In an interview, Oates stated when asked about
middle of paper ... ... to American History. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. Goodman, Dean. “Dylan fans get tangled up in academic views,” Reuters (1998): February, p. PG.
One of his biggest hits that really kick started his career, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, was also one of his most prevalent protest songs. In this song, Dylan says:
As a child Dylan was comfortable being the center of attention, often writing creative poetry for his mother and on occasion singing. Dylan had no formal music lessons, but none the less he began to compose. Later at age 14, he took up the guitar and shortly after formed a band, one of many he played the guitar in. Always plunging ahead, performing to his up most potentional, Dylan absorbed his surroundings as a source of inspiration. Even during his early efforts Dylan responded very positivly to mainstream musicians, such as country star Hank Williams. Yet, he responded especially well to early rock stars such as Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. In the summer of 1959, after graduation Dylan began to work at a cafe, where he began to pay increasing attention to folksingers such as Judy Collins and Jesse Fuller. Finding an instant connection with their songs, songs relevant to social issues. Dylan was drawn into both the musical style and the social message of these indivisuals.
Many say that music has evolved over the years. This essay shall explore the elements of two versions of one song. It shall discuss the correlations and disparities of these songs and confer how it has been revolutionised to entertain the audiences of today.
This interplay between Dylan, the “serious” folk musician, and Dylan, the comedic, self-mocking pop idol riffing on the very media culture he’s now uncomfortably a part of, is apparent from the opening sequence of Don’t Look Back. The sequence runs just over two minutes (2:18) and is actually set off from the rest of the film, serving as a kind of formal introduction. In it, Dylan appears standing in the foreground of the frame, the obvious “star.” He’s at the entrance to what appears to be an alley or a small dirt road, a symbol that works on several levels. It is the “road” in the musical sense, the path of mass public performance onto which Dylan has just entered. But, it is also a symbol of a larger journey that is set out before u...
Kidder, Rushworth M. Dylan Thomas: The Country of the Spirit. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1984. 94, 187-190, 197.
Marcus, Greil, eds. Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996.
Hughes, Langston. “A New Song” Literature: Craft and Voice. Nicolas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.53.Print
The concert started with the lively song of “The Profit.” This was a polyphonic melody which had a quick tempo. There was some syncopation throughout the tune. “Blues for Miles,” was another powerful tune in that each instrument reacted and interacted well with each other. It was a seemingly calm song which allowed Simmons to tell the story of Hurston without being overpowering with the music. It was a polyphonic song with each instrument bringing a new element to the