Bob Dylan and Intertextuality

Dylan’s most famous protest song is “Blown’ in the Wind”. It became the anthem for the civil rights movement in America during the 1960s, and as result Dylan was viewed as the spiritual leader of the civil rights movement. “Blown’ in the Wind” became very popular among the American people because the lyrics of the song could be applied to any situation as the lyrics were all about humanity learning from its mistakes and a call for freedom. “Only a Pawn in Their Game” was Dylan’s most offensive protest song that he wrote, and it was first performed at a civil rights rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. This song was about a civil rights activist who was murdered by “just a poor dumb

The 1960’s was an era of revolution and social change in the United States. Painters, dancers, actors, musicians and many more artists all wanted to portray societies immoral issues through their art. Musicians played a very prominent role in providing society with an outlet on the importance of this change. Within these musicians was a folk rock singer and songwriter by the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman, or as America knows him, Bob Dylan. He is known and honored around the world for his influence on popular music and culture, however, he is much more than that (Wood 313). The beginning of Bob Dylan’s career as a singer and songwriter was marked by his repetitive emphasis on social change throughout his protest songs which include “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”; with each song, Dylan exposes many issues that affected, not one, but many lives as he aimed to spread social and political consciousness to society.

At only 22, he was crowned the voice of a generation. His audiences became mesmerized with his expressive lyrics and soulful harmonica. He changed the way the world looks at songwriting and protest, and inspired countless future musicians from the moment he stepped up on the stage in his railroad hat, denim jacket, and harmonica brace. However, it is clear that there is so much more behind Bob Dylan than just a rough voice and a collection of poetic songs. As one man said about Dylan’s early days in Greenwich Village, “There’s a quality of determination and of will that some people have that when they’re doing something, they’re really doing it and you

Arguably one of the most powerful of Dylan’s social issue charged song is The Death of Emmet Till, a young black man who was unrightfully killed by the Ku Klux Klan. By 1963, Dylan and his on and off lover Joan Baez were both very well known in the civil rights movement. Baez and Dylan would sing together at rallies including the famous March on Washington. Dylan was on stage with Martin Luther King Jr. when his gave his infamous I Have a Dream speech. Though Dylan sang of American injustices, he was never incredibly interested in politics and he was ultimately frustrated by people defining him solely as a protest singer. Dylan’s frustrations with the unsought political branding are expressed in It Ain’t Me Babe, which “appears to be a song about rejected love, [it] was actually his rejection of the role his reputation and fans had thrown on him” (Carlson).

     Bob Dylan’s song, The Hurricane, brings to surface several of the themes covered in class this semester. The song explores general themes like community and responsibility, while also focusing on many of the sub-themes, such as justice and injustice, appearance and reality, and loyalty and abandonment. Throughout the song, the main characters constantly battle with the above themes in attempt to frame an innocent man. While the song brings up many of these themes, Dylan’s characters show little consistency with the texts covered, as the texts tend to try to find reconciliation in the characters, while Dylan’s characters feel no remorse in their actions.

-Blanton, Amy. 'Bob Dylan An Impact On American Society'. dartmouth. N.p., 2001. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

Bob Dylan was a significant artist and performer of songs of the “good times ahead” during the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan wrote songs named “The Murder of Emmett Till” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” which both referred to specific events and murders of the time, while his songs The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Blowin’ in the Wind referred to the entire Civil Rights Movement as a whole (Edwards). He also was an active member of the protest community and would avidly participate in sit-ins and marches like the “March on Washington” which is where he gained most of his musical notoriety from the African American community of the time and this is where he help fuel the love of fans with his acoustic guitar and raspy vocal pieces (Edwards). Some say that Dylan was almost essential to the completion and victory of the Civil Rights Movement and others argue that without his songs of protest and remorse, the cause of civil rights would have been better off without him and may have ended sooner without the constant reminder of an end in the back of the government’s head (Ward). However, everyone can agree that music had an important part in the movement forward of the Civil Rights cause, whether or not the bias be in the direction of a negative connotation or a positive one.

Instead of the cheerful, youthful, puppy love, dance style music associated with the Beatles, they released “I'm a Loser” off Beatles for Sale in 64, a folk inspired song about romantic rejection. Also “You've Got to Hide Your Love Away” off Help!, played on acoustic guitar and “Norwegian Wood” off Rubber Soul are heavily influenced by Bob Dylan. These songs are written more introspective, using acoustic guitar, and shows a darker and less naive thematic, that can hardly be danced to, all credited to Lennon in his “Dylan face” …..There are some evidence supporting that the Beatles had an influence on Bob as well, even though Dylan has been less candidly about openly admiring the group. It`s said that after the meeting in with the Beatles in 64, that it was them who inspired Dylan to

Eliot spoke about has been achieved by Amy Lowell magnificently. Therefore, she reached the Traditional sense as both the Historical and Traditional sense are the faces of the same coin. She knew that the past and the present are both connected by one web. It was apparent when she connected the chain of events in the poem to her advantage just to show this problem. The problem by living a life of “patterns” and being bound by society, which makes this poem not that original, because many people spoke about this problem before, but she herself as a talented writer, she added more to it. These “patterns” would represent us going into life with the same cycle over and over, almost like a daily routine, that each day takes a part away, till we all left empty-handed without any sort of feelings or

“The song has to be of a certain quality for me to sing…One aspect it would have to have is that it didn’t repeat itself” (Bob Dylan). Transforming into new people throughout his life, Bob Dylan reverted to the Bible and other religious findings in his songs. Dylan is able to reveal a fulfillment from spirituality as he perceives his music as a sacred landscape. Bob Dylan brings up a theme of religion, referencing the book of Isaiah in his 1967 song “All Along the Watchtower” as he writes a story about two people at the watchtower, where the significance of life is found. Dylan’s spiritual lyrics conceived his work as a an artist through imagination and religion that creates a hallowed dwelling for him to aqurie attainment.

What seems to be distinctive when comparing the music style of Bob Dylan and The

Eliot is not solely criticising modern life in the poem, it also serves as a reflection of Eliot’s social context and his own life, a product of its time.

Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” is a unique song that was written in the early 1960’s during a time of political and military upheaval. The poem/song was written to influence the younger generation, and to serve as a rallying call for the people to come together to bring about a needed change. The civil rights movement was the main influence of the song but it can also be applied to the frustration, and anger the American people felt as a whole towards the Vietnam War. What truly makes the song unique is the way the song was written and its hypnotic verses that can be used to describe several different time periods where the people needed a rallying call for change. The most recent event being the war in Iraq and

Duluth Minnesota, May 24th 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) was born. 69 Years and over 45 albums later Bob Dylan has completely altered the face of popular music since his debut as a fresh faced folk singer in 1962. His early career forged him into an informal chronicler and then he later developed into an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest [Gray, 2006] and became a voice for a generation. His songs have been covered by many artists in a wide span of genres and he has remained a prominent and highly influential figure in the history of popular music over the past five decades. [Gates, David, 1997]

All words, phrases and sentences (or just simply images) which make up this poem seem to, in Levi-Strauss’ words, “be a valeur symbolique zero [and the signifier] can take on any value required ”, meaning that the images Eliot uses do not have one fixed signification and consequently conjure up thought-provoking ideas that need to be studied (qtd. in