Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American song / Larry David Smith.

Author/creator Smith, Larry David
Format Book
Publication InfoWestport, Conn. : Praeger, 2002.
Descriptionxxiii, 263 pages ; 25 cm
Subjects

Contents Part 1. Bob Dylan. The artist -- The impulse -- The oeuvre -- The exemplars -- Part 2. Bruce Springsteen. The artist -- The impulse -- The oeuvre -- The exemplars -- Part 3. Hammond's folly, revisited. The auteurs.
Abstract Exposing the depth of two major artists' philosophies, creative visions, stylistic tendencies, and contributions to their craft, this unprecedented comparative analysis synthesizes biographical material, critical interpretation, and selected exemplars of the writers' work. Presenting Dylan as a songwriter of enigmatic wordplay and Springsteen as the melodramatic narrator of a specific community's life struggles, Smith reinterprets their work in a new and fascinating light. Both songwriters have had unique responses to the celebrity singer/songwriter tradition begun by Woody Guthrie. Smith reveals the power of authorship and the creative drive necessary to negotiate an artistic vision through the complicated mechanisms of the world of commercial art. Both have discovered their own means of traveling this difficult terrain, and Smith probes their lives and work to reveal the myriad ways in which two distinct, equally significant artists have learned from and contributed to an ongoing and important American musical tradition.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 244-258) and index.
Genre/formPopular music.
LCCN 2002067935
ISBN027597393X (alk. paper)