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    Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s Epic Poem Revisited
    Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s Epic Poem Revisited
    Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s Epic Poem Revisited
    Ebook28 pages19 minutes

    Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s Epic Poem Revisited

    By David Tuffley

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    About this ebook

    Desolation Row (released in August 1965 on the album Highway 61 Revisited) is not your average pop song. More like an epic poem set to music. Its epic-ness comes not from its relatively short length as epic poems go, but from the depth and breadth of its themes. It is very rare to find a song with such density of meaning. Most songs on the radio do not stray much past the theme of romantic love. As Douglas Adams observed in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy most (pop) songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being under a silvery moon.
    Dylan is not only a deep thinker, but also a broad thinker who is able to articulate and condense his ideas into elegant verse. He has been described as one of the most significant poets of the Twentieth Century. Sir Andrew Motion, the British Poet Laureate in 1999 cited another of Dylan’s songs, Visions of Johanna, as a contender for the greatest song lyric ever written.

    Dylan is remarkably well-read, having delved into the classic texts of many different cultures. In Desolation Row he takes these themes and weaves a rich fabric that expresses the reality of 1960’s America. By tapping into these archetypes, the poem gets its power to reach people at a deep level.

    When asked by a radio interviewer why he insisted on being so irritating, Dylan replied so where do you get the idea that I want people to like my music. It is more important to challenge people’s complacency and get them to think about their values.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAltiora Publications
    Release dateAug 17, 2012
    ISBN9781476089782
    Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s Epic Poem Revisited
    Author

    David Tuffley

    David Tuffley (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & Socio-Technical Studies at Griffith University in Australia.David writes on a broad range of interests; from Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Psychology, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

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      Book preview

      Desolation Row - David Tuffley

      Desolation Row:

      Bob Dylan’s epic poem revisited

      David Tuffley

      Published by Altiora Publications at Smashwords

      www.altiorapublications.com

      © Copyright 2012 David Tuffley

      Desolation Row lyrics Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. & 1993 Special Rider

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

      About the Author

      David Tuffley PhD is a Lecturer and researcher at Griffith University in Australia. David has a broad range of interests; Popular Culture, Anthropology, Psychology, Philosophy, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Comparative Religions, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

      David Tuffley’s Profile & other eBooks: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/tuffley

      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tuffley/

      Contents

      Introduction

      No Direction Home

      Civil rights movement

      Pop music as an agent of social evolution

      The song

      Where is Desolation

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