Bob Dylan = Sound Poet

In this paper, I present Bob Dylan as a sound poet. I provide a brief background on Dylan and discuss sound poetry before bringing together a discussion of Dylan and sound poetry and analyzing three of his songs: “Simple Twist of Fate” from his 1975 album Blood on the Tracks, “Masters of War” from his 1963 album Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and his more recent tune, “Workingman’s Blues #2” from his 2006 album, Modern Times. I believe Dylan’s songs, the messages he communicates through them, and his audience’s strong reactions to them all connect him to the genre of sound poetry.

Writing about such an iconic figure, it was hard to limit my study to only three songs. Dylan’s been on the music scene for over forty years and has an extremely large songbook. Hence, one of the most challenging parts of drafting the paper was actually choosing which songs to include. The easiest part was choosing to write about him for my topic. Ultimately, I chose to discuss “Simple Twist of Fate,” not only because it’s one of my all time favorite Dylan tunes, but also because the emotion Dylan projects in his lyrics and recordings/performances is extremely powerful. Sometimes I can’t help but cry listening to it because of the longing Dylan relates. I picked “Masters of War” for this paper because it has a strong political, antiwar message and is regarded as one of Dylan’s most significant songs and it’s also one of his earliest. The more recent “Workingman’s Blues #2” also possesses a strong message, and it reminded me of the early American folk songs, like the slave work songs I note when I discuss sound poetry and its origins.

I envision presenting this paper at a conference about pop culture, American studies, or even one connected with a creative writing panel. More specifically, conferences like Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, and the States of the Art: Considering Poetry Today international conference through the Department of North American Literature and Culture both seem very interesting, relevant, and like they would welcome a paper such as this one. And, I imagine even CCCCs may find a fit because it is so broad and tends to cross disciplines. It would be exciting and worthwhile to work on this paper even more and present at conferences to further discussion of this topic and receive feedback…and maybe even provoke interest!