Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American Song:
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Published: October 30, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780275973933
Subjects: Rock & pop; Music/Songbooks; Music; USA; Genres & Styles - Pop Vocal; History & Criticism - General; Music / Popular; 1941-; Analysis, appreciation; Criticism and interpretation; Dylan, Bob,; Popular music; Springsteen, Bruce; United States
First sentence: The Arts and Entertainment Network's Biography series opens its program, "Bob Dylan: The American Troubadour," with an important observation: Bob Dylan was never born.
Description: "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."--BOOK JACKET.