Dylan and Cohen: Poets of Rock and Roll Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)What makes this book such a unique and significant contribution to its genre is that it is written with the insight and sensitivity of a spirit that seems deeply attuned to those of its subjects. Not only does the reader come away with a better understanding of the historical times and political contexts that shaped these men, and the personal struggles and psychological bents that motivated their writing, but also with a clearer understanding of what attracts their devotees to their work.
Throughout the book, Boucher weaves explorations of various aspects of the lives and cultural context of Dylan and Cohen that strongly affected them and their work. These include the civil rights movement, drugs, women, sexuality, God and religion, what it means to be reluctantly identified as the voice of a generation, and -- particularly for Cohen -- the holocaust. Boucher also explores the influence of other artists on their work, from Woody Guthrie for Dylan to Lorca for Cohen, as well as the influence that Dylan and Cohen had on each other.
Just as Dylan and Cohen make poetry an accessible part of popular culture, with equal skill Boucher makes philosophy of art and interpretation accessible as well. He points out that our experience of lyric poetry is informed by the questions we bring to it and he explains that the richest experience is to be had when the most appropriate questions are asked. Boucher uses the theories of several philosophers such as R. G. Collingwood, Henry Jones, and Michael Oakeshott, to identify which questions are most appropriately asked of particular works at particular moments in the artists' creative development. He also shows the fruitlessness of asking the wrong kind of questions of a particular poem, as is the tendency of many thinkers. He describes various forms of artistic expression: pseudo-art, or art as magic; art as the expression of emotion, or imaginative art; and inspirational art, or poetry which delights in images. He then demonstrates how, at various stages in Dylan's artistic development, his work takes all three forms of expression, whereas Cohen's work primarily takes the form of the last two. He then offers examples from their poetry to illustrate which form(s) of expression is/are being inhabited by a particular work and he supports his demonstrations with quotations about their work from the artists themselves.
Finally, Boucher helps to bring the period to life for his reader by including several pictures of book covers, concert and film posters, magazine covers and various photographs. The overall result of the book is that Boucher successfully positions his readers to have a richer experience and a deeper understanding and appreciation of the lyric poetry of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Dylan and Cohen: Poets of Rock and Roll

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are widely acknowledged as the great pop poets of the 1960s, transforming the popular song into a medium for questioning the personal, social and political norms of their times. They emerge at a time when the music industry was moulding and packaging the revolutionary sound of black music into something bland, homogenous and fit for mass consumption, when populist politics had come to the fore with a serious division emerging between the values of young and old. For many disorientated and disillusioned members of this generation, Dylan and Cohen were able to articulate what they were feeling and could not express: Dylan the anti-establishment anger, Cohen the angst and despondency. Dylan and Cohen is a fascinating political, psychological and artistic profile of two iconic writers and performers. With reference to both biographical details and lyrics, David Boucher explores their similarities and differences, tracing the development of religious, political and social themes in their work and the ways in which those ideas engaged a new audience.He also looks at their poetic influences, using aesthetic ideas from Lorca, Collingwood and others to delve more deeply than previous commentators into the phases of their writing and to reveal their enduring influence on poetry and song, and the relationship between the two. A must-read for all serious fans of either Dylan or Cohen, this book will also engage anyone interested in 1960s America or more generally in the relationship between music, identity and politics.

Click here for more information about Dylan and Cohen: Poets of Rock and Roll