Dylanology

Dylanology

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The Letterman Jokerman
Bob Dylan’s Letterman appearance in 1984 is one of those iconic moments in his career. But what really happened? Planned chaos. And why is it so…
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Eyolf Østrem
How Does Dylan Write His Songs? Dylan's Own Masterclass (Dylanology 28, part 4)
There is a very simple way to answer the question about how Dylan writes his songs: Watch him do it, live. We have it on tape, and it answers all the…
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Eyolf Østrem
2
Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong (Dylanology 23)
In this and the following issue, I will take a closer look at the guitar playing on the two early-90s acoustic albums “Good As I Been To Your” (1992…
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Eyolf Østrem
3
Too Late – At Last!
"Too Late", the precursor of "Foot of Pride" was released on Bootleg Series 16. This text was published in the very first issue of Dylanology, and is…
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Eyolf Østrem
2
The Minimalism of Rough and Rowdy Ways III: The Variations (Dylanology 32)
In the third and last issue in the series, I focus on Dylan's new approach to phrasing, and the whole series is summed up
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Eyolf Østrem
Why Dylan Should Not Have Received the Nobel Prize (Dylanology 26)
The first of three texts about Dylan as a literary figure, about reasons for being right or wrong, and about prose music
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Eyolf Østrem
8
The Grandfather of Rough & Rowdy Ways (Dylanology 29)
Harmonic niceties and minimalist uneventfulness in "Cross the Green Mountain", the Civil War ballad that started Dylan's experimentation with form in…
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Eyolf Østrem
3
Good As I Been To You/World Gone Wrong – Part 2: The Csus4 Thing (Dylanology 24)
It's hardly even a chord, but it plays several parts on Dylan's acoustic 90s albums. In this issue, I explore the many roles the insignificant little…
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Eyolf Østrem
2
Dylanology No. 10 (February 2022): Brownsville Girl, The Snake in Eden, and the Homeric Connection
In this issue, I discuss why "Brownsville Girl" is Dylan's best song, and how his mixture of music and words in song creates an art-form which allows…
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Eyolf Østrem
1
How Does Dylan Write His Songs? (Dylanology 28, Part 1)
Is it possible to extract song-writing lessons from the greatest song-writer of all times?
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Eyolf Østrem
How Does Dylan Write His Songs? Melodies from Words (Dylanology 28, part 3)
A closer look at some remarks from the San Francisco press conference in 1965
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Eyolf Østrem
4
Good as I Been To You/World Gone Wrong part 3: The Riffs, the Genre Pieces and the Final Verdict (Dylanology 25)
In the two previous issues I have discussed the Bass Melody style and the Csus4 Thing as central techniques or styles which define the sound of Bob…
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Eyolf Østrem
1
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