The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances

Erin C. Callahan (PhD, Drew University) is Professor of English at San Jacinto College in Houston, Texas. She has published on gender in the Star Wars Saga, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and contributed an essay to 21st Century Dylan: Late and Timely. She has presented at various conferences, including ACA/PCA, PAMLA, Bob Dylan in the 21st Century in Arras, France, and The World of Bob Dylan, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Court Carney (PhD, LSU) is Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he teaches on race, memory, culture, and music. He is the author of Cuttin’ Up: How Jazz Got America’s Ear and a forthcoming book on the public memory of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Table of Contents






Introduction: The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances – Erin C. Callahan and Court Carney



Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Implications of the Past: A Case Study – Court Carney



"Might as Well Just Stay Up Here": Bob Dylan’s Pivotal Performance at Montreal’s Finjan Club in 1962 – Simon McAslan



I’m Ready to Go Anywhere: Bob Dylan’s Propulsive Vector of Engagement with Audiences, 1964-1966 – Keith Nainby and John Radosta



"Hurricane" and Bob Dylan’s Protest Music Renaissance on the Rolling Thunder Tour – Skye Landgraf



Reaching for the Nashville Skyline: Bob Dylan’s Country Music Connections and Lasting Impact on the Emerging 1970s Country-Rock Movement – McKenzie L. Isom



The Rolling Thunder Revue’s Critical Bicentennial Nostalgia – Jason Tebbe



"All the World’s a Stage": Bob Dylan’s Spontaneous Performativity in Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue (2019) and NBC’s Hard Rain (1976) – Sara Martínez



The Warfield Cycle: Dylan’s Mystery Plays, San Francisco, November 1980 – Graley Herren



"Hanging in the balance of the reality of man": Dylan’s Artistic Vision of Impermanence, October 1981 – Jim Salvucci



Bob Dylan’s Splayed Anthems – Robert Reginio



Bob Dylan’s Waste Land: Contemporary Existential Anxieties Reflected in the 2013-2019 Set Lists – Erin C. Callahan



"What’s Going On in Your Show:" A look at the Shadow Kingdom setlist – Nina Goss



"Today and Tomorrow and Yesterday Too": Time in Bob Dylan's Work of the 2020s – Laura Tenschert



Encore: The Never-Ending Sonnets: On Bob Dylan’s Never-Ending Tour, 1987-1997 – Jeff Fallis



Epilogue: From Angel to Devil, From Lovelorn to Enchantment: Dylan’s Setlists in 2022 – Erin C. Callahan and Court Carney

List of Contributors

Acknowledgements