Songwriting Tradition and the Interpretive Talent

Bob Dylan’s lyrics evidence innumerable citations and floating verses. These make his songs true literary palimpsests, complementing his desire to adopt different masks and first-person narrative personae. From the early days, Dylan has sought to achieve a three-dimensional polyphonic quality in his songs through the juxtaposition of different perspectives and time frames. However, he has never been explicit about the connotations involved in such a choice, and critics have not yet documented them in full. This article aims to investigate these issues by exploring the interconnections between creative practice and intertextuality and the visual arts. Taking into consideration the discovery of Norman Raeben’s teaching materials, this article aims to provide a new key for analyzing these features. Through a reading of Tangled Up in Blue, informed by Raeben’s ideas on time, the role of the subject in art, and the topography of the Talmud, the present study offers an insight into Dylan’s creative process. It will also provide some pointers towards a greater understanding of his recent comments on songwriting by considering his ideas on voices, subjects, models, and the canon, which place his work on the boundary between oral and written traditions.