What Did You Hear? - by Steven Rings (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Discover a new side of the songs of Bob Dylan, as a music theorist considers the possibilities ingrained in rough sounds, peculiar intonation, and a raspy voice. Folk troubadour, rock star, country crooner, cultural shapeshifter-for a musician who adopted so many styles, Bob Dylan always seems to be unmistakably himself. Whether you're a fan or a skeptic, you know his sound. A gritty voice that slides toward speech or out of key, a musical trademark that's been imitated and parodied in equal measure. A piano that may be out of tune. A wailing, ramshackle harmonica solo. But Dylan always sounds like Dylan, despite a musical legacy built on variation, flux, and flaws. Music theorist Steven Rings argues that such imperfections are central to understanding Dylan's songs and their appeal. These blemishes can invoke authenticity or persona, signal his social commitments, and betray his political shortcomings. Rings begins with (what else?) Dylan's voice, exploring its changeability, its unmistakable features, and its ability to build characters, including the speaker of "House of the Rising Sun," who is understood to be a Black woman. Rings then turns to Dylan as an instrumentalist, including his infamous adoption of the electric guitar in 1965, as well as his stylistically varied acoustic playing, which borrows sounds and techniques from Black blues musicians, among other influences. Rings charts the histories audible in Dylan's harmonica as well as the piano, central to his music-making for seventy years, beginning with his earliest imitations of Little Richard in Hibbing, Minnesota. Finally, Rings guides readers through one of Dylan's most famous songs, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," listening for its musical sources as well as the welter of sounds that Dylan has made when performing it live. A companion website of audio and video examples helps readers notice the nuances and idiosyncrasies inherent to Dylan's work and, even more importantly, their effects. A close look at an under-discussed but glaringly dominant aspect of Dylan's oeuvre, What Did You Hear? offers a fresh understanding of a singular performer, his musical choices, and the meanings that can be found in his imperfect sounds"--

Book Synopsis

Discover a new side of the songs of Bob Dylan by exploring the virtues of rough sounds, peculiar intonation, and a raspy voice.

Folk troubadour, rock star, country crooner--for a musician who adopted so many personas, Bob Dylan always sounds like himself. While he's written many of the most iconic and impactful lyrics of the past sixty years, Dylan's music has also reshaped our sonic imagination with his ragged voice, wailing harmonica, and rough-hewn guitar.

Music theorist Steven Rings argues that such sonic imperfections are central to understanding Dylan's songs and their appeal. These blemishes can invoke authenticity or persona, signal his social commitments, and betray his political shortcomings. Rings begins--where else?--with Dylan's voice, exploring its changeability, its unmistakable features, and its ability to inhabit characters, including the female narrator of "House of the Rising Sun." Rings then turns to Dylan as an instrumentalist, examining his infamous adoption of the electric guitar in 1965, as well as his stylistically varied acoustic playing, which borrows sounds and techniques from Black blues musicians, among other influences. Rings charts the histories audible in Dylan's harmonica as well as piano, which has been central to his music making since his earliest days of imitating Little Richard in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. Finally, Rings guides readers through one of Dylan's most famous songs, "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," analyzing its musical sources as well as variations in live performances. A companion website of audio and video examples helps readers notice the nuances and idiosyncrasies inherent in Dylan's work and, even more importantly, their effects.

A close look at an underdiscussed but essential aspect of Dylan's oeuvre, What Did You Hear? offers a fresh understanding of a singular performer, his musical choices, and the meanings that we can hear in his imperfect sounds.

Review Quotes

"A dive into the chords, not just the words, of the Dylan canon. This an exploration of why the 'crackin' breakin' shakin' sounds, ' as the Minnesota bard once termed them, are as important to his persona as the lyrics that most critics--and fans--focus on. . . . Rings, an associate music professor at the University of Chicago, breaks down the various components--vocals, guitar, harmonica--that enhance the picture." -- "Kirkus"

"Rings hears what others don't--because as he listens, sounds spark thoughts. This takes him inside Bob Dylan's songs, hearing how their elements--rhythms, melodies, words, and sounds--make what we hear as whole and finished. But that way of listening also takes Rings outside the songs, to hear what they hear: the musical gestures that have shaped them, that have spoken to them. In Rings's pages, that conversation comes fully to life."--Greil Marcus, author of "Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs"

"What Did You Hear? sings like that Japan '94 'Hard Rain, ' spotlighting not Dylan the songwriter but Dylan the performer. Through detailed argument and copious musical examples, Rings breaks down Dylan's technique on his various instruments: voice, guitar, piano, harmonica. The sounds Dylan fans have loved for decades now have a conceptual framework, demonstrating just how much care Dylan puts into the delivery of his words, not just the writing of them. Rings knows his music theory but doesn't rely on the reader to, making his analysis easily accessible for the layperson. The most intriguing Bob Dylan book I've read in some time."--Ray Padgett, author of "Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members"

"The best study of Bob Dylan's musicianship to date. At once a compendium of thinking on the totality of his music and a close study of several songs, the book offers bountiful insights that will excite readers both avidly and casually interested in Dylan."--Sumanth Gopinath, author of "The Ringtone Dialectic: Economy and Cultural Form"

About the Author

Steven Rings is associate professor in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Tonality and Transformation and the coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory.