Bob Dylan is best known for his songs in verse-refrain form. Think of the many tunes with long, florid verses that end with a refrain line, which often includes the song’s title. “Desolation Row” and “Tangled Up in Blue” are two famous examples. However, a significant number of his songs follow different formal outlines, among them 12-bar blues, verse-chorus, and 32-bar song form. In this presentation, the presenter is interested in exploring songs that include a bridge. What role do bridges play in Dylan’s songs? What does the presence or absence of a bridge say about the song's genre? How does Dylan mark a bridge lyrically through changes in prosody, subject matter, tone, or literary register? And how do these lyrical shifts relate to musical ones that mark the bridge, especially as regards harmony and melody?
The presenter argues that Dylan’s bridges sometimes open new interior spaces within a lyric, like an affective hidden chamber; at other times, they mark a registral downshift into the colloquial or mundane; in still others, they are spaces of play and concentrated wit. The session will explore bridges in “Ballad of a Thin Man” (1965, his first song to include one), “Just Like a Woman” (1966), “Sign on the Window” (1970), “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” (1974), and “Moonlight” (2001).