Dylan and Cohen Poets of Rock and Roll

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are widely acknowledged as the great pop poets of the 1960s, credited with transforming the popular song into a medium for questioning the personal, social, and political norms of their times. They emerged at a time when the music industry was packaging the revolutionary sound of black music and creating bland, homogenous songs fit for mass consumption. Dylan and Cohen were able to articulate the anti-establishment anger, angst, and despondency felt by much of their generation. Here, David Boucher explores the work of Dylan and Cohen in musical, literary, and political contexts. He shows how these two artists have redefined the distinction between poetry and song, as political activists, avant-garde thinkers, and religious imaginaries expressing themselves through song lyrics and published poetry and prose. Excerpts from song lyrics and poems, along with several historic posters, photographs, and album covers illustrate Boucher's thematic connections. Dylan and Cohen: Poets of Rock and Roll is a fascinating political, psychological and artistic profile of these two iconic writers and performers. Tying together related themes in their lives and work, David Boucher unearths the parallel paths of two of rock and roll's greatest thinkers. Book jacket.

David Boucher is Professorial Fellow at the School of European Studies, University of Cardiff