Literature Program and Dean of the College Present
Jack Hamilton
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Campus Center, Yellow Room 214
Candidate for the Visiting Position in Literature
Changing Times, Coming Changes:
Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan and the Birth of Sixties Music
Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan and the Birth of Sixties Music
This talk focuses on connections between Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, most centrally evidenced by Cooke’s landmark composition “A Change Is Gonna Come,” inspired by a twenty-one-year-old Dylan’s “Blowin’ in The Wind.” In the decades since this musical encounter Cooke and Dylan have been positioned by historians, critics, and audiences as foundational figures in the genres of soul and rock music, respectively. By analyzing moments of overlap in the work of these artists alongside the ways they have been discussed in venues ranging from little magazines of the folk revival to academic studies, this talk explores the role of racial ideology and racial imagination in the formation of genre while highlighting the interracial aesthetics of two of the decade’s most influential musicians.
For more information, call 845-758-7242, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Campus Center, Yellow Room 214