Lexington Books
Pages: 198
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4985-5383-4 • Hardback • January 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-4985-5385-8 • Paperback • October 2019 • $46.99 • (£36.00)
978-1-4985-5384-1 • eBook • January 2018 • $44.50 • (£35.00)
James Rovira is chair and associate professor in the English department at Mississippi College.
Introduction: Rock and Romanticism
by James Rovira
Part I: Blake, Shelley, and Rock
“Tangled Up in Blake: the Triangular Relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats”
by Luke Walker
“Romanticism in the Park: Mick Jagger Reading Shelley”
by Jaaneke van der Leest
“William Blake: The Romantic Alternative”
by Douglas T. Root
“Digging at the Roots: Martha Redbone’s The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake”
by Nicole Lobdell
“‘Tangle of Matter and Ghost’: U2, Leonard Cohen, and Blakean Romanticism”
by Lisa Crafton
Part II: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Rock
“The Inner Revolution(s) of Wordsworth and the Beatles”
by David Boocker
“‘When the Light that’s Lost within Us Reaches the Sky’: Jackson Browne’s Romantic Vision”
by Gary L. Tandy
“‘Swimming Against the Stream’: Rush’s Romantic Critique of their Modern Age”
by David S. Hogsette
“Wordsworth’s ‘Michael,’ the Georgic, and Blackberry Smoke”
by Ronald D. Morrison
“Wordsworth on the Radio”
by Rachel Feder
Part III: European Romanticisms and Popular Music
“Themes of ‘Scapigliatura’ and cursed poets in the songs of Piero Ciampi (1934–1980)”
by Lorenzo SorboFor more information, visit https://jamesrovira.com/rock-and-romanticism-blake-wordsworth-and-rock-from-dylan-to-u2/
It might seem odd to bring the Romanticism of the 19th century together with the rock music of the 20th and 21st centuries. However, with this book Rovira (Mississippi College) shows that there is a valid connection. In dealing with rock, the contributors (most of whom are, like the editor, English scholars) focus primarily on lyrics rather than the music itself. The contributors do not superimpose their concepts of Romanticism onto song lyrics; rather, they show that song lyricists from Bob Dylan and the Beatles to U2 have had demonstrable connections to Romantic poets such as Blake and Wordsworth and to the thinking of the Romantic era. In exploring such connections, the essayists delve into the sociocultural background of the earlier time and the present.
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
— Choice Reviews
This collection by James Rovira shows just how influential the Romantics have been on modern popular music, not only furnishing contemporary singers with the themes and lyrics of their songs but, in many cases, also providing the attitude that defines post-war rock music. I was delighted to see some of my favorite Blake-inspired adaptations included here, as well as the fact that the contributors do not simply deal with the obvious examples of the influence of Romanticism but display a much wider range of appreciation and erudition.
— Jason Whittaker, University of Lincoln
A deft examination of the varieties of Romanticism and their incarnations in rock music, as wide-ranging and stimulating as the music and the literature it probes.
— Robert Pattison, Long Island University, author of The Triumph of Vulgarity