The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad

From Publishers Weekly
Arguing that the American ballad is "a major form—musically, perhaps, the major form—through which Americans told each other about themselves and the country they inhabited," Wilentz, a Princeton history professor, and Marcus (Lipstick Traces) offer this impressive, innovative tribute to it. The contributors—critics (Stanley Crouch), novelists (Joyce Carol Oates), poets (Paul Muldoon), songwriters (Anna Domino) and other writers, performers and artists—were asked to "help create some new works of art" about a ballad of their choosing. Sarah Vowell traces the evolution of the ballad "John Brown's Body" into the hit song of 1862, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." John Rockwell meditates on the gentility of Burl Ives's "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" ("this performance helped define vocal beauty, shaping my taste forever"). R. Crumb contributes a hilarious cartoon version of "When You Go A Courtin' " that succinctly exposes the ballad's dark humor. And Eric Weisbard's wide-ranging "Love, Lore, Celebrity and Dead Babies: 'Down from Dover' by Dolly Parton" might be the best essay yet on the work done by this misunderstood country-pop diva. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Defining ballad loosely as a song with narrative content or reference, coeditors Wilentz and Marcus, a historian and a rock critic, respectively, asked 22 nonacademic writers to each pick an American ballad and expatiate on it. Their responses are wonderfully varied, from John Rockwell on the performance style of Burl Ives' recording of "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" to poet Paul Muldoon's brand-new variant, "Blackwatertown," of "The Unfortunate Rake" and its cognate, "The Streets of Laredo"; from Anna Domino's historical research on the real murder behind "Omie Wise" to Ed Ward's knockout new-journalism-style excavation of an obscure 1960s soul song. Novelists Sharon McCrumb and Joyce Carol Oates respond with fiction, artists R. Crumb and Jon Langford with cartoons. Paul Berman's "Mariachi Reverie," inspired by Vicente Fernandez's "Volver, Volver," which opens up a new world of Mexican pop music for most Anglo readers, is as good, and rants by Rennie Sparks (intemperate, p.c.) and Pere Ubu's David Thomas (over-the-top, incoherent) are as bad as the collection gets. The accompanying CD of 20 of the chosen songs often suggests that a good writer is hung up on trash (there are better Bob Dylan ballads than Wendy Lesser's choice).Generally, the newer the song, the paltrier it is. But even the least of the essays makes good, if irritating, reading. The best are terrific. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Bobbie Ann Mason
Rich and thrilling.


Book Description
A devastatingly original work that plunges into the heart of the American psyche from America's beginnings to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska." The ballad has been part of American history since before the country had a name. In this book, Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus have assembled an astonishing group of writers and artists—Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford of the Mekons, John Rockwell, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Marsh, and more than a dozen other novelists, essayists, performers, and critics—to explore the ineffable power of the American ballad. In words and in drawings, the collaborators have tapped the veins of America's most imaginative and expressive form. From "Barbara Allen," one of the earliest, through "The Wreck of the Old 97," to contemporary ballads by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, The Rose & the Briar presents a rich new patch of art and commentary—like the ballads, no two the same, but all of a piece, about stories, storytellers, and American death, love, and liberty. 25 illustrations.


About the Author
Sean Wilentz is the author of the forthcoming The Rise of American Democracy. A professor of history at Princeton University, he is historian-in-residence at Bob Dylan's official Web site. Greil Marcus is the author of Lipstick Traces and Mystery Train, among other works. An Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton in 2002, he lives in Berkeley, California.


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History professor Wilentz and rock critic Marcus (Mystery Train) have asked 22 authors and musicians to write about a ballad of their choice. The contributors, ranging from Joyce Carol Oates to R. Crumb, have responded with several standards (e.g., "Frankie and Johnny") but mostly with idiosyncratic surprises like Dolly Parton's "Down from Dover" and Randy Newman's "Sail Away." Both varieties weave tales of love, hate, passion, death, sometimes psychosis, and, almost universally, violence. The essayists use a variety of formats to illuminate their songs, including fictionalized accounts, social history, reminiscences, and even drawings and cartoons. As can be expected, the quality of the entries varies wildly, from the gripping fiction of Oates to the pompous meanderings of a few Rolling Stone cronies of Marcus. With more editorial control, the book would have been greatly improved. Sometimes fascinating and at other times highly dispensable, this collection offers an interesting look at a music staple. Recommended for general readers and larger performing arts collections; note the accompanying CD.-Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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