Vox Populi

A Public Sphere for Poetry, Politics, and Nature. Over 15,000 daily subscribers. Over 7,000 archived posts.

Raphael Falco: How Bob Dylan used the ancient practice of ‘imitatio’ to craft some of the most original songs of his time

Bob Dylan is both a modern voice entirely unique and, at the same time, the product of ancient, time-honored ways of practicing and thinking about creativity.

January 27, 2023 · 5 Comments

Barbara Hamby: Ode to Forgetting the Year

remember the day at the beach when the sun
began to explain Heidegger to you while thunderclouds
rumbled up from the horizon like Nazi submarines?

January 7, 2023 · 12 Comments

Video: Odetta | Waterboy

Martin Luther King Jr. called Odetta “The Queen of American Folk Music.”

April 2, 2022 · 2 Comments

Norman Solomon: Bob Dylan and the Ukraine Crisis

I’ve learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It’s them we must fight

February 23, 2022 · 7 Comments

Baron Wormser: Conceit

If the great motive force in this world is love, how do we love the earth so that the harmony the earth embodies is acknowledged in daily life, to say nothing of adored?

January 21, 2022 · 8 Comments

Alessia Carneval: The history of protest songs in Tunisia and their link to popular culture

In Tunisia, the protest song is called al-ughniya al-multazima in Arabic, or chanson engagée in French. Both literally mean “committed song” and put an emphasis on the political and social aim of this genre.

May 25, 2021 · 1 Comment

Mike Schneider: Bob Dylan’s Ballads of Murder, Drowning & Other Songs of Love

If one of the defining tendencies of post-modernism is breaking down borders between high and low culture—such as between Beethoven and Elvis, Dylan is a supreme post-modernist. The cultural compass inscribed by his work is huge, flattering us by the depth of his learning and song awareness. We can follow or not—the songs don’t care.

October 18, 2020 · 6 Comments

Daniel Burston: John Prine, Working Class Poet (1947-2020)

John Prine was a national treasure, whose songs about love, loss and aging – many written while he was still a relatively young man! – reflect his working class roots. But even so, they have a universal and timeless relevance.

April 10, 2020 · 3 Comments

Video: All Along the Watchtower — Playing for Change

I remember having a daydream about the opening acoustic guitar part of “All Along The Watchtower” ending with a Native American scream and a big native drum on the downbeat. … Continue reading

March 16, 2019 · 3 Comments

Video: Patti Smith sings A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” at the 2016 Nobel Prize ceremony

. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son And where have you been, my darling young one I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve … Continue reading

December 13, 2016 · 1 Comment

Mel Packer: Is It Time To Be Outlaws Again?

Only large-scale civil disobedience will make our leaders address economic injustice. In 1989, Bob Dylan recorded a song titled “Everything Is Broken”. That song seemed to go largely ignored, perhaps … Continue reading

August 16, 2014 · 1 Comment

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