Honors Program

Course Description:
From Bob Dylan’s performance of “Blowin’ in the Wind” at The March on Washington in 1963, through the soul singer Sam Cooke’s recording of “A Change is Gonna Come” in 1964, and continuing for over 40 years with Springsteen’s active participation in the 2004 presidential election, pop musicians have become cultural figures whose words and music have both artistic and political impact.  This course will examine how Dylan, Cooke, Springsteen, and, more recently, Ani DiFranco have changed the role of popular musicians and the artistic possibilities of pop music.  Along the way, we’ll also consider their respective struggles for artistic and financial control of their own music; they way they’ve fashioned, embraced, and rejected pop images; how each has wrestled with issues of race and gender; and how their work both extends and comments on cultural and political traditions in American life.

Texts:
--Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader, Benjamin Hedin, ed.
--Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader, June Skinner Sawyers, ed.

* There will also be various readings available on-line or on e-reserve.

Requirements:
1) Three exams, each worth 20% of the final grade.

2) A 6-8 page paper, worth 20% of the final grade.  You will have several different topics to choose from for this paper.  You might examine in depth how the work of one of the performers we’re focusing on speaks to a particular cultural or political event in recent American history; you might compare and contrast one of our featured songwriters with another writer or performer whose work extends the themes and traditions we will discuss; you might write a personal or creative response to the work of one of these performers, in a manner similar to some of the readings and films we’ll examine. 

3) Class participation, including occasional quizzes, worth 10% of the final grade.

Schedule:
M 8/25 – Introduction

W 8/27 - Video: Rock ‘n’ Roll: An Unruly History, episode 1: “Renegades”

M 9/1 – Labor Day

W 9/3 – Peter Guralnick, “Elvis Presley and the American Dream,” “Faded Love,” from Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians (hand-out)

M 9/8 - Peter Guralnick, excerpts from Sweet Soul Music (e-reserve)

W 9/10 - Peter Guralnick, “Sam Cooke: The Triumph of Icarus” (e-reserve)

M 9/15 – Discussion continued/review

W 9/17 – Exam 1

M 9/22 -  Studio A: Introduction; Bruce Springsteen, “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Speech”; Bob Dylan, “My Life in a Stolen Moment”; Robert Shelton, “Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Folk-Song Sylist”; Johnny Cash, “Letter to Broadside”; Nat Hentoff, “The Crackin’, Breakin’ Sounds”

W 9/24 - Video: No Direction Home, part 1

M 9/29 - Studio A: Paul Nelson, “What’s Happening”; Bob Dylan, “Excerpt from KQED Press Conference, December 3, 1965”; Ralph J. Gleason, “In Berkeley They Dig Bob Dylan”; Hunter S. Thompson, excerpt from “Owl Farm—Winter of ’68”

W 10/1 – Video: No Direction Home, part 2

M 10/6 – Studio A: Robert Christgau, “John Wesley Harding”;  Greil Marcus, “Self-Portrait No. 25”; Robert Polito, “Shadow Play: B-C-D and Back”

W 10/8 - Studio A: Rick Moody, “Blood on the Tracks”; Robert Hilburn, “Dylan: ‘I Learned That Jesus Is Real and I Wanted That’”; Lester Bangs, “Love or Confusion”; Michael Gray, “Excerpt from Song and Dance Man III”

M 10/13 - Studio A: Sean Wilentz, “American Recordings: On Love and Theft and the Minstrel Boy”; Alex Ross, “The Wanderer”

W 10/15 – Video: I’m Not There

M 10/20 – Discussion continued/review

W 10/22 – Exam 2
 
M 10/27 – Racing in the Street: Introduction; Peter Knobler, with Greg Mitchell, “Who is Bruce Springsteen and Why Are We Saying All These Wonderful things about Him”: Paul Williams, “Lost in the Flood”; Maureen Orth, Janet Huck, and Peter S. Greenberg, “Making of a Rock Star”; Lester Bangs, “Hot Rod Rumble in the Promised Land”

W 10/29 - Racing in the Street: Charles R. Cross, “The Promise”; Mikal Gilmore, “Bruce Springsteen’s America”; Greil Marcus, “The Next President of the United States”

M 11/3 - Racing in the Street: Bryan K. Garman, “The Ghost of History: Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie, and the Hurt Song”; Will Percy: “Rock and Read: Will Percy Interviews Bruce Springsteen”

W 11/5 – Jim Cullen, “Borne in the U.S.A.: Springsteen and the Burden of Vietnam” (e-reserve); Racing in the Street: George Will, “Bruuuuuce”; James Wolcott, “The Hagiography of Bruce Springsteen”; Jefferson Morley, “Darkness on the Edge of the Shining City: Bruce Springsteen and the End of Reaganism

M 11/10 - Racing in the Street: Simon Frith, “The Real Thing—Bruce Springsteen”; Nicholas Dawidoff, “The Pop Populist”

W 11/12 – Michael Kobre, “The Dime Store Version: Bruce Springsteen and the Burden of Myth” (e-reserve); Racing in the Street: Alan Light, “The Missing”

M 11/17 - Elysa Gardner, “Radical Chick”; “An Open Letter From Ani DiFranco”; Andrew C. Revkin, “Rightous Babe Saves Hometown; A Fiercely Independent Folk Singer’s Soaring Career Lifts Buffalo, Too” (all on e-reserve)

W 11/19 – Video: Render: Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco

THANKSGIVING BREAK

M 12/1 - Achy Obejas, “Both Sides Now”; David Hadju, “Queer as Folk” (all on e-reserve)

W 12/3 -  Matthew Rothschild, “The Progressive Interview: Ani DiFranco”; Gene Santoro, “Blowin’ in a New Wind” (all on e-reserve)

 M 12/8 – Concluding discussion/review; Papers due

Course Policies:
You are allowed two unexcused absences.  Additional unexcused absences will affect your participation grade.

I expect you to meet the deadline for the paper.  A late paper will be docked a full grade for each day past the deadline.  If problems arise and you know you’ll have difficulty meeting the deadline, you must contact me in advance.

A plagiarized piece of writing will receive an F.  Therefore, it is essential that you correctly document all quotations or any ideas that you have taken from other sources.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS
If you are a student with a verified disability and you require accommodations, please provide me with the necessary memorandum that was given to you by Student Disabilty Services.  Contact: Sandy Rogelberg, MA, LPC, NCC Phone: 704- 337-2508

HONOR CODE 
The Honor Code, which permeates all phases of university life, is based on three fundamental principles.  It assumes that Queens students: a) are truthful at all times, b) respect the property of others, and c) are honest in tests, examinations, term papers, and all other academic assignments.  It is a violation of the Honor Code for a student to be untruthful concerning the reason for a class absence.  

UNIVERSITY CLOSINGS / CANCELLED CLASSES
On the rare occasion when it is necessary to close the university announcements will be made on TV and radio, and will be posted on the Queens website.  Students who live on campus will be notified of a decision to cancel classes through their voice mail.  Commuter students should call the Queens Information Hotline (704-337-2567).   NOTE: If classes are meeting but you feel that you cannot find a safe way to get to class, you should notify me as soon as possible.












 

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Queens University of Charlotte
1900 Selwyn Ave.
Charlotte, NC 28274
Phone: 704 337-2200
Fax: 704 337-2403
Thrive.