Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Recommended. Academic libraries supporting serious study of popular music at the upper-division undergraduate level and above.”–
Book Description
The torch song has long been a vehicle for expression--perhaps American song's most sheerly visceral one. Two artists in particular have built upon this tradition to express their own unique outlooks on their lives and the world around them. Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, and the Torch Song Tradition combines biographical material, artist commentary, critical interpretation, and selected exemplars of the writers' work to reveal the power of authorship and the creative drive necessary to negotiate an artistic vision in the complicated mechanisms of the commercial music industry. Author Larry David Smith, as in his Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American Song, considers the complicated intersection of biography, creative philosophy, artistic imperative, and stylistic tendencies in the work of both Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello--two songwriters with seemingly nothing in common, yet, as Smith shows so incisively, two personalities that prove fascinatingly complementary. Both have made historic contributions to the singer-songwriter model, two rebellious respones to the creative and commercial compromises associated with their chosen field, and two distinct thematic responses to the torch song tradition. Smith examines these responses, offering a unique and invaluable exploration of the craft of two of the last century's most towering musical figures.
Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition
Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition,Larry David Smith,Praeger Publishers,0275973921,Analysis, appreciation,Composers & Musicians - Country & Folk,Costello, Elvis,Criticism and interpretation,Genres & Styles - Pop Vocal,History and criticism,Love songs,Mitchell, Joni,Music,Popular,Popular music,Music / Popular
Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition
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