Includes index.

Introduction. Memory, Voice, and the Global Bob Dylan -- Songs of Innocence and Experience -- The text and the voice -- Talking Atomic Blues -- Which way history? -- Appendix. History's lessons unlearned -- Appendix 2. Lyrics.

"Hard Rain is an exploration of how oral culture and the ballad tradition shaped Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan's 1962 classic "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall." The song was written at the apex of the folk music revival and harkens back to the British traditional ballad "Lord Randal" and the 17th-century Italian ballad "Il testemento dell'avvelenato." Its theme is relevant to the post-nuclear nightmares and youth movements of the 1960s, prefiguring contemporary concerns about environmental crisis, racism, and mass migrations. Alessandro Portelli demonstrates how Dylan was able to use the folk tradition of the ballad combined with a modern sensibility to creatively question the meaning and direction of history. Will the future bring liberation or disaster? It is up to us"-- Provided by publisher.