Review of Rain and poison

Bob Dylan and a ballad between tradition and modernity

Abstract

The work that we review here, Lluvia y veneno. Bob Dylan y una balada entre la tradición y la modernidad (2020), is a revised and enriched version in spanish of Alessandro Portelli's book Bob Dylan, pioggia e veleno. Hard Rain, una batalla fra tradizione e modernitá, published in 2018. Unlike the italian version and according to the author himself, Lluvia y veneno dialogues in a more articulated way with and from oral history. The idea that articulates the book is that the american poet and singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has managed to build bridges between the word and the imagination, establishing a modernist linguistic and technological sensibility on the basis of a secular orality. In this way, the musician is presented as a link between many chains that connects and renews traditions and languages, giving them a new power.