Professor Bill King’s Series on the Poetry of Bob Dylan Airing on KWSB
Aug. 28, 2009 -- KWSB (91.1 FM), the Western State College student radio station, is airing English professor Bill King’s radio series on the lyrical poetry of Bob Dylan. The show can be heard on Sundays and Wednesdays at 9 p.m. starting Aug. 30.
English professor Bill King's radio series on Bob Dylan is airing Sundays and Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on KWSB (91.1 FM).
King wrote, produced and narrated the 12-part radio series. “Shakespeare in the Alley” takes its name from a lyric in Dylan’s song, "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.” In the 12-part series (to be expanded to 13), King divides the hour-long shows between his commentary on the lyrics and Dylan singing them.
King also created a companion website at www.dylanalley.org, which provides extensive supplementary material and resources on Dylan and his music.
According to King, the series “seeks to reach a wide audience including both those who already have an interest in Bob Dylan's work and those who love poetry and music but know little of this artist working in a medium not usually associated with poetry.”
Having written the first doctoral dissertation ever on Dylan in 1975, King is notably one of the foremost experts on the musician’s lyrics. He has taught a variety of courses on the Dylan at various colleges and universities, including Western, where he has taught English since 1996.
When it comes to teaching about Dylan beyond the classroom, King says that radio serves as an ideal venue.
“While books and essays are often helpful in deepening our understanding of Dylan's lyrics as poetry, the medium itself inhibits the treatment of his works as song, as poetry and music combined. Radio is the perfect medium for the treatment of Dylan's special art form,” King explains.
The entire radio series is available online through Public Radio Exchange at www.prx.org.
