Essay: “Another Day in America” and “Murder Most Foul”: The Genius of Laurie Anderson and Bob Dylan.

In this three (3) page, double-spaced essay you will compare and contrast two brilliant works by two brilliant geniuses: Laurie Anderson’s “Another Day in America” from her excellent album Homeland

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and “Murder Most Foul” from Bob Dylan’s amazing Rough and Rowdy Ways

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. Both of these works tackle America; her history, day to day life, and, perhaps, her future.

Plan to spend some serious time on this assignment (my guess is that you’ll need to spend at least five hours on this in order to earn an “A”). The music alone takes about 30 minutes to listen to, and you’ll need to listen to both works numerous times. Regarding the work by Dylan, the events, songs, films, etc. referenced, would take over 100 hours to research. I do not expect you to analyze every mention, but I do want you to explain at least five (5) references in your paper, from EACH of the five (5) DIFFERENT verses, of Dylan’s song. Use couplets (two lines) of text for EACH of your references, in the Dylan work.

Anderson’s work references events and modern habits too, please include at least one (1) in your essay as well. These are NOT your personal opinions, these are facts that you have gleaned from researching the references. However, you should talk about your observations to both songs, there relationship to each other, etc. in your concluding paragraph. You may NOT reference anything I/we spoke about in a chat session.

Regarding comparison and contrast, you may analyze any of the following elements:

• The instruments. What are they? How do they serve the thrust of the song?
• Their voices. How is Anderson’s voice different from Dylan’s? How is the delivery different, and how does the usage of their voices serve the subject matter of the song?
• The lyrical content. Of course, Dylan’s work has many more references, however, Anderson makes references as well. What is the purpose of these references? Is the point of view personal? National? What types of events are listed in the songs? Again, how do they serve the song?
• Stylistic differences. Are their musical styles different? Similar? How?
• The end result. What is the mood of each song, in the end? Please share your conclusions of both songs, that you arrived at from your analysis of the above.
• Coda. The above list is not definitive. If you want to analyze other elements of these works, please feel free to include them in your essay.

Other criteria:

• Use copyright permission footnotes (NOT endnotes) for this essay. Because of AI, essays that do not have any copyright permission footnotes, will result in an automatic grade of “F”.
• Do NOT quote anything from any outside sources without footnoting.
• You may not quote more than ONE SENTENCE from an outside source.
• Your essay will be submitted to Turnitin.com. 😉
• Do NOT quote more than two lines of lyrics, from each song.
• Usage of AI or other autogenerated material will result in an “F.”
• You may NOT resubmit your essay, if AI was detected.
• Check your Turnitin report before you submit your paper.
• Any plagiarism percentage ABOVE 15% will result in an automatic “F” for your paper.
• ANY detection of AI (no matter how small the percentage) will result in an automatic “F” for your paper.
• Contact the SAC Learning Center
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• for help in writing your essay.
• You may not use ANY lyrics website as a source!
• Your instructor made a comment about Anderson’s tale about the old couple, in our chat session. What was it? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
• If you need help with writing, footnoting, or even research, please contact the SAC Library Research and Information Help Desk.
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• You may NOT list any references I talked about during any chat session.
• I want YOU to find your own references, and come to your own conclusions.
• Include a bibliography at the end of your essay. The bibliography does not count as part of the text of your essay.
• Do NOT include ANY biographical information on the artists. We’ve already covered that material in class. 😉
• If you need help writing your paper, please see the SAC Learning Center
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• .
• If you want me to proofread your essay, please submit it to Canvas by 7/22/25.

I look forward to reading your essays about these brilliant works! ^_^