Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan [Paperback]

Michael Gray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2002

Michael Gray's 'Song and Dance Man III', on Bob Dylan's life and work, offers studies of Dylan's' entire oeuvre, and the ever-popular album-by-album guide has also been extensively updated and extended.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Monumental, endlessly illuminating" - Rolling Stone (Rolling Stone )

"Impressive." --Christianity Today (Christianity Today )

"Notably, there is a fat, new edition of Michael Gray's huge and wonderful critical work, Song and Dance Man (a lifetime's labor). Cranky, eloquent, opinionated, exhaustive, Gray's book proves that scholarship can be fun to read….The secret engine driving Dylan's art is lost to us, deep inside a black box. Michael Gray's intellectual efforts in Song and Dance Man probably come as close as analysis can to unlocking possible sources, chasing arcane references, connecting the dots." --The News & Observer (The News & Observer )

"The definitive critical work."--Evening Standard (London), 2/24/03 (Evening Standard (London) )

“Extraordinarily useful… I have always admired Gray’s reach, tone, and acuity but the research here is just amazing.” - Greil Marcus (Greil Marcus )

“One of the three best books of the year.” (Andrew Motion, British Poet Laureate, The Observer, London )

“Immense and immensely illuminating... It is wonderfully comic and serious and sharp. I am enjoying it hugely and learning from every page.” - Christopher Ricks (Christopher Ricks )

“In examining the influences that shaped Dylan into one of the most influential postwar artists, Gray draws on everyone from Elvis to Eliot, Robert Johnson to Rimbaud…This huge work is overwhelming... ‘It’s all been written in the book,’ sang Bob Dylan. Now it really has.” - The Times, London (The Times, London )

“Illuminating, wry and exhaustive.” - Newsday, US (A Closer Look )

“The definitive critical work.” - EVENING STANDARD, London, 2003 (Evening Standard )

“The third (and allegedly final) edition of Michael Gray’s pioneering tome… runs to a colossal 900 pages and confirms once again Gray’s position as the doyen of Dylan scholars... even in its initial modest form, [it] was profoundly significant... His book invented a new school of rock criticism which made most of the writing that had gone before seem superficial, irrelevant and trivial... The third edition of Gray’s lifetime study displays an almost insane degree of scholarship... quite dazzlingly brilliant... an intellectual tour de force... an essential companion. * * * * * ” - UNCUT, London (Uncut )

“Indispensable... His research is formidable, and his knowledge encyclopedic... great cogency, confidence and authority... a quite splendid critic... Gray can explain how the text [of a song] works poetically. It’s a rare gift:... [his] expositions of ‘Every Grain Of Sand’, ‘Angelina’, ‘Jokerman’ and ‘Under the Red Sky’ are utterly definitive... at the heart of this book is some of the finest critical writing ever done about Bob Dylan.” - STEPHEN SCOBIE, University of Victoria, Canada & author of Alias Bob Dylan: (Stephen Scobie )

“Serious Dylan criticism... intricate analyses... monumental.” - BRYAN APPLEYARD, Sunday Times, London: (BRYAN APPLEYARD )

“A startling piece of scholarship. By scrutinizing Dylan’s canon, Gray achieves a fresh read of his life... Song & Dance Man III overshadows others’ accounts of secret marriages and mythic motorcycle crashes, and it entirely outdoes other analyses... frank, insightful, unassailably excellent.” (Austin Chronicle )

“The original ‘Song & Dance Man’ was a pioneering piece of rock scholarship… Written with great intelligence and passion… the result was the first important book about a rock artist’s output, not just their life… But these 250 pages are merely a fragment of the 900-page monster which Gray has [now] unleashed… magnificent… soaked in insight.” - Record Collector, London (Record Collector, London )

“It is the most penetrating and clear-headed work… a monumental achievement.” - DAVID HAJDU, author of Positively 4th Street (DAVID HAJDU, author of Positively 4th Street )

“Fascinating, scholarly and very readable… The longest and most relevant chapter for Blueprint readers [‘Even Post-Structuralists Oughta Have The Pre-War Blues’], is… packed solid with informative and enthralling reading. I cannot congratulate Gray enough for this outstanding chapter… [a] very important study. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative book by an author who writes knowledgeably, with style and with great insight - very highly recommended to all.” - BLUEPRINT, British blues magazine (BLUEPRINT, British blues magazine: )

“This book is an event... delivering prodigious analyses of Dylan’s artistry and his polymath sources in pre-war blues, nursery rhymes, fairy tales and Hollywood movie dialogue... Gray maintains a ruthless integrity regarding Dylan himself. * * * * * ” - Q, London (Q, London )

“A mammoth work of scholarship, often enthralling and never less than illuminating. His chapter on Dylan’s sources in the blues… is almost worth the price of admission alone… This is trenchant and thought-provoking stuff, and pretty much characterises Gray’s style and his approach to a subject who has suffered more than most at the hands of lesser, and less well-informed, critics.” THE OBSERVER, London, 2003 (THE OBSERVER, London, 2003 )

“…[T]he real story of Blood on the Tracks…lies within the lines of the album’s 10 songs, in the sound that Dylan pursued and finally captured, in the landscape of regret, memory and hope that opens up when ever the album is played. To delve into these songs is to study some of the finest works in American song. The job requires someone with the boldness and breadth of knowledge shown by Michael Grey whose hefty study Song and Dance Man puts the bulk of rock-crit writing about Dylan to shame.” –Salon.com, 4/27/04

"…[an] in-depth scholarly analys[is] of Dylan as a poet, comparing him with showing influences of such writers as Keats, John Donne and Eliot….recommended." -SDTtoday, October 12, 2004 (Harper Barnes St. Louis Post-Dispatch )

"Monumental, endlessly illuminating" - Rolling Stone (, )

"Impressive." --Christianity Today (, )

"Notably, there is a fat, new edition of Michael Gray's huge and wonderful critical work, Song and Dance Man (a lifetime's labor). Cranky, eloquent, opinionated, exhaustive, Gray's book proves that scholarship can be fun to read….The secret engine driving Dylan's art is lost to us, deep inside a black box. Michael Gray's intellectual efforts in Song and Dance Man probably come as close as analysis can to unlocking possible sources, chasing arcane references, connecting the dots." --The News & Observer (, )

"The definitive critical work."--Evening Standard (London), 2/24/03 (, )

“Indispensable... His research is formidable, and his knowledge encyclopedic... great cogency, confidence and authority... a quite splendid critic... Gray can explain how the text [of a song] works poetically. It’s a rare gift:... [his] expositions of ‘Every Grain Of Sand’, ‘Angelina’, ‘Jokerman’ and ‘Under the Red Sky’ are utterly definitive... at the heart of this book is some of the finest critical writing ever done about Bob Dylan.” - STEPHEN SCOBIE, University of Victoria, Canada & author of Alias Bob Dylan: (, )

“A startling piece of scholarship. By scrutinizing Dylan’s canon, Gray achieves a fresh read of his life... Song & Dance Man III overshadows others’ accounts of secret marriages and mythic motorcycle crashes, and it entirely outdoes other analyses... frank, insightful, unassailably excellent.” (, )

“The original ‘Song & Dance Man’ was a pioneering piece of rock scholarship… Written with great intelligence and passion… the result was the first important book about a rock artist’s output, not just their life… But these 250 pages are merely a fragment of the 900-page monster which Gray has [now] unleashed… magnificent… soaked in insight.” - Record Collector, London (, )

"…[an] in-depth scholarly analys[is] of Dylan as a poet, comparing him with showing influences of such writers as Keats, John Donne and Eliot….recommended." -SDTtoday, October 12, 2004 (, St. Louis Post-Dispatch )

About the Author

MICHAEL GRAY is a distinguished critic, writer &broadcaster. He graduated in History &English Literature at York University, England, in the 1960s, where he studied under the controversial, brilliant critic Professor F. R. Leavis, and where as a student journalist he interviewed, among others, the eminent British historian A. J. P. Taylor and the legendary American guitarist Jimi Hendrix. His pioneering study of Bob Dylan's work, Song &Dance Man, first published in the 1970s in Britain, America and Japan, was the first full-length critical study of this crucial 20th Century cultural figure. It is now recognised as a classic in its field. A selection of pieces on Dylan, All Across The Telegraph: A Bob Dylan Handbook, published in 1987, was co-edited by Gray and included work by several distinguished academics in the fields of English &American Literature and Music. In 1996, Michael Gray co-authored The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley's America, published in hardback in New York by Henry Holt. The massive Song &Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan was published by Continuum in March 2000. A special reprint appeared in the US in April 2001, when Gray delivered talks at a number of US universities; a fourth reprint was published in New York and London in 2002 and a fifth in 2004. Michael Gray is recognised as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan and is an expert on rock'n'roll history and the blues, with a special interest in pre-war blues. Please visit his blog at http://bobdylanencyclopedia.blogspot.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 944 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (October 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826463827
• ISBN-13: 978-0826463821
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( D ) > Dylan, Bob

More About the Author

MICHAEL GRAY IS A WRITER, critic & broadcaster recognised as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan and as an expert on rock'n'roll and blues history but also writes about travel and history and gives A-V-illustrated talks at arts festivals, theaters, colleges, museums and major libraries.

IN 2006 HIS BOOK "THE Bob Dylan Encyclopedia", a 750,000 word hardback, was published in New York and London. In 2007 came "Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell", published in hardback by Bloomsbury in the UK.

THE FORMER WON THE C.B. Oldman Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship and research, and the latter was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. Both were published in paperback in the UK in 2008.

"HAND ME MY TRAVELIN' SHOES" is now published in hardback in North America by Chicago Review Press (September 2009).

HIS CAREER BEGAN AT YORK University (UK), where he studied under the brilliant, controversial critic F. R. Leavis, and as a student journalist interviewed the distinguished historian A. J. P. Taylor and the now-legendary American guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

HIS PIONEERING STUDY OF BOB Dylan's work, "Song & Dance Man", first published in the early 1970s in Britain, America and Japan, was the first critical study of this crucial contemporary cultural figure, and is now recognised as a classic in its field.

"THE ART OF BOB DYLAN" was published in the UK & USA in 1981-2, and a selection of pieces on Dylan, "All Across The Telegraph", co-edited by Gray and including work by Christopher Ricks, Aidan Day and David Pichaske, was published in 1987. In 1993 an early version of "Song & Dance Man III"'s major study of Bob Dylan's use of the blues was published in Germany and extracted in Berlin newspaper die Tageszeitung.

IN 1996 HE CO-AUTHORED "The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley's America", published in hardback in New York by Henry Holt.

THE MASSIVE THIRD EDITION OF his Bob Dylan study, "Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan" was published by Cassell Academic in London in 1999 and in the US by Continuum in March 2000. A reprint appeared in the US in April 2001, when Gray delivered talks at a number of US universities, and a fourth reprint was published in New York and London in 2002. A fifth reprint was issued in 2004, a sixth in 2006 and a seventh in 2008. It is still in print.

MICHAEL GRAY HAS also lectured for the Institute for Folklore Studies in Great Britain & Canada, the Northern Ireland Arts Council, at York & Exeter Universities and Goldsmiths College, London, and at conventions in Austria, Manchester & Leicester. In 2006 he was the closing speaker at the Dylan Congress at the Institut fur Sozialforschung, Goethe University, Frankfurt. Also in 2006 he spoke by invitation at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio, gave a packed address at the New School in NYC and attracted the largest audience for any outside speaker in over two years when he spoke at the University of Texas at Austin. In March 2007 he gave the closing address at the University of Minnesota's three-day academic symposium on Dylan's work, at which other speakers included Christopher Ricks and Greil Marcus. In early 2009 he toured in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA, and in October 2009 is giving audio-visually illustrated talks and book signings as follows:

THURS OCT 8, 11am: Farmingdale College (SUNY), Long Island NY
THURS OCT 15, 7pm: Douglass Theatre, Macon GA
THURS OCT 22, 7pm: Georgia Southern University, Statesboro GA
FRI OCT 23, 7pm: Averitt Center For The Arts, Statesboro GA

WHEN NOT TRAVELING MICHAEL GRAY lives in France with his wife (food-writer Sarah Beattie).


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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely incredible, December 6, 2001

By 

Bill R. Moore (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan (Paperback)

As an avid fan of rock scholarship (oxymoronical as some still consider the term), I've read many a bio and interpretive book through the years, and I have to say that this one, hands down, is the absolute most amazing one I've ever come across. Only Dylan - with his 40+ albums, 4-decade career, half a thousand songs, countless gigs, and sheer depth of material - could be subject to such a gargantuan examination as this, and Gray milks it for all it's worth. At over 900 pages, this book examines every aspect of Dylan's recorded work. The level of scholarship is almost insane. The footnotes alone are massive (some taking up the majority of a page); one chapter alone contains over 220 of them. This is not a book that attempts to "explain" the songs (Gray knows better than that.) What it does, instead, is give detailed background information on them: shedding light, at long last, on their genesis - showing us what songs, poems, books, movies or what have you may have influenced them. One gets a sense in reading this of Dylan's own vast knowledge of music. We learn here how deeply and thorougly he has mined such treasure troves of art as pre-war blues, folk songs, the Bible (though Gray borders on overkill on this particular subject), poetry of all sorts, and, surprisingly, nursery rhyme, fairy tales, and Hollywood movie dialogue. Some might claim that knowing such things takes the fun or novelty out of simply listening to a song, or of self-interpretation, but surely, it gives an extra layer or two of depth to Dylan's work, allowing you to appreciate them that much more. Some passages are surely revelatory. While some of the chapters are admittedly not as interesting as others, many are enlightening and downright ground-breaking. The chapter on his use of pre-war blues lyrics poetry is a cornucopia of exhaustive reasearch (the footnotes alone in this chapter could almost comprise a book.) Undoubtedly revelatory to many are the chapters on Dylan's use of nursery rhyme and movie dialogue in his lyrics (the use of the latter shines an entirely new light on the Empire Burlesque album.) Another element of the book worth noting is that it doesn't skimp over his too-often-unnecessarily-derided 80's and 90's work (a period where it actually became cool to despise Dylan.) Gray offers excellent analyses of such 80's masterpieces as Blind Willie McTell, Caribbean Wind (three versions!), Foot of Pride, Jokerman, Brownsville Girl, and the entire Oh Mercy album. All of these songs (and more) are thoroughly examined, and lend needed credence to truly excellent Dylan compositions that often do not get the credit they deserve. His 90's albums - Under The Red Sky, Good As I Been To You, World Gone Wrong, and Time Out of Mind - all have thorough chapters dedicated to them as well. The latter chapter I particularly enjoyed. I should also take time out to ackwnoledge not only Gray's parlaying of information, but his sheer excellence of writing. His prose is very, very good and he can be devastatingly funny at times, as well as scholastically serious. He also manages to avoid the two main traps of writing a book like this: hero worship, and promoting your own work through the medium you are trying to interpret. He's not overly idoltary towards Dylan: certainly he gives him much praise (all deserved, of course), but he also issues forth monumental drubbings at times - perhaps even too much at times. For example, Gray is extremely, extremely critical of such things as the Empire Burlesque and Unplugged albums, which is bound to upset some fans. But surely such critical honesty of opinion is preferable to the "Dylan is God and never makes a mistake; bow down and worship his incomparable art" vibe that is prevalent in so many other books of this type. Also, as I said, he manages to avoid the horrible pitfall of pushing his own works through the guise of interpreting Dylan; he wisely barely mentions himself here. Now, all this is not to say that the book is perfect. There are certain drawbacks; personally, I think Gray rides the Bible-influence hobby horse a bit too much, and I disagree with some of his opinions (only natural, and he doesn't overburden us with them), and certain parts of the book do seem a bit long-winded. Also, if you are looking for an in-depth study of what Dylan's lyrics "mean", or for a study of his live performances, then this is not specifically the book for you. However, any, and I mean ANY Dylanophile will want it regardless, as it casts such a deep, illuminating light on so many aspects of his career. There are a lot of books on Bob Dylan available, but this is one of the few truly indispensable ones. Comes absolutely reccommended.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Song & Dance Man 3 - The Art of Bob Dylan, May 25, 2000

By 

P. Teece "Phil Teece" (Sunshine Bay NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan (Bayou) (Paperback)

A great book. Erudite AND entertaining. Perhaps its finest quality is its integrity: it makes a compelling case for Dylan's genius, while simultaneously avoiding the hagiography which so bedevils much adoring work on Bob. In other words, it has real critical balance. The latter section on the ageing Bob is almost painfully honest and realistic...but the book is all the better for it. The 100-odd page chapter on Dylan's use of, and homage to, pre war blues lyrics is 'worth the price' on its own. And the terrific use of footnotes in this section makes the work a bit like the acquisition of that first bootleg album - you might think you're just dipping a toe in the water, but before you know it you've plunged right in...and you'll never get out. The section on nursery rhyme is especially intriguing. And the excellent analysis of biblical sources is good enough to make all but the most bigoted fans open their ears [and minds] to this fundamental element of Dylan's inspiration. Given its immense size, there must presumably be the odd error in it, but few show [wasn't it Liam Clancy who Bob described as the best ever ballad singer, and not Tommy Makem, by the way?]. Song & Dance Man 3 seems likely to be as useful ten years on as it is fascinating on the very first read. It will be on [and off] my bookshelves for a very long time.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth every cent. Hardback or softback - Indispensible., July 13, 2001

By 

Francis Flannery - See all my reviews

This review is from: Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan (Paperback)

An important and groundbreaking work, treating Dylan's oeuvre for what it is - a performance-based series of songs created by a sometimes-visionary intent on exploring the human condition through his own idiosyncratic blend of musical and literary influences. Other reviewers that have already noted the difference between earlier and later chapters in this massive book - that the earlier chapters are holdovers from previous editions, while the later chapters are newly written. There is a considerable difference in tone between these earlier (now-revised) chapters and the newly written ones. The later chapters on Dylan's blues inclinations, especially as manifest on his two underrated early 90's albums of folk and blues covers, and his 1983 masterpiece "Blind Willie McTell," are a revelation to anyone who would seek to understand the complicated relationship between Dylan's performances and past musics. Taking this argument up to the recent past, Gray's peerless appraisal of Dylan's most recent album, Time Out of Mind, is exciting and in many cases revelatory. His analysis of the song "Highlands" alone is worth the price of the book. Gray's extensive footnotes (which at times occupy the majority of the page they are appended to) function as good footnotes should. They work with the text, as a support for his arguments, and they expand on his statements by referencing the relevant recordings and texts. The nether-trails of recorded music are included here: one could spend an entire lifetime seeking out and listening to the albums listed in the footnotes.

Also, Gray's focus on Dylan in the 80's and 90's is refreshing. With this time-period in clear focus, Gray's work is a nice companion to Clinton Heylin's newly-revised Behind The Shades. These two books represent what is hopefully a new trend in Dylan writing. Instead of miring the man and his influence in the 1960's, Gray takes on Dylan's later periods with great enthusiasm and insight. Gray's most interesting work relates to Dylan's songs from the 80's - his analyses of such songs as "Jokerman," "Angelina," and "Carribean Wind" are essential reading for any Dylan fan who thinks that there are no Dylan songs after either 1966 or 1974 that can match the detailed intensity embodied in mid-60's masterpieces such as "Visions of Johanna," "It's Alright Ma," or "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Gray's writing is refreshing in that he keeps a critical eye on Dylan, citing examples of Dylan's songwriting and performing laziness when such criticisms are called for. Also, unlike so many `Dylanologists,' Gray does not use Dylan as a cipher onto which he projects his own agenda (religious, political, other). Instead, he makes an admirable effort to locate the essence of the works themselves, their meanings and roots, and to outline their development as much as his research will allow. His prose is eminently readable, and he can be funny as well as very serious, depending on what the material calls for.

Sure, at 900+ pages, the book can be intimidating. But it is not a novel, not something meant to be taken in all in one sitting. Perhaps it's not best to even read it from the beginning. Rather, dip into the comprehensive index, and find a term that interests you. I guarantee that you'll be led on several tangents and learn many things about Dylan and his music before you even realize that you're now reading about something entirely different from what you first looked up. Which is to say that the scope of this book is massive, and that anyone with a real interest in music would do well to read it. From Keats to Son House, from Woody Guthrie to Bumps Blackwell, and back to William Blake, this is an incredible feat of scholarship, the product of many years' devotion to understanding the rich and important body of work that Dylan has given us thus far.