FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Craig Danuloff
Full Compliment Publicity & Creative
Press@thefmco.com
New York, New York – June 1, 2023: The FM Press is pleased to announce a new three-part 50th Anniversary series edition of Michael Gray’s Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan
The first edition of Song & Dance Man was the first book to seriously examine the work of Bob Dylan, originating the realm of scholarship that put Dylan on the road to the Nobel prize. Fifty-years and hundreds of Dylan books later, many still consider it one of the very best: Rolling Stone called it “Monumental, endlessly illuminating.” Greil Marcus noted it as: “Extraordinarily useful… I have always admired Gray’s reach, tone, and acuity but the research here is just amazing.” While The Observer, said: “Wonderful… The best book there is on Dylan, now better than ever.”
The original Song & Dance Man covered Dylan’s work through 1970’s Self Portrait, but was expanded in a new edition in 1982, and again in 2000 – growing to over 900 pages and covering Dylan’s work through 1997’s Time Out Of Mind. But Song & Dance Man has been out of print for over a decade, during which time Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize for Literature, continued delivering critically lauded records, and earned a new generation of fans while sustaining older ones in his seventh decade as an artist.
The 50th Anniversary Series puts every word of Song & Dance Man back into print, but in an accessible three-volume format:
- VOLUME 1: Language & Tradition – Explores the ways that Dylan’s early writing relates to folk music, blues, rock and mainstream literature. This is the groundbreaking approach to Dylan as an artist rather than a folk-singer or a pop star that earned the book’s early reviews & reputation.
- VOLUME 2: Yonder Comes Sin – Digs into Dylan’s turn to ‘gospel period’ that began with 1979’s Slow Train and then continues his penetrating analysis through the 1980s work including Shot of Love, Infidels, Empire Burlesque, Under The Red Sky and Oh Mercy. This book also contains a deep look at the celebrated outtake ‘Blind Willie McTell’. These are periods of Dylan’s work that have been widely re-evaluated and have seen extensive re-releases and expansions with Volume’s 13 and 16 of Dylan’s Bootleg Series
- VOLUME 3: World Gone Right – Explores Dylan’s 1990s work, including a defense of “Under The Red Sky”, a history of the folk & blues covers albums, a re-assessment of “Time Out Of Mind” and an overview of Dylan’s artistry. Published November 15, 2023
What makes this text special is the incredible clarity of insight and thoughtful analysis Gray offers, putting Dylan’s work in context of many other great works of art, and forming a comprehensive portrait of Dylan’s enduring appeal and artistic splendor. As Salon.com wrote: ‘…to study some of the finest work found in American song… requires someone with the boldness and the breadth of knowledge shown by Michael Gray, whose hefty study… puts the bulk of rock-crit writing about Dylan to shame.’
Review copies of Song & Dance Man are available in digital format at this time, and Michael Gray is available for interview now. For more information on this incredible 50th Anniversary release, please reach out to Press@thefmco.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Gray is a critic, writer, public speaker & broadcaster recognized as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan, and as an expert in Rock ‘n’ Roll history. He is the author of Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Outtakes on Bob Dylan: Selected writings 1967-2021, Mother! The Story of Frank Zappa, Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell, and others. He has spoken at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, at Universities across Europe and the US, and had written work published in Rolling Stone, The Times, and others.
THE SONG & DANCE MAN PODCAST SERIES
The Song & Dance Man – 50th Anniversary Series podcast offers an in-depth discussion of each chapter in each book. The podcasts are running as part of the Dylan.FM Podcast with free/public versions of each episode available to anyone via all podcast platforms. There are extended versions of each episode available to book buyers and FM+ or Premium subscribers. For more podcast details click here.
FULL PRAISE FOR SONG & DANCE MAN
“Monumental, endlessly illuminating.” – ROLLING STONE
“The definitive critical work.” – EVENING STANDARD, London
“Extraordinarily useful… I have always admired Gray’s reach, tone, and acuity but the research here is just amazing.” – GREIL MARCUS
“Serious Dylan criticism… intricate analyses monumental.” – SUNDAY TIMES, London
“Michael Gray… probably Dylan’s single most assiduous critic.” – NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
“Song & Dance Man lIl is probably the greatest book about the work of a single popular musician ever to have been published.” – LONDON REVIEW BOOKSHOP
“Immense and immensely illuminating… It is wonderfully comic and serious and sharp. I am enjoying it hugely and learning from every page.” – CHRISTOPHER RICKS, author of “Visions of Sin”
“It is the most penetrating and clear-headed work on his work ever done – a monumental achievement.” – DAVID HAJDU, author of “Positively 4th Street”
“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
“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 his.” – THE TIMES, London
‘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
“Wonderful… The best book there is on Dylan, now better than ever.” – THE OBSERVER
‘Michael Gray’s Song & Dance Man… has grown across three decades and as many editions into a comprehensive critical companion.’ – BOSTON GLOBE