SONG & DANCE MAN is an established classic, available again for Dylan fans and scholars alike on the 50th Anniversary of the original edition. The work in these three volumes has been lavishly praised by reviewers and readers world-wide for over five decades.

Author Michael Gray is recognized as a world authority on the work and career of Bob Dylan; he was the first to consider Dylan’s writing as worthy of treatment as serious art. As author K G Miles said: “People forget that the road to the Nobel Prize was very long, took many years, and began with that book; it began with Michael Gray.”

Song & Dance Man is unique in its scope, integrating biographical, literary and musical contexts into a powerful scrutiny of Dylan as songwriter and performer.

• VOLUME 1: Language & Tradition – Approaches Dylan as an artist rather than a folk-singer or a star, exploring how his early writing relates to folk music, blues, rock and mainstream literature.
• VOLUME 2: Yonder Comes Sin – Centers around Dylan’s move to Born Again Christianity and beyond, this volume studies albums including Slow Train Coming and Oh Mercy plus celebrated outtake ‘Blind Willie McTell’.
• VOLUME 3: World Gone Right – Explores Dylan’s 1990s work, including a defence 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.

“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