Product Description

Language & Tradition (The 50th Anniversary Series) by Michael Gray

Please Note: Published by The FM Press, these books are printed to order so there will be a short lag between customer orders and dispatch.

After being out of print for a while, Michael Gray’s classic book, Song & Dance Man, is now again available as a three-volume set. The series, which marks the 50th Anniversary of the original edition, reprints the full contents of the monumental 900-page Song & Dance Man III. Although the content is the same as Song & Dance Man III, the order of material has been rearranged for these three paperback books.

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.

This first volume contains the foundational and timeless analysis that made this book a classic – looking at how Dylan’s writing and performance set in the folk and literary traditions and how it compared to other efforts to write rock and pop songs. It deeply inspects and discusses Dylan’s use of language, both his early bursts of complexity and his later move towards simplicity.

Included is a special review of the song ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune’ which Gray finds particularly effective and impressive, and an over 100-page chapter detailed Dylan’s fascination with and use of the pre-war blues.

The 50th Anniversary Series will continue in Volumes 2 and 3:

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.

Generations of listeners have turned to Song & Dance Man to more deeply understand and appreciate Dylan’s work and unique creativity. Now you can too.