The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia is one of the most wide-ranging, informed, entertaining, provocative, and compulsively readable books ever written about popular music. It's the culmination of over thirty years of dedicated research and scholarship by Michael Gray. Inside these pages, you'll find a world of ideas, facts, and opinions. It's a world in which Baudelaire flows on from the Basement Tapes and A.S. Byatt looks out at the Byrds; in which Far from the Madding Crowd follows Ezekiel and Bob Geldof introduces Jean Genet; and in which Hank and William Carlos Williams stand side by side while J.R.R. Tolkien trails the Titanic. Most of all, of course, it's a world in which everyone and everything interconnects, in endlessly fascinating ways, with one of our greatest living artists: Bob Dylan. "Michael Gray... probably Dylan's single most assiduous critic." -New York Review of Books "Fans of Bob Dylan have a multitude of choices when it comes to biographies and retrospectives, but author Michael Gray outdistances them all with this voluminous collection of all things Dylan. ... Insightful and entertaining, Gray's tome will broaden appreciation of the artist, his influences and his legacy." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "...has all you need to know, and more" -Richard Corliss, Time "This is no mere catalog of facts, but a work of oceanic immersion. It has wit, opinion, style, and asks to be read, not just consulted." -Village Voice "Deeply impressive...destined to be the most important Dylan book, bar none."-Gerry Smith, The Dylan Daily "Utterly idiosyncratic." -Janet Maslin, New York Times "Amazingly well-researched and surprisingly readable work." -Library Journal (starred review) "Door-stopping detail." -Toronto Star "Magnificent...won't just astonish readers with its detail about Dylan's work...contains so many insights and refutes so many myths about the rock 'n' roll era in general that it's invaluable as both a reference guide and a personality study." -Nashville City Paper "Comprehensive and up-to-date." -Slate
Author
Michael Gray is a critic, writer, public speaker & broadcaster recognised as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan, and as an expert on rock’n’roll history. He also has a special interest in pre-war blues, and in travel. His latest book, in 3 volumes, is the 50th Anniversary re-publication of his classic pioneering study of Bob Dylan's work, Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan. Instead of the 900+ page 1-volume whopper that has been out of print for over ten years, the new series is published by The FM Press (NYC). Volume 1: Language & Tradition, is out now either from http://amzn.to/43q3MHn or can be ordered from your favourite bookstore, ISBN 979-8-9-9882887-0-1. Michael grew up near Liverpool, England, went to the Cavern, and graduated from the University of York with a BA in History & English in 1967, having interviewed (as a student journalist) the distinguished British historian A.J.P. Taylor and the distinguished American guitarist Jimi Hendrix. His pioneering study Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan, published in the UK in 1972, was the first full-length critical study of Dylan’s work. US and Japanese hardback editions, and a UK paperback, were published in 1973. A second, updated edition was published in 1981 in the UK and 1982 in North America. The massive third edition Song & Dance Man III - including a 112-page study of Dylan’s use of the blues - was published in December 1999 in the UK and early in 2000 in the US. A seventh reprint was issued in 2008, and the book remained in print until late 2010. More: see http://www.michaelgray.net/biography....
