Rating: 
Summary: Midwestern teen turns radio on; world never the same since.
Review: I couldn't disagree more with the disappointed reviewer from New York; where he found this book too academic and removed I found it wonderfully illuminating. Where Paul Williams' writes well about Dylan's performances of the songs, Gray writes brilliantly about the routes to the songs, and the roots of the songs. Far from alienating the listener, Gray is likely to allow you hear more in the songs. His chapters on "Street Legal", "Shot of Love" and the biblical and blues influence in Dylan's mid- and later-period work are not only well researched, but are immensely readable. Gray really does shine a new light on areas or aspects of Dylan's work that have perhaps been overlooked, or glossed over. Dylan himself, over the years, has offered glimpses of his vast and seemingly bottomless knowledge, understanding and love of American music (witness the exchanges with David Gates in the Newsweek interview from a couple of years back). Gray offers the reader a chance to peek into this deep well of song, and in doing so enhances the power of Dylan's writing and singing. Where I found the book weak was in the early chapters, which date from the first edition. Though Gray rigorously footnotes errors or changes of opinion these early chapters feel dated and lacking in depth. Lumpen and leaden they may be, but stick with it; the book takes off when Gray gets the blues. (A quick note on the footnotes: they are copious, packed with information, and offer a map to a treasure trove of long forgotten blues, gospel and folk songs and singers. They are also very often very, very funny.) Gray doesn't attempt to "explain" the songs but he does illuminate them, allowing the reader (and listener) to explore the territory of the songs. "Angelina", "Jokerman" and the three versions of "Caribbean Wind" receive a lot of attention from him, and what he writes (and boy does he write) is fascinating and intelligent, and it made me revisit the songs again and again. This is a great big lump of a book that would be a worthwhile addition to any Dylan fan's library. While there is lots here that will provoke outrage (Gray's merciless, and wickedly funny, skewering of "Empire Burlesque" and "Unplugged" immediately spring to my mind) there is lots here that will delight too. Getting agreement among Dylan fans about which bits are outrageous and which delightful will be hard to do. Which, to me, is high praise for this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: years waiting and so sad
Review: I looked forward to this book being published for years. I bought the hardback copy I am so disappointed. The book is nothing other than meaningless conjecture and analysis (even if it is well researched?). Two decades on and what we have here is a work that is 'just bigger and more extravagant' than the original S&D Man book. This is a shame really from a writer clearly deeply involved in his own passion. God knows what Bob himself would make of this but I would guess not too much. This book is far too long, clearly decades of indulgence. It takes one so far away from the songs and the mastery of Dylan through deep and meaningless wordy drivel, (wrapped -up in a masterful command of English) only to possibly spoil them for listening and enjoment. These songs were writ ten and sung to be listened to not discept, dissect and generally hawk over. Please don't waste your money on this academic extravagance. Go back and read Clinton Heylin and Anthony Scaduto, their frankly better books. It's not unusual for Dylanologists to say more about themselves than about the mystery of Dylan! Better to rake through garbage Weberman style than to profit here.
Rating: 
Summary: Vade mecum, goes all the way from blues to visionary stars..
Review: If asked at the pearly gates, who was the best poet you ever encountered in your days on earth, I would not hesitate to say with great gladness, Bob Dylan, him of the sacred heart. And if Saint Peter pressed me for the best book of cultural criticism I had encountered in relation to poetry and religious vision, I would say Michael Gray's Song & Dance Man 3: the Art of Bob Dylan, and just sit there in mute prayer and lyric praise. This book gives back to the Dylan visionary blues project much of the joy and politics that went into its lifelong creation, see the chapter on Willy Mctell as "Willy Mctell," santa cleopatra there is nothing more to say on these ghostly trails of poesy, love, and theft. I will just give praise and 10 stars if I could.
Rating: 
Summary: this limited-edition collector's item hardback is 994 pages!
Review: In America, only 250 copies are available of this limited-edition collector's item hardback. At over 500,000 words - 994 pages - it took 7 years to write, and cover's Dylan's work thru 1999. Includes a massive study of Dylan's unique use of the blues plus an enormous amount of quotation from his lyrics, shows how hugely those lyrics utilise the Bible, and lines Dylan up not only alongside blues, R&B and rock'n'roll heroes - from Blind Willie McTell to Elvis to punk but also alongside poets from William Blake thru Robert Browning and T.S. Eliot to the Beat Poets. User-friendly, with index and footnotes, this book is designed to be great for casual browsing or sustained reading, and offers a vast amount of detailed research but also, I hope, a sharp wit and a not uncritical eye on one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.
Rating:
Summary: A great, great book!
Review: Song and Dance Man III by Michael Gray is a tremendous book about Bob Dylan and it is bound to become THE essential book on the American singer. It deserves it. Even the front cover is great : no 1965 photo of Dylan there, but a weirdly beautiful one taken in a street of London in July 1993. Look at the face for a few seconds and then you can open the book and delight in the discoveries you'll find in its nearly 1,000 pages. Every chapter is amazingly rich, provocative and a tremendous reading and learning experience. The notes at the bottom of the pages are in themselves another book and the scope and wealth of the information are exceptional. There is, for example, a fantastic chapter about the influence of pre-war blues on Dylan that captivated me. So did the chapters about Dylan's use of the Bible and his interest in nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Michael Gray has two qualities that most of the other writers on Dylan lack : he knows how to write and he knows what he writes about. His style is clear, rich, sharp and funny. Every literary and musical influences of Dylan is revealed. The extraordinary talent and significance of Bob Dylan burst through the pages and make you want to go and listen to all his albums and to all the great music that Dylan has loved and absorbed.
Rating:
Summary: Because something is happening and [we now] know what it is
Review: The importance of this book is of course, the book itself, a 900+ page long overdue critical analysis of Bob Dylan's work. It is inspiring to realize that only Dylan, the Dylan, could receive this kind of treatment -- which is why I picked it up in the first place. Gray struggles with the same issues that myself and many other Dylan fans struggle with. Is Dylan a poet? As good as Keats? An entertainer? With stunning insight & careful research Gray's point is that he's all of the above, sometimes miraculous, ingenious, and witty, sometimes sloppy, maudlin, and cliche. Gray reveals in spades that Bob is at the very least, a genuine, well-read intellectual (The Browning - Homesick Blues connection blew me away)... And that if he had released selected songs throughout the years in little books of poetry he would have the respect he deserves in even the stingiest of critical circles (he would have won the Nobel Prize years ago). But then he just wouldn't be our Bob, he wouldn't have reached & changed the lives of so many, he wouldn't be what he really wants to be, a simple song and dance man.
Rating:
Summary: Because something is happening and [we now] know what it is
Review: The importance of this book is of course, the book itself, a 900+ page long overdue critical analysis of Bob Dylan's work. It is inspiring to realize that only Dylan, the Dylan, could receive this kind of treatment -- which is why I picked it up in the first place. Gray struggles with the same issues that myself and many other Dylan fans struggle with. Is Dylan a poet? As good as Keats? An entertainer? With stunning insight & careful research Gray's point is that he's all of the above, sometimes miraculous, ingenious, and witty, sometimes sloppy, maudlin, and cliche. Gray reveals in spades that Bob is at the very least, a genuine, well-read intellectual (The Browning - Homesick Blues connection blew me away)... And that if he had released selected songs throughout the years in little books of poetry he would have the respect he deserves in even the stingiest of critical circles (he would have won the Nobel Prize years ago). But then he just wouldn't be our Bob, he wouldn't have reached & changed the lives of so many, he wouldn't be what he really wants to be, a simple song and dance man.
Rating:
Summary: a delightful labyrinth
Review: This is a great book. It looks more daunting than it should, because of the size and the lenghty footnotes. M. Gray made an interesting choice when he decided to keep the first chapters as they had been published earlier rather than rewrite them, and they are less rewarding than the more recent work. But it is another sense illuminating, since they give us a way of understanding the evolution of Gray's reading of Dylan. It is in many ways a multi-layered book, so it is only fair that we get the first layers as they were written. By the way, the new chapters illuminate not only Dylan's more recent work, but also the 60's and 70's, specially the long and fascinating chapter on the blues. Despite Gray's more severe views on Dylan's recent work, nobody to my knowledge has made a stronger case for Dylan being the greatest songwriter of the age, even if one takes into account ONLY his work of the 80's and 90's (yes, even if you forget "Desolation Row" and "Tangled up in Blue", and all the others). One of the delights of the book is the in-depth analysis of the use of nursery rhymes and fairy tales in the much-maligned and wonderful "Under the Red Sky". This book promises to be a lasting and rewarding reading. There are pages that, in my view, could have been omitted -- some cheap shots against other leading Dylanologists, some too lenghty attacks against the show-biz world. There are, of course, cases where I don't agree with Gray's judgement. More importantly, there is a general messiness about the book. I find it somewhat annoying, but I like it too: it is maybe a kind of mirror image of Dylan's own messiness and lack of perfectionnism, that is inseparable from his genius. This book is erudite and academic on the one hand, and on the other it is lively, fun, and highly personal. It is the first analysis of Dylan's work to do justice to its awesome richness and complexity. This book is a labyrinth, where it is delightful to get lost, and then to find oneself. I can't wait for the next edition, which in all likelihood will be 2500 pages long.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on Dylan ever
Review: This is the third edition of a classic book. It is a great big all-encompassing tome. In its pages you will find a wealth of knowledge, anecdotes, asides, ...You will find the author's unrivalled insights, his incredible breadth of interests. From the extraordinary detail to the intelligent objective overview, this book has something to offer everyone interested in our culture, not just Dylan afficionados. The Bible, the blues, Folk, poetry - whatever moves and shapes Dylan is explored here, worth every cent!
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