Michael Gray
@michaelgray1.bsky.social
I wrote the 1st critical study of Bob Dylan's work, over 50 years ago. And I'm still alive. Very fond of dogs. I'm English and regard myself as European.
A 1965 interviewer tells Bob Dylan he prefers caruso as a singer. Dylan replies: "I happen to be as good as him... and can hold my breath three times as long if I have to." He'd proved that last claim five years earlier, at age 19, as the "Window" release shows on his 1960 'East Virginia Blues'.
November 7, 2025 at 8:29 PM
A 1965 interviewer tells Bob Dylan he prefers caruso as a singer. Dylan replies: "I happen to be as good as him... and can hold my breath three times as long if I have to." He'd proved that last claim five years earlier, at age 19, as the "Window" release shows on his 1960 'East Virginia Blues'.
TOMORROW NIGHT!
Friday Sept 26, 8pm
The Séamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Dublin:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Friday Sept 26, 8pm
The Séamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Dublin:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
September 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
TOMORROW NIGHT!
Friday Sept 26, 8pm
The Séamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Dublin:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Friday Sept 26, 8pm
The Séamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Dublin:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
This Friday - September 26, 8pm at Naul, Dublin:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
September 21, 2025 at 12:22 PM
This Friday - September 26, 8pm at Naul, Dublin:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Two weeks today, just outside Dublin, Ireland. Why not come over?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
I'm returning to The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre stage, to give this new talk with audio & footage:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
I'm returning to The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre stage, to give this new talk with audio & footage:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
September 12, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Two weeks today, just outside Dublin, Ireland. Why not come over?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
I'm returning to The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre stage, to give this new talk with audio & footage:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
I'm returning to The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre stage, to give this new talk with audio & footage:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Published in Japan 52 years ago yesterday:
August 26, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Published in Japan 52 years ago yesterday:
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
Seamus Heaney Arts Centre, Sept 26, 8pm: talk with audio & footage: for anyone young, is 84-year-old Bob Dylan now just a historical figure? What history might he embody? Why he might matters In two halves with an interval.
Tickets:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Seamus Heaney Arts Centre, Sept 26, 8pm: talk with audio & footage: for anyone young, is 84-year-old Bob Dylan now just a historical figure? What history might he embody? Why he might matters In two halves with an interval.
Tickets:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
August 20, 2025 at 3:40 PM
IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?
Seamus Heaney Arts Centre, Sept 26, 8pm: talk with audio & footage: for anyone young, is 84-year-old Bob Dylan now just a historical figure? What history might he embody? Why he might matters In two halves with an interval.
Tickets:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Seamus Heaney Arts Centre, Sept 26, 8pm: talk with audio & footage: for anyone young, is 84-year-old Bob Dylan now just a historical figure? What history might he embody? Why he might matters In two halves with an interval.
Tickets:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
It's already 2 years since the 50th Anniversary edition!
Actually this 3-volume 2023 edition doesn't reprint the first but the 3rd, final version of the book: the 630,000-word "Song & Dance Man III" published UK at the end of C20, 2000 in the USA. And the text below is taken from its preface:
Actually this 3-volume 2023 edition doesn't reprint the first but the 3rd, final version of the book: the 630,000-word "Song & Dance Man III" published UK at the end of C20, 2000 in the USA. And the text below is taken from its preface:
August 11, 2025 at 7:41 AM
It's already 2 years since the 50th Anniversary edition!
Actually this 3-volume 2023 edition doesn't reprint the first but the 3rd, final version of the book: the 630,000-word "Song & Dance Man III" published UK at the end of C20, 2000 in the USA. And the text below is taken from its preface:
Actually this 3-volume 2023 edition doesn't reprint the first but the 3rd, final version of the book: the 630,000-word "Song & Dance Man III" published UK at the end of C20, 2000 in the USA. And the text below is taken from its preface:
Out now: the summer 2025 edition, including a short new piece of mine linking early C19 poetry, Thomas Hardy, Rabbit Brown and Bob: thedylanreview.org
August 6, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Out now: the summer 2025 edition, including a short new piece of mine linking early C19 poetry, Thomas Hardy, Rabbit Brown and Bob: thedylanreview.org
"IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?"
The one talk I'm giving later this year (embedded with audio & footage) is at a great small venue outside Dublin in late September. Tickets are on sale now:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
The one talk I'm giving later this year (embedded with audio & footage) is at a great small venue outside Dublin in late September. Tickets are on sale now:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
July 29, 2025 at 7:22 AM
"IS BOB DYLAN NOW HISTORY?"
The one talk I'm giving later this year (embedded with audio & footage) is at a great small venue outside Dublin in late September. Tickets are on sale now:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
The one talk I'm giving later this year (embedded with audio & footage) is at a great small venue outside Dublin in late September. Tickets are on sale now:
tseac.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
Our splendid dog Iris, this afternoon:
July 25, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Our splendid dog Iris, this afternoon:
And then it adds this:
July 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
And then it adds this:
It's referring there to the multi-thousand word critique of the "Rough & Rowdy Ways" album published in my book OUTTAKES ON BOB DYLAN, which this year came out in paperback and looks like this:
July 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
It's referring there to the multi-thousand word critique of the "Rough & Rowdy Ways" album published in my book OUTTAKES ON BOB DYLAN, which this year came out in paperback and looks like this:
Maybe that Meta AI isn't so bad after all:
July 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Maybe that Meta AI isn't so bad after all:
Look out across the fields...
Gazing out the window
6.30 this morning:
Gazing out the window
6.30 this morning:
June 28, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Look out across the fields...
Gazing out the window
6.30 this morning:
Gazing out the window
6.30 this morning:
I finished writing the 630,000 words of "Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan" 26 years ago today.
Images: hardback; 1st paperback edition; 2004 paperback reprint; and, I'm grateful to see, Irish poet Paul Muldoon with a copy; plus the 2023 three-volume paperback republication:
Images: hardback; 1st paperback edition; 2004 paperback reprint; and, I'm grateful to see, Irish poet Paul Muldoon with a copy; plus the 2023 three-volume paperback republication:
June 15, 2025 at 9:25 AM
I finished writing the 630,000 words of "Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan" 26 years ago today.
Images: hardback; 1st paperback edition; 2004 paperback reprint; and, I'm grateful to see, Irish poet Paul Muldoon with a copy; plus the 2023 three-volume paperback republication:
Images: hardback; 1st paperback edition; 2004 paperback reprint; and, I'm grateful to see, Irish poet Paul Muldoon with a copy; plus the 2023 three-volume paperback republication:
BBC-TV's 3-part series "Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius" is exceptionally good (in spite of a couple of irritating talking heads). When I was at school, Austen was taught as an unexplained old novelist to be venerated. What this series does so well is emphasise, and prove, how very radical she was.
June 2, 2025 at 2:22 PM
BBC-TV's 3-part series "Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius" is exceptionally good (in spite of a couple of irritating talking heads). When I was at school, Austen was taught as an unexplained old novelist to be venerated. What this series does so well is emphasise, and prove, how very radical she was.
Seen by my spies in Exeter, Devon:
June 1, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Seen by my spies in Exeter, Devon:
As Bob Dylan turns 84 on Saturday, I ask:
May 19, 2025 at 1:32 PM
As Bob Dylan turns 84 on Saturday, I ask:
As Bob Dylan turns 84 this coming Saturday, I ask:
May 19, 2025 at 1:31 PM
As Bob Dylan turns 84 this coming Saturday, I ask: