Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan

Biographies & Memoirs

MICHAEL GRAY

Arts & Literature

Hart-Davis, MacGibbon

Song And Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan

Science & Math

ABACUS +

The Lost Wizard (Fantasy Forest)

Random House Children"s Books

Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan\nBob Dylan is the greatest and most controversial star of rock music. Others may have imitated, but Dylan has always led, refusing to be dependent upon the fashions that followed him. There is no single definitive album because Dylan has never stopped; he has remained, alone of the rock stars, a poet whose vision has developed with his life. 
Michael Gray argues that Dylan should not be judged on the strength of a few albums or a few songs; rather that Dylan has given us a coherent, growing body of work that can be discussed alongside that of the finest poets and writers in the English language. He shows - with extensive quotation from the songs - how Dylan has exploited the idioms of contemporary American life, traditional folk and blues, literature and rock music to create a radically new musical awareness: that Dylan 'unchained public taste' and made art possible in pop. 
Besides developing this theme of Dylan's originality and stature the text provides an introduction to and appreciation of his work from 1962 to 1980. It looks at the way Dylan uses language and music through the different songs and albums, at how his vision has changed from Protest Singer to Born Again Christian and illuminates what are the common interests and motifs throughout. Above all it is a book about listening to Dylan; about Bob Dylan's art and an appreciation of that artistry. 
A previous edition, published in 1972, won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.\nMichael Gray has written extensively on music in Britain and American magazines and papers including the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy and New Musical Express. He has also worked inside the music business both for a record company and in artist management. He lives in England.

Song & Dance Man : The Art of Bob Dylan

Hamlyn

By the time he died in 1959, Blind Willie McTell was almost forgotten. He had never had a hit record, and his days of playing on street corners for spare change were long gone. But this masterful guitarist and exquisite singer has since become one of the most loved musicians of the prewar period, spurring Bob Dylan to write, Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.” Now this richly evocative and wide-ranging biography illuminates for the first time the world of this elusive and fascinating figure, a blind man who made light of his disability and a performer who exploded every stereotype about blues musicians. Traveling the back roads of Georgia, interviewing relatives and acquaintances, and digging up fascinating archival material, author Michael Gray weaves together his discoveries to reveal an articulate and resourceful musician with a modest career but a mile-wide independent streak. Whether selling high-quality homemade bootleg whisky out of a suitcase, bragging about crowds of women chasing him, or suffering a stroke while eating barbecue under a tree, McTell emerges from this book a cheerful, outgoing, engaging individualist with seemingly limitless self-confidence. This moving odyssey into a lost world of black music and white power is also an unprecedented portrait of the culture, language, and landscape of the deep South--the violence, the leisurely pace of life--and of the blues preservationists who ventured into its heart. A long, thoughtful stare into the world of Blind Willie McTell, Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes is sure to find a place among the classics of American music history. To learn more about the book, visit www.handmemytravelinshoes.blogspot.com

Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes - In Search of Blind Willie McTell

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes

BLOOMSBURY

Through dazzling illustrations, specially created maps, and compelling photographs, The Elvis Atlas locates our greatest musical icon in his world and his times. It gives us a rare glimpse at the landscape in which Elvis lived, recorded, performed, and made movies, and a unique perspective on the frantic touring schedules of his early years, the hysteria of the fans, the network TV specials, the army, the movies, and the comeback tour of his final years.
Detailed maps and reconstructions, organized in lavish double-page spreads, bring to life the extraordinary story of our greatest cultural phenomenon: The King of Rock and Roll. An indispensable guide for every Elvis fan and for everyone interested in American popular culture, The Elvis Atlas is lavishly illustrated in full-color throughout and filled with unique maps. Elvis's early life at the crossroads of Southern musical culture presented him with an extraordinary variety of musical influences. Through his enormous popularity Elvis brought country, blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues to the mainstream of popular music. In doing so he changed music forever and became the touchstone for all later developments in popular music and culture, worlddwide. But Elvis was the product of a particular time—The Elvis Atlas shows that time and place in a new and facinating light.

The Elvis Atlas

Roger Osborne

Humor & Entertainment

Chartwell Books

Popular music (Bibliography of discographies)

Arts & Photography

Music

Bowker

When Frank Zappa died in 1993, the world lost one of the most popular and iconoclastic figures in the history of rock music. Here Michael Gray documents Zappa's life and work, including his childhood in Maryland and his move to California; the formation in the 1960s of his cult band, The Mothers of Invention; and his untimely death from cancer.

Mother!: The Frank Zappa Story

Plexus Publishing

Mother! Is the Story of Frank Zappa

Proteus Pub Co

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Books by MICHAEL GRAY