"SONG & DANCE MAN: The Art of Bob Dylan" is unique in its scope, integrating biographical, literary and musical contexts into a powerful scrutiny of Dylan as songwriter and performer. This is Volume 1 of the new series celebrating 50 Years since the First Edition's release. The makes available again the complete out-of-print text of Song & Dance Man III. 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.” Volume 1 - 'Language and Tradition' contains the foundational and timeless analysis that made this title a classic - looking at how Dylan's writing and performance were influenced by folk music, rock music, and literature. 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 also includes Volumes 2 and 3: VOLUME 2: Language and Tradition – centers on Dylan's late 1970s move to Born Again Christianity and studies his 1980s albums from Slow Train Coming to Oh Mercy plus special looks at some outtakes from these records such as Groom Still Waiting At The Alter. It also includes a chapter devoted to the celebrated "Infidels" outtake 'Blind Willie McTell'. - VOLUME 3: World Gone Right – Explores Dylan’s 1990s work, including a defense of “Under The Red Sky”, a history of the folk & blues covers albums Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong, an extensive analysis and ultimately a re-assessment of “Time Out Of Mind” - plus and an overview of Dylan’s rise, fall, and rise in terms of his artistry. The work in these three volumes has been called “Monumental, endlessly illuminating.” (Rolling Stone) “Probably the greatest book about the work of a single popular musician ever to have been published.” (London Review Bookshop) and "The definitive critical work." (Evening Standard). The 50th Anniversary Series makes this classic book obtainable again after over a decade out-of-print. It contains no new material but rather turns the contents of the 3rd edition into three new volumes. 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. ROLLING STONE: "Monumental, endlessly illuminating." GREIL MARCUS: "Extraordinarily useful... I have always admired Gray's reach, tone, and acuity but the research here is just amazing." SUNDAY TIMES, London: "Serious Dylan criticism... intricate analyses... monumental." EVENING STANDARD, London: "The definitive critical work." LONDON REVIEW BOOKSHOP: "Song & Dance Man III is probably the greatest book about the work of a single popular musician ever to have been published. " CHRISTOPHER RICKS, author of Dylan's Visions of Sin: "Immense and immensely illuminating... It is wonderfully comic and serious and sharp. I am enjoying it hugely and learning from every page." DAVID HADJU, author of Positively 4 th Street: "It is the most penetrating and clear-headed work on his work ever done - a monumental achievement." STEPHEN SCOBIE, University of Victoria, Canada & author of Alias Bob Dylan: "Indispensable... His research is formidable, and his knowledge encyclopedic... great cogency, confidence and authority... a quite splendid critic... Gray can explain how the text [of a song] works poetically. It's a rare gift:... [his] expositions of 'Every Grain of Sand', 'Angelina', 'Jokerman' and 'Under the Red Sky' are utterly definitive... at the heart of this book is some of the finest critical writing ever done about Bob Dylan." AIDAN DAY, Professor of English, Edinburgh University: "This brilliant work establishes itself at once as the book on its subject, the one to which all those in the field will refer for many years to come." THE TIMES, London: "In examining the influences that shaped Dylan into one of the most influential postwar artists, Gray draws on everyone from Elvis to Eliot, Robert Johnson to Rimbaud... This huge work is overwhelming... 'It's all been written in the book,' sang Bob Dylan. Now it really has." LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: "The last word on Dylan is neither possible nor desirable... perhaps the closest that anyone has come... is Michael Gray in his awesome and encyclopedic Song & Dance Man, currently in its third, extensively revised edition." Q, London: "This book is an event... delivering prodigious analyses of Dylan's artistry and his polymath sources in pre- war blues, nursery rhymes, fairy tales and Hollywood movie dialogue... Gra