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Michael Gray is a critic, writer & broadcaster recognised as a world authority on the work of Bob Dylan, and is an expert on rock’n’roll history and the blues, with a special interest in pre-war blues.
He grew up on Merseyside, went to The Cavern, studied History & English Literature at York University, including under the controversial, brilliant critic F. R. Leavis, and as a student journalist interviewed A. J. P. Taylor and Jimi Hendrix.
His pioneering study Song & Dance Man, published in the 1972, was the first full-length critical study of Dylan’s work. A second, updated edition was published in 1981. The massive third edition Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan - 994 pages, including a 112-page study of Dylan’s use of the blues - was published a fortnight before the end of the 20th Century (and in 2000 in the US). Still selling, a seventh reprint was issued in February 2008.
In 1985 he published Mother! The Story of Frank Zappa, updated editions of which came out 1986, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2003 and 2007; a selection of pieces on Dylan, All Across The Telegraph: A Bob Dylan Handbook, was co-edited by Gray in 1987, and in 1996 he co-authored The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley’s America, published in hardback in New York by Henry Holt’s Reference Books Division.
He has given talks for the Institute for Folklore Studies in Great Britain & Canada, the Northern Ireland Arts Council, at York, Exeter & Liverpool Universities and Goldsmiths College, London, and at conventions in Austria, Manchester & Leicester. In Spring 2005 he was the Mary Amelia Cummins Harvey Visiting Fellow Commoner at Girton College, Cambridge, and was the closing speaker at the University of Minnesota’s Bob Dylan Symposium in 2007. Since 2000 he has given over 60 talks at arts festivals, literary festivals and arts centres on the topics ‘Bob Dylan & the History of Rock’n’Roll’ and ‘Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues’ - talks that are more like one-man shows than lectures - including at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.
His work has been published in Melody Maker, Let It Rock, Creem, Rolling Stone, The Times, Literary Review, Independent, Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Weekend Telegraph, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Telegraph, Canadian Folklore Canadien and many other journals. He is a Guardian obituarist for tennis players and major figures in rock’n’roll.
His vast book The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, published by Continuum in New York in 2006 (paperback 2008) won the International Association of Music Libraries’ C.B. Oldman Prize for an outstanding work of reference and research. The first investigative biography of pre-war bluesman Blind Willie McTell, Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes: In Seach of Blind Willie McTell, which is also part travelogue, was published by Bloomsbury in 2007 (paperback 2008) and was shortlisted for the 2008 James Tait Black Prize for Biography. Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes will be published in the US by Chicago Review Press on September 1 (2009).
Michael lives in South-West France with food-writer Sarah Beattie.
List of articles in the library by artist
Brian Auger: Straight Ahead Again
Interview by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, July 1974
Maggie Bell: Queen Of The Night
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, April 1974
Tony Bennett : Hi-De-Hi-Me To The Moon: Tony Bennett At Butlins
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, December 1990
Buzzcocks, The : The Buzzcocks: The Other One Speaks!
Interview by Michael Gray, ZigZag, May 1979
Byrds, The : Roger McGuinn and Country Rock: Older Than Yesterday
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, January 1975
Eric Clapton : Eric Suits Himself: Clapton At Birmingham NEC Arena
Live Review by Michael Gray, The Times, 1990
Joe Cocker: I Can Stand A Little Rain
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, November 1974
Bob Dylan: Blood On The Tracks
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, April 1975
Bob Dylan: Dylan
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, April 1974
Bob Dylan : Dylan Opens New European Tour
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, April 2002
Bob Dylan : From Rock to Acid Rock
Essay by Michael Gray, International Times, October 1968
Bob Dylan : Is It Rolling Bob?: A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan
Review by Michael Gray, Observer Music Monthly, August 2004
Bob Dylan : On the trail of the Bobcat: Bob Dylan
Live Review by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, April 2002
Everly Brothers, The : The Everly Brothers: Creators Of Country Pop
Retrospective by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, November 1973
Jimi Hendrix: How Rock Society Blew Another Mind
Essay by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, February 1974
Jimi Hendrix : Knight Life: Curtis Knight
Report by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
Incredible String Band, The : Incredible String Band: York University, York
Live Review by Michael Gray, Rolling Stone, August 1969
Curtis Knight : Knight Life: Curtis Knight
Report by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
John Lennon : Dead Aid/Instant Bad Karma By The Mersey: The John Lennon Memorial Concert, Pier Head, Liverpool
Report by Michael Gray, The Times, May 1990
Jerry Lee Lewis - The Session
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, July 1973
Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Glorified Magnified/Man: Live At The Padget Rooms, Penarth
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, December 1972
Roger McGuinn and Country Rock: Older Than Yesterday
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, January 1975
Don McLean: Don McLean
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, March 1973
Joni Mitchell: For The Roses
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, March 1973
Van Morrison: TB Sheets
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
Roy Orbison: 1960's Man Of Integrity
Profile by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, March 1974
Elvis Presley : 25% Of The King: Col. Tom Parker
Obituary by Michael Gray, The Guardian, January 1997
Elvis Presley: Revolt Into Style
Essay by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, March 1974
Elvis Presley : He Made Old Men's Blues Sound Young: Remembering Elvis
Comment by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
Elvis Presley : Memphis Still Sings The Blues
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
John Prine: Sweet Revenge
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, January 1973
Doug Sahm: Groovers Paradise
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, December 1974
Buffy Sainte-Marie : Buffy St Marie: The Best Of Buffy Sainte-Marie Volume 2 (Vanguard)/Buffy (MCA)
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, June 1974
Slade: Sladest
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, December 1973
Frank Zappa 1940-1993
Obituary by Michael Gray, Daily Mail, December 1993
Frank Zappa: Outrage And Invention
Profile by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, July 1974
Frank Zappa : The Double Life Of Frank Zappa, List of genre pieces East Coast Lives: The Rockin' Chiropodist
Profile and Interview by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, September 1992
Profile by Michael Gray,
Rail Good Lesson in the Blues
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, October 2004
Robert Palmer
Obituary by Michael Gray, The Guardian, December 1997
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