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13/01/2006

Your favourite critical study of Dylan – Gray, Ricks, Hinchey, Scobie…?

What’s your favourite critical study of Dylan’s work? When reader HAR asked that question of The Dylan Daily, I replied: Michael Gray… and… (emails below).

But do you agree? Your opinions will be welcomed (editorial@dylandaily.com). Please remember – HAR asked about critical studies, not biographies or general books about Bob.


* Reader enquiry, from HAR:

“Have been enjoying your site since I found it in November. Hope you can help with my inquiry.

“Been trying to read Michael Gray's Song and Dance Man III, but find it tough going. (I have an MA in English and have plowed through much turgid lit/crit.) Is it worth the struggle? Do you have some recommendations on good Dylan books, especially dealing with the work, not the life?”




* Reply by Gerry Smith, Editor, The Dylan Daily:

“Thanks for your comments.

“I'm keen on Michael Gray's book, though I can sympathise with those who wish it had been more heavily edited. (The same can be said of Thomas Hardy's work, though!)

“Notwithstanding the fondness for footnotes, the rich analysis of Michael Gray's book strikes a match in me. It's a summation of half a lifetime's careful listening, study and contemplation by an original thinker and gifted writer - a fitting celebration of a peerless body of work.

“Gray's three editions have been instrumental in establishing the enormous scope of Dylan's achievement. So, if I had to choose only one Dylan book for the desert island, it would probably be Gray's Song & Dance Man III.

“For those who find it hard going, though, there's a very good recent alternative: Christopher Ricks's Dylan's Visions Of Sin is high-powered lit crit by a master of the art. It's not without its nay-sayers, but I hold it in very high regard.

“I also like John Hinchey's criticism in Like A Complete Unknown, covering the albums to 1969, the first volume in a projected series. And Stephen Scobie's Alias Bob Dylan Revisited, a po-mo analysis, though narrower in scope than Gray or Ricks, is also a stimulating read.”

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