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Michael Gray

@michaelgray1.bsky.social
480 followers 123 following 352 posts

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.

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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Sat Oct 10, 3pm: my event at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival 2026: a talk with audio and footage: WHICH BOB DYLAN CAME TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT? Northwood House, Cowes, IOW. tickets: www.ticketsource.com/isle-of-wigh...
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Snow Raven is a member of the shamanic Sakha people from Arctic Siberia. Her amazing voice takes its breath from traditional Sakha culture and is truly an instrument. Original post
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
😕
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Séamus Reilly @ewzername.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Like Bob Dylan? Like Westerns? The Gunfighter is on Film 4 this week, Wednesday 17.00, Saturday 11.00 youtu.be/9FaUx-Re8i0?...
youtu.be
Bob Dylan - Brownsville Girl (Official Audio)
YouTube video by BobDylanVEVO
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It's no wonder only three men, three women and a dog are on BlueSky - it takes ten times as long to load a photo as on any other platform. Why is it so feeble?
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
UPDATE: a link that works! WHICH BOB DYLAN CAME TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT? talk with audio and footage Sat Oct 10, Northwood House, Cowes, Isle of Wight www.ticketsource.com/isle-of-wigh...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The link to buy tickets for this has malfunctioned. If you'd like to come, please try this link for tickets: www.ticketsource.com/isle-of-wigh...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Somehow the link the festival itself gave me does NOT work for buying tickets... apologies to those who have tried. Please try again using THIS link, which actually DOES work... www.ticketsource.com/isle-of-wigh...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
WHICH BOB DYLAN CAME TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT? Talk with audio and footage at this year's Isle of Wight Literary Festival: My one remaining live event of the year. Tickets now on sale at www.ticketsource.com/booking/sele... If you see me, say hello...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This morning, with Iris, almost in Spain...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I turn 80 years old today: a challenging idea for me to accept. But I am very glad to be alive, and still able to work. (I shall be speaking at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival on October 10th). I'm deeply to many people for their support over the decades, especially to my family and wife Sarah.
19662026
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Our house is for sale, and in French Property News this month; contact www.frenchestateagents.com/.../giles-ti...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I loved this film when it was new (I saw it on a big screen in York in 1966) - and it was so very modern. I saw it again 40+ years later, expecting the worst... but it seemed to me it held its head up pretty well:
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Very pleased to be giving a presentation - talk with video and audio - here:
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Harold Lepidus @hlepidus.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
A heartwarming story www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ab... ..
youtube.com
Glen Hansard meets Van Morrison
YouTube video by bannedfromchina
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
In a recent issue of London Review of Books, I saw this - 'Jewish Restaurant, Brick Lane [London]', by Pearl Binder, 1931 - and thought how much the waiter looked like 1970 Bob Dylan:
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
My "Bob Dylan Encyclopedia" (750,000 words) was first published in the UK and Europe 20 years ago today: 12 July 2006. I was thrilled to see it out into the world, and never more so than when I saw this photograph of Seamus Heaney holding a copy:
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Is there any tech wizard out there who could make WAVs or mp3s of just 2 tracks from this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOoj... ie Under The Red Sky and I Shall Be Released? And if so, please can that person message me? I ask because - and it's very rare - the vocals are high enough in the mix!
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dylyricus @dylyricus.com · 28/06/2026
Feel like my eyes Are two pieces of broken glass Well I'm standin' in the shadows Waitin' for the parade to pass Feel like the hand of fate Has jammed its finger in my eye I'm in the land of the lost Where dreams come to die Not Dark Yet, take 1 Bob Dylan
youtube.com
Bob Dylan - Not Dark Yet (Version 1)
YouTube video by BobDylanVEVO
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
45 YEARS AGO TODAY: updated edition of my Dylan book; this one reversed the title to THE ART OF BOB DYLAN: Song & Dance Man; published Hamlyns in simultaneous hardback and paperback. (US edition came a year later.) The main appeal of this 2nd edition was its far greater use of photographs.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
First US hardback edition of THE BOB DYLAN ENCYCLOPEDIA was published 20 years ago today (June 15) in NYC. If you bought that edition, it included this CD-Rom of the whole 750,000-word text.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Remarkable that he should alight on this - but more remarkable is the way that you can quite clearly hear that Basement Tapes spirit in the voice: that 'Apple Suckling Tree' mood and sound. I'm thrilled by this and need a complete recording, and not made from alongside a moron who needs the toilet
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I've long assumed "passed away" to be an irritating modern euphemism; but in Rebecca West's 'Return of the Soldier' I find this exchange: "[He] passed away twelve years ago." "Good God, can't you say he *died?*" Her novel was published in 1918.
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Bradley Morgan @bradleymorgan.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Today marks one year since the publication of my book “Frank Zappa’s America,” & I’m grateful for all the support I received from friends & readers this past year. Frank’s musical legacy is inseparable from his politics, & it was a privilege to document why he still matters decades after his death.
“Frank Zappa’s America” by Bradley Morgan
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Have just finished J.G. Farrell's wonderful novel "The Siege of Krishnapur" (1973). Hard to pin down what makes this such a great book. The author's humane, thoughtful, calm personality glows unobtrusively in the background. He's great at Victorian tech, at characters and building a compelling plot.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
13 days ago I lit the sitting-room fire in the evening; since then, a heatwave every day: very close to 40 degrees by mid-afternoon. But it could be worse. This is the view when I'm sitting at lunch on the terrace. But our house is for sale; if, like me, you work from home, you could buy it...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I'm one of the talking heads on this edition - this afternoon in you're in the UK and afterwards anywhere on whatever the BBC now calls Listen Again:
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Route @routebooks.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
OTD in 1964, Bob Dylan recorded 3 songs for the Hallelujah TV show at the Capitol Building in Didsbury, Manchester. The story of the recording evocatively opens CP Lee's book Like the Night. Here's one of the songs recorded that day: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN5V...
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
I first saw Bob Dylan live 60 years ago today - Liverpool 1966: youtu.be/CL_5amBcS-s?...
youtu.be
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Liverpool 1966 Bob Dylan
YouTube video by Guitars Kissing
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Three years ago today I was pleased to deliver a talk at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa OK:
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Little Richard died six years ago today. Here's my obituary of him: www.theguardian.com/music/2020/m...
theguardian.com
Little Richard obituary
Prime force of rock’n’roll who made an explosive impact with songs such as Tutti Frutti, Good Golly, Miss Molly, Lucille and Long Tall Sally
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Hubert Sumlin: a favourite electric guitarist (along with Freddy Koella and Robbie Robertson):
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Johnny Borgan @johnnyborgan.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock - If You Were A Bluebird youtu.be/0xOQN_5AgXs?...
youtu.be
Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock - If You Were A Bluebird
YouTube video by Steven Swinnea
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
This is wonderful (as is the version from Newcastle that year, which has the advantage of close-up footage of his face and guitar):
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Along with the Rev. Malcolm Guite, I shall be on the BBC Radio 4 "faith" programme Beyond Belief on Sunday May 19, discussing Bob Dylan, his Jewishness and Christianity, and his career-long resourceful use of biblical text. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - Beyond Belief
Series exploring the place and nature of faith in today's world
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I'm very pleased to have accepted an invitation to speak at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival on Saturday October 10. Skeletal details are on my website: www.michaelgray.net It will be my first time on the island since, er, 1969...
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The Blues List @theblueslist.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Furry Lewis - Turn Your Money Green youtu.be/tgLVe95ngMc?... Recorded live at The Gaslight New York August 1971 From his 1971 album Live At The Gaslight At The Au Go Go
youtu.be
Furry Lewis Turn Your Money Green Live At The Gaslight
YouTube video by LivinTheBlues
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Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
This is incredible.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
It's still maimed by the dodginess of "first step was touching the moon", but it's a more heartfelt protest song than Dylan manages: and more poignant, because he omits the bridge altogether and because he finds that lovely, straightorwardly descending melody for the repeated title line:
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Here's an interview Andrew Muir did with me. It's old but says a lot about music I grew up with, first hearing Dylan, changing tech & the freelance writer's life, writing unheeding people's opinions, my books and more besides. It's a short scroll down this page: www.michaelgray.net/interviews.h...
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Dag B @dagb.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
🎵 You lost your ring and wallet, and it's Easter time, too 🎵
Memphis '66
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
My favourite Chip Taylor track - a radical revisit to a Blonde On Blonde song: youtu.be/vOwNGzBTgWw?...
youtu.be
Chip Taylor - One of Us Must Know ( Sooner or Later )
YouTube video by Meltem A.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Love the couplet he sticks in in the middle: "Anything you ask me, you know I'm willin' I just sho can't be Bob Dylan."
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Ray Padgett @raypadgett.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
New interview: I spoke to rare record dealer Jeff Gold about Dylan collecting and his work appraising the Bob Dylan archives before its sale to Tulsa
flaggingdown.com
Appraising Bob Dylan's Private Archives
An interview with rare record collector, dealer, and archivist Jeff Gold
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Yes, but, it being too late to still be saying the world IS going wrong, Bob updated that by putting in the past tense: the more current World GONE Wrong.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Gorgeous song when Bob does it - and never better than the version on the b-side of the Watching The River Flow single (and so marvellously different, later: the live version from Texas):
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David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Fake news, thankfully. But agree!
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Very sorry indeed to learn of Pete Frame's death. He made a unique and brilliant contribution to the study of rock music and its history.
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Michael Gray @michaelgray1.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
His wondrous first single, made on the portable (but not very portable) equipment brought to Atlanta GA by Ralph S. Peers, back when Atlanta had no studio of its own:
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