Michael Gray’s Outtakes On Bob Dylan reviewed in ISIS magazine by Seth Rogovoy.
Some other order options
Outtakes On Bob Dylan Reviewed By Seth Rogovoy
Tag Archives: Review
Outtakes On Bob Dylan by Michael Gray Now on General Release
Outtakes On Bob Dylan by Michael Gray is now on general release and is available in all major outlets, with free shipping options.
Here are some order links:
Kindle Edition UK | US | CA | FR | DE | NL | ES | IT | AU | JP | MX | IN | BR |
The book was initially published in a collector’s numbered edition, five months ahead of general publication. Here are a selection of early readers’ responses to the book.
‘I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Reading it is like having the world’s largest box of chocolates to dip in to (but without the coffee creme one you dislike)… I read and read and read until I ran out of pages! It has deepened my appreciation of Bob Dylan. It is wonderful to experience that.’
‘An absorbing and characteristically provocative read. Staggering attention to textual and performance detail throughout.’
‘If you buy one book on Bob this year, buy this. It’s wonderful. Follow Michael Gray’s obsession (in the best sense of the word) from his student days to Rough And Rowdy Ways.’
‘Just finished reading Outtakes On Bob Dylan about two hours ago. I’ve enjoyed the book immensely. So many interesting articles and so well written. The writing really is a cut above the others. I particularly loved the article on Christmas In The Heart and the pieces on the 1978 concerts. And the final chapter is monumental: by far the best piece of writing yet on Rough And Rowdy Ways.’
‘A really cracking miscellany – honest, forthright and compelling. I enjoyed this immensely!’
‘I thought it was great. Best fun I’ve had reading a BD book for years. Many great pieces but I loved the Blood on the Tracks, 16 Years and Chelsea Hotel sections especially and the R&R Ways essay was terrific. Lots of acute observations, all of them anchored by MG’s various, sometimes hilarious, always well-described misgivings, distastes and scepticisms as to the whole Bob industry. I didn’t agree with everything (the Xmas album for one) but, in the end, it amounts to the best argued case for our ongoing pleasure, awe and respect. A huge boost to the author’s authority.’
‘Relaxing in the summerhouse with [Michael Gray’s Outtakes] and a few hours of blissful solitude dipping in and out of his great great tome of essays appreciating detail, honesty & knowledge. His love of Dylan’s artistry shines through but it’s real, raw and not sugar-coated.’
‘The book was a great pleasure. The writing was consistently fine and the various articles, in addition to being endlessly interesting and often very funny (the Stockholm account is hilarious), were always illuminating. I especially enjoyed the Isle of Wight, Chelsea Hotel, Minnesota footsteps pieces. The Rough and Rowdy Ways section is excellently done and full of interesting insights and information.’
‘I started with Chapter 1, then about Rough And Rowdy Ways and now reading chronologically. Ah, the bootlegs and what we knew about them – and always searching the real gems. There’s so much I’d like to talk about.’
[Re the R&RW essay: ‘The] measured and tempered enthusiasm is far more valuable than the ecstatic response the album seems to have had more generally. I enjoyed it so much. An astonishing compendium of fact and opinion, all managed with stylish flair, discriminating intelligence, and some wit and good humour. I’m grateful to have had the chance to think about this in response to [the] very fine piece. [Gray is], par excellence, the no bullshit Dylan critic.’
‘It’s so great (and so rare) to read serious writing about Dylan that isn’t academic or pedantic or obscurantist, or vapid and tabloidian, but writing that actually deals with and elucidates Dylan’s art. But that’s always been [Gray’s] m.o. and I have always appreciated [his] approach.’
‘After 11 months of people trying to talk about, write about, make sense of and capture the essence of Rough And Rowdy Ways, it unsurprisingly turns out that we’ve all just been waiting for Michael Gray’s book.’
‘Most critics get lost in the foothills and briars of Bob Dylan studies, entangled in the abrasive personality. Michael Gray is one of the only authors who have ascended the Everest of Dylan and written beautifully about the Shanghai La beyond. Brill to get an early copy of Outtakes.’
‘It’s very nice to be reacquainted with [Gray’s] way of approaching Dylan, particularly with regard to some of the more recent years.’
‘[Gray’s] long and astute appreciation of Rough and Rowdy Ways is worth the price of admission all on its own and is easily the most perceptive reading I’ve yet seen of this flawed yet fascinating album. What a pleasure still to be enjoying [his] ideas on new Dylan records in 2021!’
‘An essential addition to the Bob Dylan bookshelf and Michael Gray collection.’
‘Always a good day when a new Bob Dylan book from Michael Gray arrives. Respected, informed, writing.’
‘Very pleased to have the book. A scan through the contents was enough to move all other books to the back burner.’
‘I’m delighted by it. I immediately read the lovely preface and then jumped straight to the essay about Rough And Rowdy Ways. As always [Gray’s] writing is excellent and a very rich learning experience for me.’
‘I read the RARW chapter first. It’s the definitive word on that album. I look forward to reading it again.’
‘I’ve been snacking away at random bits of the book since it arrived and finding it deliciously interesting and fun.’
‘[I’m] halfway through and am glad to report that it’s a fascinating read, throwing out Dylan connections in all directions.’
‘Not the least of the pleasures that comes from having a substantial new album from Bob for the first time in so long is that it has prompted a wonderfully alert and sympathetic reading from [Gray]: I’m getting so much off of every page in the Rough And Rowdy Ways chapter in Outttakes.’
‘It’s been a while since the book hit my door, but since tonight it has been on my bedside table, facing me and whispering : read me, I’m yours. Never opened it until tonight, for too many reasons, but… I want to share this. I started from the introduction, but then I jumped to the last chapter on Rough And Rowdy Ways. That is really something… You must have this book.’
‘Enjoyed the book very much. The early parts of the book brought back memories of my own Dylan journey… Well worth the price, the postage, the wait and the Swedish VAT. Glad to see a serious in-depth review of the current album. I say current because there’s still so much to discover and digest.’
‘It’s a great book, not only because of Michael’s observations and critical analyses but especially because of being written in a wonderful, meticulous and witty language. (Which sets it apart from too many other books on Bob.)’
‘Well that’s my weekend reading sorted. Always a good day when a new Bob Dyaln book from Michael Gray arrives. Respected, informed writing.’
‘This is worth getting for Michael’s 60-page essay on Rough And Rowdy Ways alone – wonderful piece of writing which made me go back to the album and listen to it all over again. Lots of other gems too – highly recommended.’
‘Just got my copy and it’s a lovely looking book and what makes it intriguing is that these are Michael’s contemporary takes on Bob.’
‘Highly recommended! Even Michael’s asides are very much worth reading.’
Click here for more details on Outtakes On Bob Dylan.
Belfast Book Festival Carpet Burns Review
Carpet Burns | My Life with the Inspiral Carpets – Tom Hingley
Belfast Book Festival | The Black Box 08 June ’15
Tom Hingley was the lead singer with the Inspiral Carpets through their halcyon days in the Madchester Era. Tom read from Carpet Burns: My Life with Inspiral Carpets, a book chronicling his career as a musician, and played an acoustic set of Inspiral Carpet classics, along with material from his solo albums.
He left Oxford for Manchester thinking he had a better chance of joining a Band. He and some friends formed a band called Too Much Texas, supporting New Order at the Hacienda. They also supported the Inspiral Carpets at the time Steve Holt left the band; Tom later auditioned for the singer’s role and got the part.
Tom son of an Oxford Don, didn’t quite fit in with the working class ethos of the Madchester Scene, and this detachment is evident throughout the book. It is written as if viewed from the outside, as opposed to an internal account of the bands dynamic, though this may also reflect Tom’s respect for his estranged friends.
The book is not a Mark E Smith style castigation of band members; it attempts to demystify the rock and roll myth, taking a look under the bonnet and candidly exploring the mechanics of what went wrong. Tom speaks warmly of the happiest days of his life with the band, and in some ways the book is a celebration of this. The Hacienda period included a number of bands that defined the British Indie scene, including The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, the Inspiral Carpets and The Charlatans. He also finds it strange that current reflections upon the Hacienda music scene neglect the club’s gay origins.
Tom misses the band’s camaraderie and friendship rather than the gigs and adulation. When the Inspiral Carpets headlined Reading festival, his dad compared the audience reaction to a Mussolini speech in Rome. Tom feels this captures the ludicrous side of being on the fame bandwagon.
It clearly hurt Tom when he was sacked from the band, even more so when the band said he left of his own volition. He finds it hard to listen to Steve Holt singing his songs – songs he sang as opposed to penned- feeling Steve’s vocals are better suited to the band’s earlier garage sound. Tom is also aggrieved that the band forged his signature on Inspiral Carpets T-shirts.
A pre-Oasis Noel Gallagher was a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets, and inevitably crept into the conversation. Tom acknowledged his talent as a singer songwriter, but feels the Inspiral Carpets nurtured his talent with the bands open dynamic and the creative buzz they had at the time. He feels Noel wouldn’t have made it The Stone Roses due to the talented ego-centric nature of the band, and probably wouldn’t have made it in the Happy Mondays without engaging with heroin at some level. Tom recounted a story of Noel completing a written interview on behalf of the band, and when asked what the band’s favourite Happy Mondays song was, he quipped Gods Cop, the Smack-head remix, setting the gentile Sean Ryder on the warpath for Clint Boon.
Tom’s creative spell as an artist did not finish with his departure from the Inspiral Carpets, his solo set which included a number of inventive acoustic classics from the band’s huge back catalogue, as well as songs from his solo albums. His solo material is a mix of blues, punk, soul and ballsy rock and roll. The most striking feature of Tom’s performance, aside from his passionate driving vocals, is his percussive rhythms on acoustic guitar, giving the songs a bouncing funky feel.
Spending an evening with Tom Hingley is hugely enjoyable; clearly a talented musician who remains true to his art. He performed a phenomenal live set to an appreciative crowd in the Black Box, you wouldn’t imagine Tom would have given more to a packed Glastonbury. His book reflects back on a golden period that defined British music, providing insight into a band that may have been in the shade of the Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays, but who clearly had their own unique sound, and a special place in the nation’s heart.
D. Twain
Bass Master’s Breakout
Touched by Hayley Nash
Rube, Janbo and Mark
Woke up this December morning to read this wonderful message from Hayley Nash. Lovely that she’d enjoyed Nothing Ever Happens in Wentbridge so much, and just as lovely that she’d tracked down the Facebook page and posted this wonderful message. Thanks Hayley. – Janet Watson
Hi, I just wanted to say that at 2 in the morning just now I finished the book. It made me sob! I was so touched by it. And to find this page on Facebook and see the photos made me cry again! Everyone has come to life. And they are just as I imagined you all.
I’m at the age now where I’ve finished uni, got a full time job and feel like a bit of an adult. That age where I’m starting to loose contact with my Marks and Sians and Nicks and so reading this has helped me realise that I’ll always have my memories of school and college. Although I’m mourning those times a little I’m ready for my next stage to life knowing I’ll carry my friends in my heart with me whilst knowing I’ll see them at our important life events again. Your book is beautifully written and well worth a second read, I’ll be definitely badgering my friends with it as Christmas presents! Thank you so much for sharing your memories of your friends and your parents and making them so vivid and human.
Best wishes
Love Hayley
The Power of Nouns
Review of Ian Clayton’s Bringing It All Back Home by Mark Barry of Reckless Records, London
Here in England, as I cycle into work from the Hawaiian splendiferousness of Walthamstow in East London to the glamour-fest of wee-wee in doorways that is Berwick Street in Central London, I’m constantly reminiscing – and I mean almost all of the time. In September 2008 I turned 50 – so it’s probably the age.
Moments just keep coming back to me – and bits of music too. Like ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ by John Barry, a film I mitched school 5 times to see. Walking proudly across the schoolyard with a copy of Rory Gallagher’s Live In Europe under my arms knowing it to be an object of unbridled lust for other kids in my class. Meeting August Darnell of Kid Creole & The Coconuts at Dublin Airport the day after their National Stadium gig where the crowd went absolutely bananas and invaded the stage in a salsa train (‘You guys can party!’). The Celtic folk-rock of Horslips on the back of a truck at a Sunday Fair in 1971, Phil Lynott busking at the bottom of Grafton Street again in 1971 with his fantastically wild hair and other-worldly exoticness, The Specials supporting the John ‘Gypie’ Mayo line-up of Dr. Feelgood in 1978 (one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen), the Bon Scott line-up of AC/DC on a cold Monday night in the Camden Ballroom in Dublin on the Highway To Hell tour – all of it mind-blowing…
Why mention all of these precious memories – because this book is full of that – moments in time – and most of them related to music. Ian Clayton is from Yorkshire in England – and while many of the stories and anecdotes are British-based, their reach is very American – even Universal. Bringing It All Back Home isn’t a story proper as such – it’s chapter after chapter of great musical remembrances that will tickle pink anyone of my generation (it’s been a huge success in the UK in both Hardback and Paperback). It follows the floor cushions and lava lamps of the Sixties into the cheesecloth shirts and Oxford bags of the Seventies. It quickly moves on up to the blue Mohican haircuts of Punk, into hissing purists in the audiences of Eighties and Nineties Left-Wing operas and on to today with the new Portishead offering lodged in a CD player for weeks on end. And it’s bloody funny too. There’s flashbacks to Sergeant Tommy Chapman of the West Riding Constabulary who arrested Jimi Hendrix in the small town of Ilkley for being ‘too loud’ – onwards to in-depth discussions about ‘harnessing aggression’ with the drummer in The Gang of Four in the multi award-winning toilets of the Pontefract Town Hall. It lovingly recalls Hamish Imlach’s room-clearing farts and a best friend’s mother passing judgement on the Beatles who were decamped in her hotel, ‘Their shoes were perfect – every mother looks at shoes…’ As you can already magine – it’s wonderful stuff – and there’s lots of it.
And I also love Clayton’s use of nouns as a powerful evoker. Paul Simon won a Grammy for a song called ‘Rene & Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War’ on his hugely underrated Hearts & Bones LP in 1983. The beautifully crafted chorus talks of an immigrant couple that find a keepsake in a drawer that reminds them of ‘…The Moonglows, The Orioles and The Five Satins’. Simon doesn’t say `Vocal Groups’ or `Doo Wop Music` like a lazy writer would – he uses their names – he uses the power of nouns. Clayton does this in almost every line. Names of bars, streets, relations, friends, places he’s been too, nick names given to candy and food – album titles, label colours on 45s, gigs, characters at those gigs – the effect is to make you remember stuff and places and people you’d long forgotten – and love every second of it. His tastes are varied and eclectic too – waxing lyrical about the ethereal beauty of singers like Kate Rusby and Dwight Yoakham, Iris deMent and John Lydon, Buddy Holly and Bessie Smith, Chris Farlowe and Mary Coughlan, John Martyn and Elmore James, Louis Jordon and Buffy Sainte-Marie. This is a book about a man who holds up the different picture sleeves of ‘Anarchy In The UK’ and literally trembles at the sight of them. This is my kind of guy. I sat down to read a chapter a night and came to it like a conversation with a good friend about a subject you both love.
But then towards the end comes an unexpected hammering – he and his long-time partner suffer a crushing personal blow – and you then realise why the remembrances that preceded this are so full of warmth and humanity – they’ve been written by a man who has suffered horrible personal loss and it has imbibed his writing with a quiet thankfulness for moments that seemed almost inconsequential then but are huge now. Details matter – and music that moved and shaped you – does too.
Which brings us to music in general… what is it about men and their music? Be it Soul, Reggae, Rock, Jazz, Folk, Blues, Punk, Rock `n’ Roll, Dance, Hip-Hop – or all of it combined? I think it’s that it keeps us young – a buzz you never get over – its forever discovering something new and brill. You see I’m the kind of soppy git who works in a record shop all day and goes out at lunchtime and goes into another record shop. My better half says it’s a disease – she pats me on the head like a child and hands me Sticky Fingers to placate the poor eejet.
‘There you go dear… I’ll be back in forty-five minutes with Who’s Next…”
‘Yum! Yum!’ comes the response.
If you’re the kind of person who gets moist in the trouser area about the bits revealed under the die-cut holes as you turn the cardboard wheel on the sleeve of Led Zeppelin III, if you’re the kind of moo who tingles as you open out the rare poster in the Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables or smiles wildly at any photograph of the wonderful and sorely missed British DJ John Peel (beloved champion of Indie and Punk) – then this homage to music and its wondrous effect on the very soul of a person is the bedside buddy for you.
I loved this book – a life well remembered and a lovely read. Rave On John Dunne… you seeker of truth and inner peace…
Click here for more on Bringing It All Back Home and to order
Route Blog 