This is Dylan under the microscope and back on stage. Minstrel Boy, the middle panel of Chris Gregory’s Picasso of Song, anatomizes the post-accident decades with rare poise—200,000 words of close listening that extend to songs Dylan never released and to the ways he reshaped them live.
Retreat traces the strategic withdrawal to country and parable; Return captures the mid-’70s resurgence with a lucid Blood on the Tracks exegesis; Rebirth parses the conversion’s ripple effects. Gregory’s prose is clear, his interpretations original, and his respect for ambiguity principled.
It feels definitive because it is disciplined. Out October 8; pre-order via chris@chrisgregory.org and amazon.co.uk; amazon.com pre-order imminent.