Minstrel Boy: The Metamorphoses of Bob Dylan, 1967–1990
Chris Gregory’s Minstrel Boy is Volume Two of his reverse-chronology trilogy, Picasso of Song, scheduled for publication on 8 October 2025. The 200,000-word study covers Dylan’s post‑motorcycle‑accident era (1967–1990) and is organized into three sections—Retreat, Return, Rebirth—tracking shifts from The Basement Tapes, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline through the mid‑’70s resurgence (including Blood on the Tracks) to the gospel period and its aftermath.
At its core, the book offers close readings of released and unreleased songs, variant versions, and notable covers. Gregory situates the work within musical lineages (folk, blues, country, gospel, rock and roll) and across literary reference points (Blake, Shakespeare, Browning, Poe, Whitman, the French Symbolists, the Beats). He emphasizes ambiguity in Dylan’s writing, uses concise biographical context, and intersperses performance-based chapters drawn from decades of concert-going and his established platforms—From the Pen of Chris Gregory (website) and the podcast Bob Dylan: A Headful of Ideas.
Early coverage has noted the study’s scope and accessibility. The trilogy is explicitly positioned to be comprehensive, with Determined to Stand (post‑1990) preceding this volume and an early‑years study to follow. Minstrel Boy is aimed at both dedicated readers and general fans, and it doubles as a reference for students of popular music and literature. Pre‑orders are available via the author’s site and Amazon UK; a US Amazon listing is forthcoming.