SONG & DANCE MAN III TEN YEARS OLD

There was a limited-edition hardback edition of 450 copies, each one signed and hand-numbered, and a simultaneous paperback. Both were published by Cassell Academic, in London. Shortly afterwards, there was a management buy-out of Cassell Academic when the whole Cassell group was about to be swallowed up by the Orion conglomerate. The ex-CA division fused with small US publisher Continuum, becoming Continuum International. (Fascinating stuff, huh?)

Anyway, that’s why all but the very first printing of the paperback and the hardback have Continuum on the spine. The book has been reprinted many times since, most recently last year, and in theory is still on sale. In practice, the book is always out of stock in the UK and almost no-one in the States has ever heard of it.

It’s a book I’m still proud of – it took me much of the 1990s to write it, and I’m thankful I kept going right through to the end – but there’ll never be a Song & Dance Man IV. I don’t really want to go in for any more long, close-to-the-text analysis of Dylan’s work. I’m not sure I could even write an essay as long or as good as Peter Doggett’s excellent piece on the latest album. Which is why, when I blog about Christmas In The Heart here very shortly, it’ll be with conscientious care but with brevity.