Dylan Is His Theme: A Visit with K.G. Miles, Author of the Troubadour Tales Series

K.G. Miles

Earlier this spring I learned that K.G. Miles, author of two books devoted to places Bob Dylan has had relationships with -- London and New York -- was assembling a book about Bob Dylan's life in Minnesota. Miles first two books are the first in a four-part series under the umbrella Troubadour Tales.  The Minnesota volume is slated for 2023. 

The third book in this series will be released later this month, August 18. The theme in this third book has to do with Dylan's relationship to Dylan Thomas. To enrich its value Miles reached out to Dylan Thomas expert Jeff Towns. It looks to be an eye-opener for many Dylan fans. 

It's fun to see the variety of approaches authors have taken with regards to the music and life of our generation's most significant singer/songwriter.

EN: How did you first become interested in the music of Bob Dylan? 

KG Miles: My Auntie Di took me to the Isle of Wight in 1969 and as about 9 years old my only real memory was of these alien creatures!. I came from a housing estate in South London where everything was pretty grey. She may as well have taken me to Mars!

Nevertheless, as with the Beatles and Elvis, there was never a time in my life when I wasn't aware of Bob Dylan. 

Like many people who were too young to remember the 60's I had to work chronologically back from Bob's music. My entry point, as it was for a lot in the UK, was More Greatest Hits, an astonishing double album that wasn't just a greatest hits at all and still stands the test of time as the most extraordinary introduction to Dylan's music. 

As a teenager the poster on my wall was from Dont Look Back (this poster now proudly hangs in a frame at The Dylan Room in the Troubadour Club in London).

Despite punk hitting (as with Sgt. Pepper, punk never really changed music at all!) the Big Bang for many in the UK (and places like Japan) was the 1978 tour. As many did, I queued all night on the streets of London for tickets and the overspill festival at Blackbushe kick started the modern music festival. (People don't realize that the old hippy festivals such as Glastonbury had been and gone. Only when they saw the success of Blackbushe, did they start up again.)

I was hooked completely from then on and I can't believe that he is still in 2022 making extraordinary, new music....and next month I am off to see him again at The Palladium. Astonishing.

EN: You’ve published two Troubador Tales books about Dylan – Dylan in London and Dylan in the Big Apple. What sets these apart from the many other books about Dylan?

KGM: There are hundreds upon hundreds of Bob Dylan books and we are decades on from the publication of Not Another Bob Dylan book! For the Bob Dylan in London book, with my co author Jackie Lees, we very much wanted to impart what we had found about Bob in London to other fans. It was astonishing that Bob Dylan in London had never been a book before. (Hundreds upon hundreds of books are just telling us what Bob means by his lyrics and 99% of it is likely to be wrong. Also sometimes Gibraltar just rhymes with Altar!). We also wanted people to use the book as a guide, so there is a map. Jackie and I had been on a pilgrimage and we wanted others to see the wonderful places in a currently sparse music tourism. We also wanted the books to be an easy read. Too many Dylan writers start to think they ARE Bob Dylan and make the books turgid in an attempt to be deep and meaningful. Bob Dylan is fun and so are the books. I want a reader to get the joy and to turn each page thinking, "Wow! I never knew that!"

Easily the best review I had was one that said the Troubadour Tales were "refreshingly non academic!"

EN: What is the third book about that you’re releasing later this summer?

KGM: I was lucky that I got approached by great publishers, McNidder & Grace and they wanted 4 books. Bob Dylan in London had been a great success. (A Number one Amazon bestseller...beating Tom Jones!) For the third I wanted to explore the creative links between Bob and Dylan Thomas. (And yes, I have definitively proven in the book that he got his name from the Welsh poet. 

To me Bob and Dylan Thomas are the two rock n roll poets. They are the only artists who truly master the art of Performed Literature. I was so lucky to have on board a Bob fan and an expert on Dylan Thomas, Jeff Towns. We explored the creative Venn diagram, the links that tie the two men, everyone from the obvious such as Patti Smith and Arthur Rimbaud to the less obvious such as Nelson Algren and Johnnie Ray. It was a joyous project in every way!

As both men appear on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, we were honoured to have the same cover artist for our book...Peter Blake. We are hoping that you can indeed judge a book by it's astonishing cover!

EN: I think writers enjoy researching as much as writing because of all the things we learn along the way. What have been your two or three biggest insights gained while writing and assembling these books?

KGM: So many insights! From finding the correct chronology for Bob's first London visit to the finding of the extraordinary George Margolin from Greenwich Village for the Big Apple book. Mostly though, anyone who looks at the life of Bob Dylan will see from Dinkytown to London to Greenwich Village and beyond, that when a door opened for him, he just ran through. As someone for whom a door opened at the age of 61 it is a lesson for life. Run through!

I hope also there is an insight in the books into the real Bob Dylan, the man you hear on Theme Time Radio who gets so much joy from music, who embraces the full fat fun of life.

EN: How many more books do you have planned for this series?

Marc Percansky (center) with the artists from Brazil
who painted this six story high mural in Minneapolis

KGM: After Two Dylans there is hopefully one more Troubadour Tales book. I had thought of Japan which holds a special place in Bob's heart, as he does from them. It was too difficult to do when travel was restricted. It is a strange and mysterious place to a boy from South London.

Bob Dylan in Minnesota is a work in progress and in addition to you, Ed,  I have been overwhelmed by the friendliness and enthusiasm from Paul Metsa, Spider John Koerner, Marc Percansky, Matt Steichen, Kevin Odegard etc. Minnesota people are clearly wonderful and for me it is important to get this book absolutely right so that it can be the definitive, useable guide to Duluth, Hibbing and Dinkytown. I love visiting and giving a talk at the Tulsa Center but to me there is only one place that Center should have been... Minnesota.

EN: Where can people find your books if they want to purchase?

KGM: Bob Dylan in London and Bob Dylan in the Big Apple can both be bought via any bookseller or are about $9  (so a steal!) on Amazon. Two Dylans will be out on 18th August and on Amazon over here. If you know someone with Amazon Prime it can be soon winging its way to any Bob Dylan fan in the world!!

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Here's one of the many kind reviews of Miles' book on London, by Harvard prof and author Richard Thomas who gave a John Bushey Memorial Lecture at Duluth Dylan Fest  a few years back:

‘The Troubadour, where Dylan played in 1962 on his first trip out of America, the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, venues of the mid-1960s masterpiece performances before and after “going electric”, the triumphant return to Earl’s Court in 1978, and Camden Town, scene of a 1993 Dylan stroll and photo session. These are just some of the places in this endlessly invigorating city to which Jackie Lees and KG Miles take us in Bob Dylan in London: Troubadour Tales, their highly readable and essential archaeological tour through Bob Dylan’s London, a city that has always been dear to him.’

Professor Richard F. Thomas, Harvard University

Author of Why Bob Dylan Matters

Related Link

A Visit With Richard F. Thomas