Bob Dylan, Arthur Machen & Judas Priest

Plus Critical Role Holiday Album

I was surprised to see a tweet from Bob Dylan that expressed his fondness for The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen:

“At the hotel in Frankfurt there was a publishing convention and every room was taken, parties all night. I didn’t know there were so many book publishers in the world. I was trying to find Crystal Lake Publishing so I could congratulate them on publishing The Great God Pan, one of my favorite books. I thought they might be interested in some of my stories. Unfortunately it was too crowded and I never did find them.”

I first read Arthur Machen 35 years ago while taking a college class on horror literature, and The Great God Pan remains one of my favorite stories. Although he was not mentioned in Gary Gygax’s Appendix N of inspirational and educational reading for D&D, Machen influenced other authors on Gary’s list (including Lovecraft and Howard), and he has to be considered essential reading for anyone running Call of Cthulhu or other horror-themed roleplaying games.

If you’re not familiar with Arthur Machen’s work, this article by Bradley K. McDevitt as part of the Goodman Games Appendix N Archeology series provides a good starting point. Here is an excerpt that begins to explain his importance:

Machen (1863-1947), whose real last name was Jones, produced prolifically in the genres of fantasy and horror. His story The Bowmen entered the realm of urban folklore as World War One legend of the “Angel of Mons.”  And that story was only a very tiny fraction of Machen’s output, which included works as The Novel of the White Powder, The Three Imposters, and what is generally acknowledged as his 1894 masterpiece, The Great God Pan. This terrifying tale of occult miscegenation was lauded thirty years later by Lovecraft in his essay The Supernatural In Literature.  More recently, Stephen King has declared it, in his opinion, “one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language.”

I am far from being a Bob Dylan scholar and am ignorant about his reading tastes. Via some quick online researching, I found several lists of his favorite books and authors, and I was tickled to see Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells mentioned in this CBC article.

H/T to Ted Gioia for turning me onto the Dylan tweet.

Judas Priest: Album by Album

Speaking of Bob Dylan, legendary heavy metal band Judas Priest got their name from the Dylan song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest." Please accept my apologies, however, as this segue is serving the purpose of self-promotion. I’m humbled to have been one of the contributors to the book Judas Priest: Album by Album by Martin Popoff. The book was released yesterday, and I’m flattered to be one of the “cabal of experts” who Martin interviewed to provide commentary on each album in Priest’s catalog.

My colleagues for this project include some rockstar luminaries, as listed in the blurb on the back of the book:

“Featuring commentary by Slash, Charlie Benante, Marty Friedman, Todd La Torre, Bobby Ellsworth, Andee Blacksugar, Chris Caffery, Rich Davenport, John Gaffney, Danko Jones, Jimmy Kay, Sean Kelly, Pete Pardo, Matt Thompson, and Devin Townsend.”

My contributions are for the albums Rocka Rolla (with Pete Pardo), Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather (with Charlie Benante from Anthrax and Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth from Overkill), and Point of Entry (with Steven Reid). You can purchase the book from Amazon or get a signed copy from Martin Popoff’s website.

Critical Role Holiday EP

Critical Role recently released a 4-song EP of holiday music entitled Winter’s Crest. It consists of songs sung by the cast performing as various characters from the popular RPG live play series. This Bell of Lost Souls article contains details, including the following annotated track listing:

• “Winter’s Crest Festival Time” featuring Matt Mercer as Pumat Sol, the legendary Enchanter

• “Silent Mind” featuring Laura Bailey as Imogen

• “Twelve Days of Grogmas” with Travis Willingham and Ashley Johnson as Grog and Pike

• “It’s Critmas” featuring the whole gang, including Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, and Sam Riegel

Personally, I strictly follow a “no holiday music listening until after US Thanksgiving” policy, but if you cannot wait, the whole EP is available for streaming right now: