Joseph Bottum of First Things is apparently quite a Bob Dylan fan—he’s recently been interviewed about the man and his music. Toward the end of the interview, the discussion turns to Dylan’s gospel music and the way he sang about God. From the interview:
I don’t know what Dylan’s religion is. But I know what the songs are about. And what Dylan reaches down into is the deep stuff of America. Down linguistically into that soil. And he pulls up these threads, these roots, and weaves them together into a song….Dylan has reached deeper [than other musicians] into the soil, into the root stock of American rhetoric, these tropes and this language.
It’s for that reason that his gospel songs — I don’t even want to call them gospel songs — his songs about God are extraordinarily American. And he’s led there by the language itself. American language itself wants to talk about God. And if you are poet enough and songwriter enough to feel where the language wants to go, the language will take you there inevitably. It’s just that we don’t have a lot of people who are poet enough or songwriter enough to feel that.
Bottum highlights this and a few other parts of the interview here.
I don’t know enough about Dylan to comment (yes, I’m a cultural barbarian), but I figured there have got to be a few Dylan fans out there reading TC. Anyone want to step forward with their thoughts?
Loading ...
January 15, 2008 at 18:41
You should start with “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde.” His two best works, IMHO.
What I love about “Gotta Serve Somebody” is its message that everyone; young and old, rich and poor, the drunk and the sober; everyone has to choose who to serve in the end.
January 16, 2008 at 00:03
I really loved “Slow Train Coming” when it came out. “Saved” was equally amazing. I think Dylan had to be informed by some sort of personal experience to write some of the songs on those albums.
Much of his secular work resonates with a spiritual depth as well. Songs we associate with artists like Hendrix (All Along the Watchtower), Clapton (I Shot the Sheriff), Guns N Roses(Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door), Led Zeppelin (In My Time of Dying) were written by Dylan. He really seems to have a voice that is so on-point that others can make his songs their own.
January 16, 2008 at 02:51
I’m just confused as to why Bottum won’t call gospel songs what they are. Lyrically, musically, and admittedly the songs on Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Oh Mercy are gospel. He was a professing Christian at the times of these albums as well. In fact, at the concert I attended a few months ago, his salvation is still part of his intro biography.
But it is true that Dylan frequently used religious imagery in his songs long before he was a Christian. And it is from, ‘digging in the soil’ which I take to mean honoring the great blues, country, American folk, and Irish folk singers of our time. At the very least, these roots express a monotheistic view, and even sometimes a very clear Christian theology.
All this to say, you can’t talk about Dylan’s lyrics without talking in some detail about his influences; and you should certainly acknowledge what the man himself acknowledges about his own spirituality. Needless to say, I am a pretty hard-core bobcat for my age.
January 18, 2008 at 23:40
I’m a Dylan fan but no fan of his “gospel” albums. I’ll take the early albums… the self-titled debut, Freewheelin, and about 4 or 5 after that.
My wife’s opinion is that he sounds like, quote: “A cat in heat… on speed!”.
For you early Dylan fans, there is a young guy by the name of Ezra Furman who has a very early Dylan vibe to him. Check him out here.