The Religion and Anti Religion of Bob Dylan in 'Born Again'
Keywords:
lyrics, divinity, dogmatism, religious outlookAbstract
Dylan's The Philosophy of Modern Song reflects him as fan of Royal Blood, Celeste, Rag and Bone Man, Eminem and Nick Cave insisting the eclectic musical talent seems to find him. In an interview in the 80s Dylan responded that it is destiny putting him on the path of success, a religious person's comment rather and finally stating that he loves sacred music, church music and ensemble singing. The paper attempts to throw light upon Dylan's viewpoints on religion and his religious outlook as reflected through his songs and lyrical compositions.
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Jeff Slate, “Bob Dylan on Music’s Golden Era vs Streaming: ‘Everything’s Too Easy’,” The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2022.
Jonathan Cott, ed., Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews (New York: Simon & Schuster), 500.
Joseph Hudak, “Bob Dylan Whiskey Distillery, Center for the Arts to Open in Nashville in 2020,” Rolling Stone, April 9, 2019.
Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michael Guesdon, Bob Dylan: All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track (New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2015), 526, 538.
Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 148.
Ibid., 152.
Ibid., 154.
Ibid., 157-61.
Margotin and Guesdon, Dylan: All the Songs, 588.
Ibid., 614, 632.
Sean Wilentz, Bob Dylan in America (New York: Anchor Books, 2011), 321. Nevertheless, I agree with Wilentz that comparisons to the Lives of the Poets is “a little too high-minded” (ibid.).
Ibid.
Ibid., 322.
Ibid., 332.
Ibid.
Michael Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia: Updated and Revised Edition (New York: Continuum, 2008), 624.
Margotin and Guesdon, Dylan: All the Songs, 693.
Gray, Dylan Encyclopedia, 624.
Dylan, Chronicles, 80-81.
Ibid., 81.
In 2007, Dylan was asked about the use of “religious imagery” in his songs. He replied, “That kind of imagery is just as natural to me as breathing, because the world of folk songs has enveloped me for so long. . . . It doesn’t come from the radio or TV or computers or any of that stuff. It’s embedded in the folk music of the English language” (Cott, ed., The Essential Interviews, 488).
Quoted in Scott M. Marshall, Dylan: A Spiritual Life (Washington, D.C.: BP Books, 2017), 218.
Quoted in ibid. The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 (2008) is a compilation album, gathering alternate versions, demos, live cuts, and outtakes from a variety of late-period contexts. “Marchin’ to the City” is a previously unreleased track from the Time Out of Mind sessions.
Cott, ed., The Essential Interviews, 489.
Bert Cartwright, The Bible in the Lyrics of Bob Dylan (Lancashire: Wanted Man, 1985). Cartwright issued a revised edition in 1992.
Michael J. Gilmour, Tangled Up in the Bible: Bob Dylan and Scripture (New York: Continuum, 2004) and The Gospel According to Bob Dylan: The Old, Old Story for Modern Times (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011).
Seth Rogovoy, Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet (New York: Scribner, 2009), 1-4.
Marshall, Dylan: A Spiritual Life, 254: “When Bob Dylan penned [the gospel song] ‘Saving Grace’ in 1979, he plainly wrote that after the death of life comes the resurrection—and wherever he is welcome is where he will be. Why bet against Dylan having a place at that heavenly welcome table? He’s been hungry as a horse for a good long while.”
Francis J. Beckwith, “Busy Being Born Again: Bob Dylan’s Christian Philosophy,” in Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Thinking), ed. Peter Vernezze and Carl J. Porter (Chicago: Open Court, 2006), 145-55.
Clifton R. Spargo and Anne K. Ream, “Bob Dylan and Religion,” in The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, ed. Kevin J.H. Dettmar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 88.
Christopher Ricks, Dylan’s Visions of Sin (New York: Ecco, 2003), 378-79.
Ibid., 6.
Ibid., 2.
Wilentz, Bob Dylan in America, 334-35.
Ibid., 181.
Ibid., 245.
Ibid., 246-53.
C. Stephen Evans, Kierkegaard: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 69.
Martin Heidegger, Discourse on Thinking: A Translation of Gelassenheit, trans. John M. Anderson and E. Hans Freund (New York: Harper Perennial, 1966), 45.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This essay expands greatly on the latter part of the introduction to Bob Dylan and the Spheres of Existence, Fortress Academic (2022), All Rights Reserved.
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