Preface

Bob Dylan is a music artist, plays guitar and harmonica, sings vocals, writes songs. He’s released many albums from 1960s forward to 2021, when he turned eighty. Dylan’s songs have lyrics expressing feelings and thoughts, ideas, drawn from many sources, including many original to himself. Dylan has a way with words, utilizing rhyme and meter as a poet. His lyrics contain metaphor, symbol, simile, many picture-words, alliteration. Combined with melody, Dylan’s lyrics are capable of producing deep impressions in hearers and even without the music, when read on pages like poems, may impress people with thoughts, feelings, that inspire in varied ways. Of course, Dylan’s voice adds a unique quality to the music and its words. Bob Dylan’s music has been popular through the years and will last a long time due to the recording media where it’s found and it’s in people’s memories as well.

Judaism

Judaism is Bob Dylan’s first religion, into which he was born and raised. Judaism is a religion of one God who created the world and mankind. The first man, Adam and his wife Eve, disobeyed God and were exiled from paradise. God chose Abraham to be father of many nations. Grandson of Abraham was Jacob and his twelve sons were progenitors of nation, Israel. Later descendant of Jacob’s son, Levi, was Moses, whom God called to free Israel from bondage in Egypt and to whom God gave Ten Commandments and a law (Torah) to govern the people of Israel. Subsequent history of Israel, as recorded in Hebrew Bible, shows much vacillation between obedience and disobedience to Torah. God sent prophets to assist people in path of righteousness.

Records

[Selection, random, of Dylan’s record releases with religious and spiritual references drawn from song lyrics.]

Bob Dylan (1962) [Columbia Records; John Hammond, producer]

‘In My Time of Dyin” (traditional gospel song, Blind Willie Johnson, writer, arranged by Dylan)

This song contains ten mentions of Jesus; shows Dylan’s eclecticism.

Sample:

Jesus gonna make up, Jesus gonna make up
Jesus gonna make up my dying bed

Expresses hope or wish or prayer that Jesus, “Lord,” will help in time of death.

‘Song To Woody’ (writer, Bob Dylan)

Contains no explicit religious reference, but exhibits a tough, understanding, spiritual overview.

Second Stanza:

Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song
About a funny old world that’s coming along
Seems sick and it’s hungry, it’s tired and it’s torn
It looks like it’s dying and it’s hardly been born

Admired by Dylan, Woody Guthrie (d. 1967) played guitar, composed and sang folk songs, including songs of protest.

Highway 61 Revisited (1965) [Columbia Records; Tom Wilson, Bob Johnston, producers]

‘Highway 61 Revisited’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Stanza 1:

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where you want this killin’ done?”
God says. “Out on Highway 61”

Background: Gen 22:1-14 – God calls upon Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

New Morning (1970) [Columbia Records; Bob Johnston, producer, Al Kooper, co-producer]

‘Father of Night’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Complete Lyric:

Poem and prayer to God, Father, this lyric resembles Jewish ‘Amidah‘ (prayer said while standing), in that it has eighteen lines as Amidah, at first, had eighteen benedictions.    

Blood on the Tracks (1975) [Columbia Records]

‘Simple Twist of Fate’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Sample (from final stanza):

People tell me it’s a sin
To know and feel too much within

Sin is religious concept.  Sin is offense against God and his law.  (In mind is knowing the sin, in heart is guilt.)  

Christianity

Christianity is Bob Dylan’s second religion; actually, Dylan has one religion made up of elements from Jewish and Christian faith.  Bob Dylan underwent a conversion experience to Jesus Christ and his teachings in late months of 1978.

Christianity is offshoot of Judaism started by Jesus of Nazareth at the corner of B.C. and A.D. some two-thousand years ago.  Jesus preached ‘kingdom of God,’ ‘turn the other cheek,’ and ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you’ and met resistance and ended up executed on a cross.  Jesus had gathered some followers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, Mary Magdalene & other men and women, and these said that Jesus wasn’t in his grave on Sunday morning following his Friday crucifixion.  Jesus had ‘risen.’ 

Slow Train Coming (1979) [Columbia Records; Jerry Wexler, Barry Beckett, producers]

‘Gonna Change My Way of Thinking’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

First Stanza:

Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna put my good foot forward
And stop being influenced by fools.

◊

Seventh Stanza:

Jesus said, “Be ready
For you know not the hour in which I come”
Jesus said, “Be ready
For you know not the hour in which I come”
He said, “He who is not for Me is against Me”
Just so you know where He’s coming from.

Transformation, change, result from repentance.  Two passages in quotes refer to Matthew 24:44, 12:30, respectively. 

Oh Mercy (1989) [Columbia Records; Daniel Lanois, producer]

‘What Good Am I’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

First Stanza:

What good am I if like all the rest
If I just turn away when I see how you’re dressed
If I shut myself off so I can’t hear you cry
What good am I ?

Second Stanza:

What good am I if I know and don’t do
If I see and don’t say if I look right through you
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin’ sky
What good am I ?

Cf. Lk 10:25-37 (Good Samaritan parable); James 2:14-17.

Good as I Been to You (1992) [Columbia Records; Debbie Gold, producer]

‘Frankie and Albert’ (traditional folk song, arranged Bob Dylan)

 Stanza 8:

“Gimme a thousand policemen
Throw me into a cell
I shot my Albert dead
And now I’m goin’ to hell”
He was my man but he done me wrong.

◊

Stanza 10:

Frankie went to the scaffold.
Calm as a girl could be.
Turned her eyes up towards the heavens.
Said, “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”
He was her man but he done her wrong.

Religious parts in these two stanzas are obvious.  Frankie has killed her lover, Albert, and her religious beliefs lead her to expect punishment of hell.  Yet, as she heads to her execution, she looks up and feels she’s approaching God.  These words of Dylan’s arrangement are different from previous versions of Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt.

Modern Times (2006) [Columbia Records]

‘When the Deal Goes Down’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

First Stanza:

In the still of the night, in the world’s ancient light
Where wisdom grows up in strife
My bewildering brain, toils in vain
Through the darkness on the pathways of life
Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air
Tomorrow keeps turning around
We live and we die, we know not why
But I’ll be with you when the deal goes down

Phrase, ‘when the deal goes down’ sounds like mafia lingo for a rubout or assassination, but from an everyday, non-criminal point of view, death comes to everyone (except Enoch and Elijah) in many ways.  Line, “I’ll be with you when the deal goes down” finishes four stanzas of this song.  It’s a simple affirmation of faith and loyalty to the One above who crafts clouds, pockets prayer. 

Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deut 31:6)

Tempest (2012) [Columbia Records]

‘Roll on John’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Tribute to John Lennon, musician, assassinated in 1980.

Sample, last stanza before final chorus:

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
In the forest of the night
Cover him over, and let him sleep     

First and third line comes from poet William Blake (d. 1827).  His poem, ‘The Tyger,’ limns the wild animal, tiger, as hunter of “fearful symmetry,” and wonders about tiger’s creation, who, how, where.  The tiger may be interpreted as symbol of divine power.  Second line is extracted from children’s prayer dating to 1700s.  Fourth line continues the prayer, asking the Lord to let “John” sleep, rest in eternity.

Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020) [Columbia Records]

‘I Contain Multitudes’ (Bob Dylan, writer)

Title of song serves as refrain in its lyric, ending last line in six out of eight stanzas, including the last.

Final Line:

I play Beethoven sonatas Chopin’s preludes . . . I contain multitudes  

Statement “I contain multitudes” comes from poet Walt Whitman (d. 1892) in section 51 of his poem ‘Song of Myself.’  Long before Whitman’s usage, Gospel of Mark records episode of a demoniac exorcised by Jesus, who tells Jesus, “my name is Legion, for we are many” (Mk 5:9). 

The End