So now I come to a point in Dylan's career I am pretty ignorant of, his Christian phase. This is not to mean that Dylan has lost faith or doesn't consider himself a Christian anymore (I honestly don't know), but that there was an infamous period in his career when he converted to evangelical Christianity and put out three albums of religious music.
This conversion came after a rough patch in his life when his wife Sara divorced him, which also meant custody battles over his children. He also put an immense amount of time editing his film Renaldo and Clara, which flopped hard with audiences and critics. Some of the members of his Rolling Thunder band were born again, and his earlier work abounded with Biblical references, so this conversion may have been (pardon the reference) a slow train coming.
It is hard for me to even imagine how his audience reacted to this. The music he made in this period is surprisingly good, but the lyrics he wrote got didactic and, for the first time, boring.
Slow Train Coming (1979)
The first of the gospel albums is the best. If he had released this as a stylistic one-off, like Nashville Skyline or Desire, and then moved on I think it would have a better reputation. Instead he put out two more albums of lower quality Christian music.
I have to say, apart from the judgy lyrics on some songs (more on that later), this is a good album! It sounds great, Dylan attacks the songs with gusto, and many of the songs are memorable. He won a Grammy for "Gotta Serve Somebody," and it's easy to hear why. The slick late-70s studio sound he worked with on Street Legal is better focused with the help of Mark Knopfler. Even potentially cheesy songs like "Man Gave Names To All The Animals" have a drive behind them and memorable melodies. This is the sound of someone coming out of a dark hole and feeling good about himself again.
Unfortunately, the tendency to judge, cajole, and condemn that has turned off so many from American Christianity seeps out here, and will get worse.
Rating: Four Bobs
Saved (1980)
The original cover of the hand of God coming down to choose the Elect pretty much says it all. This is a far more hardcore gospel album. When it sticks to the musical heritage of gospel music I tend to like it more, like on the title track. The problem is that when he is writing songs in the contemporary Christian music vein about how much he loves God the symbolism and metaphorical depth of his lyrics just sort of drops away. It's not poetry, but a sermon. The studio musicians and background singers can cook, though.
Rating: Three Bobs
Shot of Love (1981)
Things get more rocking and less gospel here, at least on the first tracks. The grooves are alright, too. The problem is we have been down this road before. Songs like "Watered-Down Love" sound like they are cribbed from a preacher's sermon notes. The message of the song seems to be that if you aren't a Christian you can't actually love. Blech.
Taking the lyrics out of it, the music's got a little swing and the band is tight. Listening to this music I am mostly sad that Dylan didn't apply this sound (which I like) to higher-caliber material. This is the weakest of the Christian trio, but it ends with "Every Grain of Sand," a beautiful song that spends less time pointing the finger in favor of spirituality. If only more of his religious songs hit this note.
Rating: Two and a half Bobs
Bootleg Series Vol 13 Trouble No More 1979-1981
When I heard they were doing a Bootleg Series on the Christian years I wondered if they had scraped the bottom of the barrel and were trying to punch through it for more nuggets. This one however is mostly live recordings, and some of the songs I didn't like as much in their studio versions (especially from Shot of Love) sound better and more lively here. However, listening to it all at once was a sometimes wearying experience. The aforementioned judgement and fire and brimstone just gets old. So many of the songs amount to "you sinner, why haven't you made the jump?" This is best listened to selectively, but I gotta say, the live performances are more interesting than what you hear on Hard Rain and Before the Flood. I did not listen to the full nine disc version because I just didn't have it in me.
Rating: Three and a half Bobs
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