"Bob Dylan's God-Awful Gospel"

[SFTS]

Here is part of a children's song that Bob wrote:

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago
He saw an animal that liked to growl
Big furry paws and he liked to howl
Great big furry back and furry hair
“Ah, think I’ll call it a bear”

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago
He saw an animal up on a hill
Chewing up so much grass until she was filled
He saw milk comin’ out but he didn’t know how
“Ah, think I’ll call it a cow”

It goes on until it gets to the part about an animal smooth as glass
"Slithering his way through the grass
Saw him disappear by a tree near a lake . . ." (Bob Dylan)

You have to finish it yourself.

One of the stories behind it is Regina Mccrary, one of his backup singers, was there with her young son when they were practicing it. She said when they sang the song, her son just laughed and rolled on the floor, saying "Moma, it's a pig!". When Bob saw him do that, he decided that this song would definatly be on the "Slow Train" album.

A heartbreaking story Regina also told during an interview around 2003, was that her only son was killed in a tragic way, 6 months before she was chosen to sing "Pressing On" for the Gospel tribute album "Gotta Serve Somebody" with various artists, including her. She said the only way she made it through the tragic situation was the faith God sustained her with. Her courage is amazing. I was blessed to be able to contact her through facebook.

 

[SFTS]

Bob, like many teens in the 50's had his own "garage" rock band. After a while he grew tired of the pop fabricated songs of the day and discovered folk songs that had deeper meanings. Well known is his love for the music of Woody Guthrie. He went to New York in the early 60's and hooked up with the Greenwich Village folk groups. He loved the social stances many of them stood up for. Soon he wrote many social justice songs and anti-war songs and became very popular. At that time he was the darling of the counterculture folk purists. However by '64 he started rethinking some of his ideas. Without losing his focus on social justice, he started seeing the hypocricy of much of the counterculture and even in the civil rights movement and he started seeing some of that in himself. He also didn't want to be trapped by singing and playing only certain kinds of songs. After his albums "Freewheeling Bob Dylan" and "The Times, They are a-Changing", he came out with "Another Side of Bob Dylan". In it is a song called "My Back Pages" where he addresses some of this. Here are some of the verses:

........

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

........

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now (Dylan)

Bob was realizing that the counterculture he had been involved with was just as black and white as the American conservative culture was in that day and that in pointing militant fingers at the "mongrel dogs", he became exactly like them.

Bob realized that back then, he had been thinking himself wiser than his age, but was now realizing that he was not as wise as he though himself to be.

"Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now".

This was a very inward-looking and humble song.

From here on, for setting his own course, rather than following others, he was booed off the stage at the '65 folk festival, he was booed on stage while receiving an honor at a civil rights meeting, he was booed and walked out on, by many of his own fans when he started singing about his faith. The organized Christian church turned their back on him (I was, regrettably, in that crowd) when he sung his Gospel songs.

Such is the life when you follow your own heart, instead of following others.

 

[SFTS]

Here are a few lines from another song on the "Slow Train Coming" album:

"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

There’s a kingdom called Heaven
A place where there is no pain of birth
There’s a kingdom called Heaven
A place where there is no pain of birth
Well the Lord created it, mister
About the same time He made the earth" (Dylan - Gonna Change My Way of Thinking)

In 2003, Bob Dylan sang his rewrite of this song with Gospel singer Mavis Staples on the Gospel tribute album "Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan".

Here are some lines from his rewrite:

"Jesus is calling, He’s coming back to gather up his jewels
Jesus is calling, He’s coming back to gather up his jewels
We living by the golden rule, whoever got the gold rules
The sun is shining, ain’t but one train on this track
The sun is shining, ain’t but one train on this track
I’m stepping out of the dark woods, I’m jumping on the monkey’s back
I’m all dressed up, I’m going to the county dance
I’m all dressed up, I’m going to the county dance
Every day you got to pray for guidance
Every day you got to give yourself a chance
Storms are on the ocean, storms out on the mountain, too
Storms are on the ocean, storms out on the mountain, too
Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you"

My personal opinion is that when it is all said and done, he is still very much a believer, a Messianic believer at that. And that is so Awesome!

As a pastor of mine, years ago, said there are 3 suprises when you get to heaven 1) people not there, who you though sure would be, 2) people there, who most thought would not be and 3) the biggest suprise, if you are gut level honest with yourself, that you (me) are there. He said that in 1980. I have a suspicion that he was talking about Bob Dylan being there, when most fundamentalists would not think he would ever be in heaven.

Another neat thing about the duet with Mavis Staples, is that early in his career, back in the early 60's, he asked her to marry him! Too bad it didn't work out.

 

[Ted Lang]

The down side of this guy is the way he sings... terrible sounding
Sounds like his nose is stopped up er something.

Other than that, sounds like some good lyrics, so that's good.

 

[SFTS]

The down side of this guy is the way he sings... terrible sounding
Sounds like his nose is stopped up er something.

Other than that, sounds like some good lyrics, so that's good.

Yes, many people have made fun of his nasal way of singing (even Joan Baez in good nature), but it worked for him in what he was trying to do with his music. He was all about the words and the music, the way he sung it sort of hammered the words. Also he has always been like "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear", to the meaning of his songs. Jesus speaking of John the Baptist said, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? a reed blowin' in the wind? John the Baptist preached in a rough way and Bob sung in a rough way, but his words ring true.

 

[SFTS]

Here is a song from his 1970 album New Morning. It is a Jewish praise song:

FATHER OF NIGHT DYLAN

Father of night, Father of day
Father who taketh the darkness away
Father who teacheth the bird to fly
Builder of rainbows up in the sky
Father of loneliness and pain
Father of love and Father of rain

Father of day, Father of night
Father of black, Father of white
Father who build the mountain so high
Who shapeth the cloud up in the sky
Father of time and Father of dreams
Father who turneth the rivers and streams

Father of grain, Father of wheat
Father of cold and Father of heat
Father of air and Father of trees
Who dwells in our hearts and our memories
Father of minutes, Father of days
Father of whom we most solemnly praise

 

[SFTS]

Here is how he currently ends his concerts, a cover of a song from the 30's:

STAY WITH ME

Should my heart not be humble, should my eyes fail to see,
Should my feet sometimes stumble on the way, stay with me.
Like the lamb that in springtime wanders far from the fold,
Comes the darkness and the frost, I get lost, I grow cold.

I grow cold, I grow weary, and I know I have sinned,
And I go seeking shelter and I cry in the wind,
And though I grope and I blunder and I'm weak and I'm wrong,
Though the road buckles under where I walk, walk along

Till I find to my wonder every path leads to Thee,
All that I can do is, pray, stay with me.
Stay with me.