Amid a driving rain Air Force One touched down in Havana, Cuba on the afternoon of Sunday, March 20, 2016.  The President and the First Family descended the steps under a family of stiff black umbrellas, and TV reporters and pundits struggled to find a metaphor that fit the historic occasion. Finally one commentator, steel in the voice, proclaimed. ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’—there you have it, a reference to Dylan’s song from 1963.  The comment was made to reference the song’s supposed examination of missiles in Cuba during the early 1960s and the threat of nuclear fallout. Whether the song is in fact about the ‘hard rain’ of a nuclear war has been debated for years. Dylan simply says that it was written during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 [1] but makes no specific reference to a nuclear war. Nevertheless reaching back fifty years to Dylan’s work to encapsulate such a momentous occasion signifies the virtual deification that many have placed on this artist–and according to his own words, it is a position that he would rather not occupy.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in the spring of 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, on the banks of Lake Superior. He spent most of his childhood in the town of Hibbing, in Northern Minnesota.

According to the liner notes of his debut album, ‘Bob Dylan’, he started playing guitar at ten and wrote his first song five or six years later, dedicating it to (sex siren) Brigitte Bardot. [2]

Before he became interested in folk music, he liked stories—stories by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs. An attraction of folk music was that ‘folk singers could sing songs like an entire book, but only in a few verses.’ [3]

In the spring of 1959 Dylan boarded a Greyhound bus for Minneapolis. [4] He was looking for what Kerouac was looking for in his book, On The Road – the big city, the speed, the ‘hydrogen jukebox world.’ [5]

Minneapolis

When Dylan arrived in Minneapolis the ‘first thing’ he did was trade in his electric guitar for a ‘Double-0 Martin acoustic.  [6] He started playing in coffeehouses in the Twin Cities, and living in a fraternity house. [7]

By now his ‘emotional home’ was folk music.   “[F]olk music was a reality of a more brilliant dimension. It exceeded all human understanding, and if it called out to you, you could disappear and be sucked into it. I felt right at home in this mythical realm made up not with individuals so much as archetypes, vividly drawn archetypes of humanity, metaphysical in shape, each rugged soul filled with natural wisdom…It was so real, so much more true to life than life itself. It was life magnified. Folk music was all I needed to exist…Once I had slipped in beyond the fringes it was like my six string guitar became a crystal magic wand and I could move things like never before.  I had no other cares or interests besides folk music. I scheduled my life around it. I had little in common with anyone not like-minded.” [8]

One day, an aspiring actress he knew from the coffeehouse circuit, asked him if he had ever heard of Woody Guthrie.  He replied that he had. She then asked if he had heard of Guthrie on his own. He hadn’t.  She replied that Woody Guthrie was “somebody I should definitely get hip to.” [9]

He followed her to hear to a collection of Woody Guthrie songs.  “I put [a record] on the turntable and when the needle dropped I was stunned” [10]

“Guthrie had such a grip on things. He was so poetic and tough and rhythmic.” [11].

Needing to know more about the legendary folksinger, he read Guthrie’s autobiography, Bound for Glory. ‘Guthrie divides the world into those who work and those who don’t and is interested in the liberation of the human race and wants to create a world worth living in, [12].

The songs of Woody Guthrie ruled his universe. Chronicles Volume 1 makes clear that Guthrie, through his songs, was expressing a worldview that was the essence of what the young Dylan was trying to define, a world view that Dylan was searching for, not just a view expressed through his music, but one that described his life.  “Through his compositions my view of the world was coming sharply into focus.  I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie’s greatest disciple…Woody Guthrie had never seen nor heard of me, but it felt like he was saying, ‘I’ll be going away, but I’m leaving his job in your hands. I knew I can count on you.” [13]

Within a couple of years Dylan became restless, hemmed in by Minneapolis. “The Twin Cities had become too cramped, and there was only so much you could do. The world of folk music was too closed off and the town was beginning to feel like a mud puddle. New York was the place I wanted to be and one snowy morning around daybreak…I stood on the edge of town and hitchhiked east to find Woody Guthrie.” [14]

By the time Dylan left for New York City Guthrie had been hospitalized for years with Huntington’s disease. He remained in hospital until his death in 1967. [15]

New York City

Dylan arrived in New York City ‘[i]n midwinter 1961’.  A friend had told him to look up a club in Greenwich Village named the Café Wha?  He found the club and played for a minute or so for the maestro in charge of the entertainers, and was hired to play harmonica. “I was ecstatic. At least it was a place to stay out of the cold.”  Professional acts who played at the club at that time included Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers and Lenny Bruce, the ‘falsetto-speaking’ Tiny Tim, and a number of folk acts. [16]

He played a number of clubs. He identifies what set him apart from the other folk singers—his repertoire. “It was more formidable than the rest of the coffeehouse players, my template being hard-core folk songs backed by incessantly loud strumming. I’d either drive people away or they’d come in closer to see what it was all about. There was no in-between…Folk music was the way I explored the universe, they were pictures and pictures were worth more than anything I could say. I knew the inner substance of the thing. I could easily connect the pieces.” [17]

The Village Gaslight club, also located in Greenwich Village, was one of the preeminent folk clubs in the city, and Dylan wanted to play there.  Dave Van Ronk was one of the artists who performed there regularly. Dylan had heard of him back in the Midwest. One day while Dylan was at ‘the citadel of American Folk Music,’ the Folklore Center–which  sold books, records, instruments and other items related to folk music–Van Ronk walked  in. Dylan approached him and asked how someone could get a gig at the Gaslight, and offered to play something for him.  He played “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”. Van Ronk said he could come down and play a couple of songs on his set that night. [18]

At around this time, Dylan met Ramblin’ Jack Elliott at Woody Guthrie’s bedside. [19] Jack Elliott was another of Guthrie’s protégés. Dylan had heard Elliott’s records back in Minneapolis and was in awe of the musician [20].. Dylan would soon become a protégé of Elliott, and then a personal friend.

He was soon on the regular bill at the Village Gaslight. Noel Paul Stookey, who later became part of the folk group, Peter, Paul and Mary, was the MC, [21]

Within months of arriving in New York City Dylan was playing with John Lee Hooker, [22] an established blues artist, and got his first professional recording job, playing harmonica for Harry Belafonte on ‘Midnight Special’, an old tune originally made famous by the blues and folk artist, Leadbelly.  [23] (Hear the recording session on YouTube, YoTtube.com, Accessed, April 17, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj0IHtfUY-g )

Suze Rotolo (who would later share the cover of Dylan’s second album, ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’, with the artist) was a young woman whom Dylan liked. She was working ‘behind the scenes’ of a musical based on the songs of Bertolt Brecht. [24] One song, ‘Pirate Jenny’ but better known as ‘A Ship The Black Freighter’  brought back memories of his birthplace on the banks of Lake Superior. (See Nina Simone perform ‘Pirate Jenny on YouTube, YouTube.com, accessed April 17, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB__mz4KGC8)

“I found myself taking the song apart, trying to find out what made it tick, why it was so effective…This heavy song was a new stimulant for my senses, indeed very much like a folk song but a folk song from a different gallon jug in a different backyard. I felt like I wanted to snatch up a bunch of keys and go see about that place, see what else was there. ..I wanted to figure out how to manipulate and control this particular structure and form which I knew was the key that gave ‘Pirate Jenny’ its resilience and outrageous power.

“I could see that the type of songs I was leaning towards  singing didn’t exist and I began playing with the form, trying to grasp it—trying to make a song that transcended the information in it, the character and plot.”   [25]

Dylan continued playing coffeehouses throughout the Village and his reputation spread. On September 29, 1961 an article appeared in the folk section of the New York Times under the headline. ‘20-Year-Old Singer Is Bright New Face at Gerde’s Club’   [26]

The reviewer, Robert Shelton, wrote:

“A bright new face in folk music is appearing at Gerde’s Folk City. Although only 20 years old, Bob Dylan is one of the most distinctive stylists to play a Manhattan cabaret in months.

“Mr. Dylan’s voice is anything but pretty. He is consciously trying to recapture the rude beauty of a Southern field hand musing in melody on his porch. All the “husk and bark” are left on his notes and a searing intensity pervades his songs.

“But if not for every taste, his music-making has the mark of originality and inspiration, all the more noteworthy for his youth. Mr. Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up.”

The following day Dylan was at a recording studio playing harmonica for a friend’s debut album for Columbia records. [27] John Hammond, the talent-scout and producer for the record company was at the session.  Hammond had read the article. After the session he offered Dylan a recording contract right then and there.

“It felt like my heart leaped up to the sky, to some intergalactic star. Inside I was in a state of unstable equilibrium…I couldn’t believe it. It seemed too good to be true.” [28]

Being signed by John Hammond was a very big deal. Hammond was, and still is, almost thirty years after his death, a figure of mythical proportions in the American music industry.  In addition to Dylan, he was responsible for discovering, promoting or producing such artists as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen, [29] and Stevie Ray Vaughan. [30]

After Dylan signed the contract, Hammond handed him two records.  One was ‘King of the Delta Blues’ by Robert Johnson. [31] Dylan played the album.  “From the first note the vibrations from the loudspeaker made my hair stand up…I immediately differentiated between him and anyone else I’d ever heard.”

“The record had left me numb, like I’d been hit by a tranquilizer bullet,” [32]

“The compositions seemed to come right out of his mouth and not his memory, and I started meditating on the construction of the verses, seeing how different they were from Woody’s.  Johnson’s words made my nerves quiver like piano wires. They were so elemental in meaning and gave you so much of the inside picture.” [33]

“I copied  Johnson’s words down on scraps of paper so I could more closely examine the lyrics and patterns, the construction of his old-style  lines and the free associations that he used, the sparkling allegories, big-ass  truths wrapped in the hard shell of nonsensical abstractions—themes that flew through the air with the greatest of ease. I didn’t have any of these dreams or thoughts but I was going to acquire them.” [34]

“Johnson is serious, like the scorched earth. There’s nothing clownish about him or the lyrics. I wanted to be like that, too.” [35]

Dylan’s songwriting developed rapidly.   ‘Pirate Jenny’ and the Robert Johnson recordings had a seminal influence on Dylan’s recordings. He writes:

“In a few years’ time, I’d write songs like ‘I’t’s Allright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),’ ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ ‘Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,’ ‘Who Killed Davey Moore,’ ‘Only a Pawn in Their Game,’ ‘A Hard Rain’s  A-Gonna Fall’…if I hadn’t …heard the ballad ‘Pirate Jenny,’ it might not have dawned on me to write them, that songs like these could be written…In about 1964 and ’65, I probably used about five or six of  Robert Johnson’s blues song forms, too, unconsciously, but more on the lyrical imagery side of things.  If I hadn’t heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down—that I wouldn’t have felt free enough or upraised enough to write.” [36]

Dylan writes at length about the songwriting process and the source material for his songs. What’s striking about the evolution as a songwriter is that, as a young man–only in his early twenties— he followed his own course, his allegiance to folk music, his allegiance to Guthrie.  He did not follow the three minute template of the day, which survives to today.

“Ì had broken myself of the habit of thinking in  short song cycles and began reading longer and longer poems to see if I could remember anything I read about in the beginning.”  His interest in poetry expanded. He read Byron and Coleridge. [37] He looked for material in newspapers—current ones left behind in coffeehouses, [38] or old issues at the New York Public Library. [39]

His debut album, ‘Bob Dylan’, was released in 1962, and contained a combination of folk covers and original songs. ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ was released the following year and contained mostly original songs, including ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.’  Four more albums were released by 1965 and included the songs ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, and ‘Like A Rolling Stone.’ [40]

By the mid-sixties folk music was at its pinnacle, and had become a voice within the Civil Rights movement. And for many, Dylan had become an important voice within the folk community.  In August of 1963, at just twenty-two, he played at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, [41] the watershed event in the quest for civil rights, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Also performing that day were fellow folk artists, Joan Baez; Peter, Paul and Mary; gospel icon Mahalia Jackson; opera star Marian Anderson; and others. The following year Dylan’s voice loomed even louder with the release of the album, ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’. The title song, and ‘Only a Pawn in Their Game’—about the murder of civil rights leader, Medgar Evers—quickly became popular ‘protest’ songs.

 ‘Prince of Protest’

By the mid- to late-sixties he had produced a string of hits, and was regarded by fans and critics alike as a voice of his generation, a position that he rejected.

“[T]he big bugs in the press kept promoting me as the mouthpiece, spokesman, or even conscience of a generation.  That was funny. All I’d ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of. I’d left my hometown only ten years earlier, wasn’t vociferating the opinions of anybody. My destiny lay down the road with whatever life invited, had nothing to do with representing any kind of civilization. Being true to you, that was the thing. I was more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper.” [42]

As early as 1964 he expressed his rejection of the ‘voice of a generation’ moniker in ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’.

You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Never weak but always strong
To protect you an’ defend you
Whether you are right or wrong
Someone to open each and every door
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe

From the album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, released in 1964 [43]

At around this time, Dylan “broke away” from his earlier style. “[W]hat I did to break away was to take simple folk changes and put new imagery and attitude to them, use catchphrases and metaphor combined with a new set of ordinances that evolved into something different that had not been heard before.” [44] He also broke away from the ‘protest’ songs of the early sixties, which did not please many of his followers. Even his old friend, Joan Baez wrote a protest song about him, challenging him to “lead the masses—be an advocate, lead the crusade.” [45]

In 1969 music producer Lou Adler (who two years later would produce Carole King’s landmark album, ‘Tapestry’ [46] ) gathered together a group of singers—backup singers from recording sessions, and friends from church—and recorded a collection of Dylan’s secular songs in a black gospel style. The ad hoc group was named The Brothers & Sisters, and the album was named ‘Dylan’s Gospel’. [47]

The Gospel Era 1978 – 1981

In late 1978, Bob Dylan, who is Jewish, made a telephone call to the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Los Angeles.

“At want point did you hear that Dylan was interested in accepting the Lord, and how did you feel about the opportunity to help him with that,” the interviewer asks, in the documentary film, Inside Bob Dylan’ Jesus Years.  [48]

“Well, yeah, he called our office  because of some things that were going on, and when he called we had some pastors who had musical backgrounds, and they went up and talked to him, and that’s how that came about,” replies Bill Dwyer, Pastor of the Valley Vineyard Christian Fellowship, [49]  Los Angeles, California. He was a founding member and a Bible study instructor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church at the time Dylan called.

“It was very down to earth, it was, like, ‘do you need help in your life’, do you want to see a change in your life, do you have a sense of something more…are you aware of your sins, your own failures have created a lot of guilt and shame in your life, and do you want to get free of that…He called and he said he wanted to talk to somebody, and they went up and just talked with him, and they just answered questions that he had.”

Bible Study

Dylan started attending Bible classes at the church. [50] and at the home of  Al Kasha, a two-time Academy Award winning composer and lyricist. [51]   Kasha, who is also Jewish, relates stories of Dylan remaining in his home until two or three in the morning, long after the other members of the group had left, asking questions, discussing the subject matter.

“I think he wrote some of ‘Slow Train Coming’ at my house,’ Kasha says. “I remember one night he came in with a guitar and he said ‘Can I sit in front of your fireplace’ and my wife and I went to sleep  (laughs) and I said ‘here’s the key and when you leave the house, leave the house’, and he was writing some songs.” [52]

Slow Train Coming

“Slow Train Coming, I like to think, stands up with any of Dylan’s great records,” says record producer Jerry Wexler. Dylan hired Wexler, a former executive at Atlantic records, to produce his first album of gospel songs. During the session, Wexler recalls, Dylan, who was carrying around a copy of the New Testament, asked, “Do you ever get into this?” Wexler replied. “Bob, ain’t no use. You’re talking to a sixty-two year old card-carrying Jewish atheist! [Bob] laughed and…no more problem. He didn’t try to work on me anymore.” [53]

Wexler had been producing albums since the 1950s for such artists as Ray Charles, Wilson Picket and Aretha Franklin. [54] He was also one of the producers of the album, ‘Communiqué’, the second studio album by the British rock group, Dire Straits. He brought in front man Mark Knopfler to play guitar on ‘Slow Train’– but  not to play ‘Mark Knopfler’ guitar, but  (blues great) Albert King’s guitar styling. And the guitar riffs of Albert King(‘Born Under a Bad Sign’) are unmistaken on the title track.

After initial problems, the entire album was recorded in a week, and by the end of the second week the album was mixed and completed.

The first track is ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’– slick, mid-tempo, the minor key and the prominent Wurlitzer electric piano riffs give the song a smooth, dark, funky vibe. The message is simple, no matter who you are, you’re going to have to serve somebody—‘It may be the devil or it may be the Lord/ But you’re gonna have to serve somebody’.

‘I Believe In You’ is a haunting ballad, with an unforgettable and plaintive melody.  I interpret the song as a plea for solace and for comfort after being rejected by old friends—a rejection brought about by the protagonist’s newfound beliefs:  ‘And they, they look at me and frown/ They’d like to drive me from this town/ They don’t want me around/ ‘Cause I believe in You’.

At the 22^nd Grammys in 1979, Bob Dylan won the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, award for ‘Gotta Serve Somebody.’ [55]

Starting in November of 1979, he dedicated seventy-five straight concert performances to his gospel repertoire. [56]

Saved

In 1980 Dylan reteamed with Wexler for the follow up album,‘Saved’.  Wexler’s  experience with  R&B and  black gospel artists comes through on this album  with a strong rhythm section, drums, bass, and prominent  organ  and gospel piano phrasings. The return of backup singers Regina Havis, Monalisa Young, and Clydie King added strong black gospel harmonies—especially on ‘Pressing On’. See Regina McCrary (at one time, Havis) and the Chicago Mass Choir perform this song on YouTube (YouTube.com, accessed, April 17, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se4YBi07cWw)

The title track is fast, tailor made for a revival service: Saved by the blood of the lamb…I’m so glad, I’m so glad…I Just want to thank you Lord, Thank you lord.

‘Are You Ready’ comes at you with a direct, in-your-face aggressiveness, riding on a strident blues beat and bass line, again reminiscent of Albert King or Buddy Guy: ‘Are You Ready to Meet Jesus? / Are You Where You Ought to Be? / Will He know you when he sees you?/  Or will He say, “Depart From Me?’

Shot of Love

‘Shot of Love’, an album with a mix of secular and Christian songs, was released in 1981.  Ringo Starr, and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, played on the track, ‘Heart of Mine’ [57]

The title song rejects drugs, pills, booze   and any earthly fix for life’s ills. What you really need is a ‘shot of love.’

In ‘Property of Jesus,’ Dylan sarcastically encourages the jaded listener to go ahead and mock and ridicule a man who has made a decision for Jesus.  ‘He’s the property of Jesus/ Resent him to the bone/ You’ve got something better/ You’ve got a heart of stone.’

The final track on the album is ‘Every Grain of Sand.’ Rolling Stone lists ‘Every Grain of Sand’ as one of Dylan’s ten best songs of all time. [58] As late as January, 2016, the official Bob Dylan website contained a page of the 10 ‘must hear’ songs for new listeners, and ‘Every Grain of Sand’ was ranked number three behind ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘Maggie’s Farm’. (As of this writing, the page has been removed.) As late as 2012 the song, with its strong scriptural message, was still being played alongside his secular tunes on tour.  [59] ‘Every Grain of Sand’ is one of the most profound of Dylan’s songs.  The protagonist is in utter despair and loneliness, recounting a lost innocence after living a life marked by earthly success squandered on self-indulgence, loss of conscience and wasted days. He reaches out to God, and finds hope. Through his ‘tears’ he  can see  the work of the Master all around him—in the most mundane and insignificant places—‘in every leaf that trembles’ and  ‘in every grain of sand.’

Reaction to Dylan’s faith was not universally positive to say the least.   At his first concert singing the Jesus songs, some fans, expecting the ‘old’ social protest Dylan, walked out. One fan said that if he had wanted to a sermon he would have gone to church. [60] Another claimed that Jesus loved his ‘old songs’ too. [61]. John Lennon, months before he was gunned down on a New York City sidewalk, recorded  a profanity laden rebuttal to ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’, entitled, ‘Serve Yourself.’ Listen to a version on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXd25Jqi7G0 [62]

You got to serve yourself
Ain’t nobody gonna do it for you
Well, you may believe in devils and you may believe in Lords
But if you don’t go out and serve yourself, lad
Ain’t no room service here [63]

Legacy

In 2003 a group of gospel artists got together and recorded an album of Dylan’s gospel songs, ‘Gotta Serve Somebody- – The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan’. Shirley Caesar, Aaron Neville, Sounds of Blackness, Mighty Clouds of Joy, The Chicago Mass Choir featuring Regina McCrary, Bob Dylan and Mavis Staples, among others, all contributed to the project.  The album was nominated for a Grammy award [64]

Sounds of Blackness recorded a version of ‘Solid Rock’—heavy with 70s funk, kick and snare, a driving bass hook overlaid with keyboards—a version that bore little resemblance to Dylan’s original release. [65] Mighty Clouds of Joy recorded ‘Saved’ in a traditional gospel style, with piano punching out loud and crazy behind the vocals. Regina McCrary, who performed on the original recordings decades earlier, sang on the updated ‘Pressing On’ with the Chicago Mass Choir. And for the title track, a strong bass hook playing between the kick and the snare, strong guitar and organ, and Shirley Caesar’s vocals riding over it all, defined the revamped ‘Gotta Serve Somebody.’

“Bob always said the songs are channeled. Whenever Dylan talks about his songwriting he uses these phrases like ‘these are the words that came through me’,” says Alan Light, a music journalist. [66]. And the performances on this record certainly feel ‘channeled’.  These artists don’t merely sing these songs. While the artists—singers as well as musicians—start the songs softly and politely enough, the music gathers momentum. The spirit overcomes the performers –heads rock from side to side, hands clench and quiver in front of the microphones. The lead vocals, pure and full-bodied, are reinforced by a fiery wall of background voices. A tide of breathless anticipation, of pounding emotion, builds. A column of praise, of joy, of utter blissfulness, gushes from the depths of the soul, straight to heaven.

Why has Dylan’s work been so profound, why has it resonated with millions of fans for decades? Why do his concerts, years after his last hit record, still sell out major venues?  Could it be that his original quest for truth—through his words, his thoughts, his music–connects with people on the most basic, most primal level, the most ‘human’ level? Who knows?

Final Thoughts

Bob Dylan’s very public acceptance of Jesus Christ back in 1979, when you peel away the layers, is filled with pathos.  A young man choses the tools of folk music to seek for truth—‘the essence of the thing’ as he calls it–and in so doing pushes the innermost feelings, fears and hopes of a generation into the public square.  And that quest ultimately leads him to study the Bible in a small church in California.  And he was not alone. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott [67], and Noel Paul Stookey, [68] of Peter, Paul and Mary, friends and fellow artists from Greenwich Village, made similar discoveries as well.

Just as the political and social justice aspect of Dylan’s songs animated a generation, his gospel songs have the potential to do the same for believers in Christ.   Regina McCrary, one of the backup singers on the original albums, shares one of the most poignant stories to emerge from the projects. Her only child, a son, was a mere toddler when she backed up Dylan on ‘Slow Train’ in 1979. She tells the story of how her child loved the song ’Man Gave Names To All The Animals’. More than twenty years later Ms. McCrary obtained peace in her heart through those same songs, after that once innocent child who loved to name the animals, met an untimely and violent death as an adult, leaving his mother to grieve and bury her child.

Just as Dylan’s words spoke for a generation of protests, so, too, they can speak to everyone who has ever struggled with their Walk, been ridiculed for their faith, needed strength to carry on. Just as that commentator looked to Dylan to speak for the potentially monumental occurrence on March 20, 2016, in Havana, Cuba, so too can anyone who wants to, get on the Dylan train to find expression in their lives today.

© Weldon Turner 2016 All Rights Reserved

Next month: The stories behind 10 favorite hymns

Photograph

Getty Images
Author:  Baron Wolman
© 2006 Business Wire

References

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[2] BobDylan.com, accessed, April 28, 2016 http://bobdylan.com/albums/bob-dylan/
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[26] The New York Times On the Web, accessed, April 17, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/04/reviews/dylan-gerde.html
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[28] Dylan, Chronicles, p279
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[35] Dylan, Chronicles, p285
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[37] Dylan, Chronicles, p56
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[41] NewYorker.com, accessed, April 17, 2016, http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dream-songs-the-music-of-the-march-on-washington
[42] Dylan, Chronicles, p115.
[43] Bobdylan.com, accessed, April 29, 2016, http://bobdylan.com/songs/it-aint-me-babe/
[44] Dylan, Chronicles, p67
[45] Dylan, Chronicles, p119
[46] CaroleKing.com, accessed, April 29, 2016,  http://www.caroleking.com/news/45th-anniversary-tapestry-release
[47] Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/dylans-gospel-a-lost-album-of-bob-dylan-covers-resurfaces-20140210
[48] Inside Bob Dylan’s Jesus Years, Highway 61 Entertainment, 2008
[49] Valleyvineyard.org, accessed, April 17, 2016, http://valleyvineyard.org/
[50] Inside Bob Dylan’s Jesus Years
[51] http://www.alkasha.com/redirect.aspx?s=1015&p=3025
[52] Inside Bob Dylan’s Jesus Years.
[53] Inside Bob Dylan’s Jesus Years.
[54] NewYorkTimes.com, accessed, April 24, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/world/americas/16iht-16obit.15349789.html?_r=0
[55] Garmmy.com, accessed, April 24, 2016, http://www.grammy.com/artist/bob-dylan
[56] Gotta Serve Somebody-The Gospels Songs of Bob Dylan, Burning Rose Video Ltd, 2005
[57] BobDylan.com, http://bobdylan.com/albums/shot-love/
[58] RollingStone.com, accessed April 17, 2016, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-10-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-20110511/every-grain-of-sand-20110511
[59] BobDylan.com, accessed April 24, 2016. http://bobdylan.com/date/2012-11-03-centurylink-center/
[60] Inside the Jesus Years.
[61] Gotta Serve Somebody-The Gospels Songs of Bob Dylan
[62]YouTube.com, accessed, April 17, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXd25Jqi7G0
[63] MetroLyrics.com, Accessed April 24, 2016, http://www.metrolyrics.com/serve-yourself-lyrics-john-lennon.html
[64] Amazon.com, Gotta Serve Somebody, Product description, http://www.amazon.com/Gotta-Serve-Somebody-Gospel-Songs/dp/B000C20VK0/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1461550815&sr=1-2&keywords=gotta+serve+somebody
[65] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YLl1kUaoWw
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[68] Biography.com, accessed, April 18, 2016, http://www.biography.com/people/paul-stookey-20874623#personal-life

Bibliography

Bob Dylan, Chronicles Volume 1, Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2005.

Video Documentaries

Inside Bob Dylan’s Jesus Years, Highway 61 Entertainment, 2008

Gotta Serve Somebody—The Gospels Songs of Bob Dylan, Burning Rose Video Ltd, 2005

Links

http://bobdylan.com/albums/bob-dylan/
http://www.woodyguthrie.org/biography/biography8.htm
https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/04/reviews/dylan-gerde.html
http://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hammond.
http://www.srvofficial.com/biography/.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dream-songs-the-music-of-the-march-on-washington
http://www.caroleking.com/news/45th-anniversary-tapestry-release
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/dylans-gospel-a-lost-album-of-bob-dylan-covers-resurfaces-20140210
http://valleyvineyard.org/
http://www.alkasha.com/redirect.aspx?s=1015&p=3025
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/world/americas/16iht-16obit.15349789.html?_r=0
http://www.grammy.com/artist/bob-dylan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXd25Jqi7G0
http://www.metrolyrics.com/serve-yourself-lyrics-john-lennon.html
http://www.amazon.com/Gotta-Serve-Somebody-Gospel-Songs/dp/B000C20VK0/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1461550815&sr=1-2&keywords=gotta+serve+somebody
http://www.biography.com/people/paul-stookey-20874623#personal-life

Images

“Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan.”    Pictured:  Bob Dylan, 1979.  (Photo by Baron Wolman for Business Wire via Getty Images)