The Dylan Mass

The band debuted these five Dylan covers sitting at the front of the nave, seated in a semi-circle with their backs to the audience. They chose these specific songs to carry the congregation through the liturgy of an Anglican Mass (see here). Throughout the service, the band remained obscured, the music supporting the proceedings rather than becoming them. CLICK HERE to read more

Polarizing power of 'Hallelujah'

It all started when dreadlocked Jason Castro sang Cohen's "Hallelujah" on "American Idol" last March. Simon Cowell was duly impressed, as were American audiences, who promptly sent the late Jeff Buckley's 1994 cover of the same song to the top of the iTunes charts. CLICK HERE to read more

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking

Just another night and just another date on that long, long road: November 18th, 1979. Click here for a clip of Bob Dylan and his band performing Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking. CLICK HERE to read more

Preacher Abandons Bible For Dylan Lyrics

Calling his movement The Zimmerman Way, the once Reverend Chuckie Leven announced to his surprised congregation that he would no longer teach from the Bible and would, in the name of postmodernism, preach only from Dylan lyrics. The reaction was predictable; CLICK HERE to read more

Dylan Gets Saved

Anyway, one of those books I'm currently reading is a book about Bob Dylan called "Dylan Redeemed." Here, the author chronicles Dylan's three so-called "Christian" albums from the late seventies and into the early eighties. His first, 1979’s “Slow Train Coming,” is more Christian than much of what passes as Christian music today. CLICK HERE to read more

Dylan Get's Saved (Part 2)

Much could be said about the overall library of Bob Dylan's music. While I'm somewhat a fan of Dylan, I'm by no means the Dylan expert. I leave that label for the real experts, such as those who've actually listened to his corpus of music in it's entirety. Stephen Webb, in his book that I've been reading titled "Dylan Redeemed," suggests that when one looks at the whole of Dylan's recordings, one finds the origins of what would later become Dylan's three Christian recordings. CLICK HERE to read more

Dylan Get's Saved (Part 3)

It's interesting that much is made about the faith of Bob Dylan and that many questions whether his turn towards the Christian faith (from his Jewish upbringing) was simply a farce. CLICK HERE to read more

Bob Dylan: Review of Shot of Love

Dylan makes the dichotomy of the Christian life so clear and real in this album. A believer may enjoy the eternal summertime of God’s presence and live a life of gracious love that heals and strengthens but he must endure the mocking, the oppression the real threats from the non-believing world. CLICK HERE to read more

The Dylan Watch (by Lawrence J. Epstein)

This is a post about Bob Dylan and Judaism. Were Dylan more of an ordinary person, an ordinary analysis might suffice. Such an analysis would include the normally revealing facts that Robert Zimmerman was born to Jewish parents, raised as a Jew, given a lavish Bar Mitzvah, and attended Camp Herzl in Webster, Wisconsin for four consecutive summers, from 1954-1958. CLICK HERE to read more