Column on Dylan

I have lived to see Bob Dylan receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. I recall vividly being in mother’s green 1961 Pontiac Tempest when Like a Rolling Stone came on the radio. Sometimes you had to fight to listen to the lyrics through that nasal whine and later his tubercular rasp, but the words would ring true. In his way, Dylan is a latter day prophet, speaking truth to the powers that be.

For me, his masterpiece is Blood on the Tracks. It came out in early adulthood and helped me process the heartbreaks that may accompany early adulthood. If You See Her “night after sleepless night, I replay the past.” It is tinged with real regret and vagrant hope-“If you get close to her, kiss her once for me. I always have respected here,” but also “tell her she can look me up, if she’s got the time.” I’ve used Shelter from the Storm as an image for the church in our 6PM arts-oriented services. Brownsville Girl” “Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content”

For most people, his early work stands out, deservedly so. It is a heavy burden to be called the voice of a generation.

As he grew older, he pushed out some junk, of course. The less said about the Christian material, the better. I do get a cackle out of his Christmas album, especially as the vocals are more suited to Halloween. His dulcet tones have gone through some of the Frank Sinatra material as well. Some of his later material is noteworthy. .” He won Academny Award for Things Have Changed.Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff too/Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through/People are crazy and times are strange/I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range/I used to care, but things have changed/I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road
If the Bible is right, the world will explode/I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can/Some things are too hot to touch/The human mind can only stand so much

Dylan has always had a bit of an apocalyptic streak. All along the Watchtower is a model of alarm. Thunder on the Mountain even adopts a biblical image for a theophany. Facing mortality, he wrote  with the title’s line “it’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” “In Blind Willie McTell”:Dtlan wrote:

“Well, God is in His heaven, And we all want what’s his. But power and greed and corruptible seed, Seem to be all that there is.” I recall the look on young Chelsea Clinton’s face when Dylan staggered through Masters of War for a festival for her father’s inauguration. Maybe as an adult she examined his mumbled lyrics “You've thrown the worst fear/That can ever be hurled/’Fear to bring children/Into the world/For threatening my baby/Unborn and unnamed/You ain't worth the blood/That runs in your veins.” The first stanza of Tryin to Get to Heaven goes;” The air is getting hotter
There’s a rumbling in the skies-I’ve been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes-Every day your memory grows dimmer-It doesn’t haunt me like it did before-I’ve been walking through the middle of nowhere-Trying to get to heaven before they close the door”

We use a special word for artistic creation: inspiration. Artists are conduits for the spirit of new life. They open doors of perception to new depths of seeing and feeling; they provide windows into the human soul. Their work  allows us, as Jimmy Carter quoted in his 1976 convention speech to be people” busy being born, not busy dyin.”