Of all of Dylan’s phases, his Christian period has
always baffled me. As a non-practising Jew, a fervent atheist, and an evolutionary biologist, religion is antithetic to my entire being. And yet, here
is my #1 role model shouting the praises of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the
earth. My only possible consolation lay in the possibility of separating the
message from the music, and appreciating based on song-crafting and/or
performance alone. From the album versions this is quite difficult, because the
performances are just not great. As it happens I have learned to appreciate how
good some of these songs are from cover versions, like this incredible version
of “Covenant Woman”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL6Nqk7oT10;
Or this version of “I Believe in You”, by Cat Power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOgonNheAck.
This phenomenon is similar (in some ways) to the story of the Leonard Cohen
song “Hallelujah”, which languished in obscurity as an understated recording,
on an underappreciated album from the mid 80’s, for many years before it was
discovered and exhumed famously by Jeff Buckley.
In anticipation of the Bootleg volume
13, I really hoped that it would be enough to convince me of the value of this
material, that it would be good. I can honestly say it comes through on its
promise and then some. The review on NPR is correct in the following:
“Those who've only done a cursory dip
into the studio recordings and found them staid and at times sanctimonious are
in for a revisionist history jolt”
In short, the release is a revelation. The live versions of these songs are
incredible. Pretty much every song on Bob’s Christian trilogy is represented
here by at least one live version that is way better than the studio versions.
Even songs that I thought were just terrible, like “in the Summertime” off shot
of love, are beautifully resurrected here (track 13 on disc 2). The version of
“The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar” with Santana playing Mike
Bloomfield-style blues riffs is sublime. Many of the live versions are
completely different arrangements from the album versions, with these road-worn
versions invariably a huge improvement, for example the soundcheck of “Do Right
To Me Baby” on disc 3. His vocals are strong, and at moments his voice sounds
like it did at earlier stages of his career, a pleasant surprise. For example,
the song “Help Me Understand” sounds like something off the Basement Tapes.
Also, his vocal on the cover of “Rise Again” sounds Desire-era Dylan.
The important issue of religiosity
remains. To gain some insight on this I refer to the review on NPR, as follows:
“He
recognized what the masters of gospel and blues all understood: That the
chapters and the verses are not nearly as important as the conviction
underneath. If you want people to appreciate and maybe even resonate with your
truths, it helps to frame them within an urgent, intense musical context. To
put people in touch with the consuming fury of the conversion moment, you need
the sound of fire and brimstone.”
What this implies, and which I tend
to agree, is that his Christian period is essentially an act, an artistic
statement, and that Dylan the man must be considered separately from Dylan the
performer. This raises questions of authenticity, and reminds me of a
conversation about gangster rappers, whose authenticity is dependent on the
verity of their rapping personas. Of course, the members of The Wu-Tang clan,
who are all millionaires living in mansions, are not running around chopping
people’s heads off. Concerning Dylan’s authenticity, I don’t doubt that he was
experimenting with a certain mindset, a certain religiosity, which he is
totally free to do. We may never completely understand the true nature of
Dylan’s spiritual conversion and continuing spiritual evolution. It is
something over which we could forever speculate, however that remains his
personal matter, and as one listens to the recordings on Bootlegs vol. 13 it
becomes less and less important, as the simple fact that these are great songs
and performances comes into focus. Dylan dove deep into his gospel persona with
great courage and conviction, and created something truly unique and
fascinating.
Having been converted to Dylan’s
Christian material, primarily due to the quality of the live versions, the next
step for me is to accept the message, at least on some level. Of course there
is a wide range of material here, it is not all deeply religious, and most of
the messages or aspects of the messages can be assimilated easily. Despite my
aversion to religious cults of any kind, I am compelled to give the not so
easily digested messages their due course. Although still early, it has already
had a transformative effect on me, and brought me to a deeper understanding of
a phenomenon that I find completely baffling. Although it is VERY unlikely that
I will come to a true conversion moment, I have gone through a simulation of
this moment in my mind. This has helped me to gain a deeper understanding, and
a feeling of acceptance and forgiveness.
The timing of this release seems to
make sense, since we are currently living in Donald Trump’s world, which
doesn’t make sense. My feelings about religion have come to a head in this
climate, and I blame right wing religiosity for the rock solid support behind
this buffoon. When the amount of people in the world who insist that 2 plus 2
equals 5 is significant enough, in moments of weakness I almost start to think
that I’m the one that is crazy. Listening to these songs and their message is
helping me to cope and to understand what it is that I might be missing.
Despite being non-religious, I acknowledge that I am a spiritual being. The
need for things to NOT add up, for there to be deep mystery in life, for
questions to remain open ended, unanswered and unanswerable can be a
frustrating part of what it means to be human. From another perspective it can
be what allows us to develop and maintain a sense of wonder and excitement
about the world. Equally strong is the human need to have certainty when there
is none.