Slow Train Coming (1979)
1. Gotta Serve Somebody
2. Precious Angel
3. I Believe You
4. Slow Train
5. Gonna Change My Way of Thinking
6. Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)
7. When You Gonna Wake Up?
8. Man Gave Names to All the Animals
9. When He Returns
 
The Born Again phase begins. In
hindsight, it makes me slightly angry when I think about this album.
Angry because people seemed to make such a big deal out of Dylan's
conversion, that many people seemed to not judge the album on its
music. O.K., granted, a lot of his fans didn't want to be
preached to - and he does lay it down pretty heavy lyric wise, but the
actual songs and the overall album is one of the best he had done in a long
time, and definitely one of his best albums of the 1970s.
Dylan had always been pretty heavy with philosophy and such, so it
really wasn't that strange to see when he went in this direction. Many
of his songs from the past had Biblical imagery (several years ago, he stated that the Bible was both the most underrated, and the most
overrated book,) Unlike many artists who find religion, Dylan doesn't
slightly dabble with it here. No, this is a full fledged Christian rock album.
Music wise, it has a lot of the same slick seventies feel that he
introduced to us back on Street Legal.
The instruments are toned down (thankfully) quite significantly, though.
There's no big brass instruments or brash background singers to cloud up
the mix. It's a much simpler record that allows Dylan's strengths as a
songwriter to really flourish. It also certainly didn't hurt to have
guitar extraordinaire and Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler on so
much of the album in the guitar department.
Apart from the brilliant title track and the single Gotta Serve
Somebody, Dylan also puts out one of his heartfelt best in the
beautiful I Believe in You. Precious Angel is much more
light hearted, but lyric wise it fits the bill and is one of the strong
points of the album. What's funny is that there are few places on the
album that really seem to be quite ridiculous, such as the track Man
Gave Names to All the Animals. It's one of the most simple,
juvenile pieces that Dylan had written, yet you can't help finding
yourself humming the melody after only a few listens with its infectious
reggae groove.
Sure, this album and the few that followed would never be given a fair
shake to many closed minded listeners, but kudos to Dylan for sticking
to what he believed in and, as always, singing from the heart no matter
what the naysayers would say.
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