Bob Dylan
Slow Train Coming

THE REVIEW

Legend has it that a fan threw a small cross onto the stage during a concert at the end of 1978 (by the way, do yourself a favor and find the bootlegs from late 1978, especially the concerts in Charlotte and Paris). Dylan converts to Christianity and begins a new era. Dylan's production had always been permeated by a certain spirituality, a certain faith. But now Robert Zimmerman, of Jewish origin, joins the sect of born-again Christians and transforms into a preacher. The concerts become sermons, the songs "Christic": the end of the world is imminent, only faith in God can save. All the songs from the Christian period revolve around this theme. With mixed results.

The first album of the new Father Bob is "Slow Train Coming", and it's the most enlightened and the best produced. Very powerful blues, some ballads, the best voice ever. Beautiful songs are "Precious Angel" and "Slow Train". Masterpieces are "I Believe In You" and "When He Returns", the lyrics above average for religious songs, indeed, truly admirable: they are not bigoted, they are filled with sincere and heartfelt faith. The rest, apart from the masterful "Gotta Serve Somebody" and "When You Gonna Wake Up", offers little. The convinced blues runs aground on something trivial ("Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking", "Man Gave Name To All The Animals", "Do Right To Me Baby"). The hand becomes more uncertain, the religiosity is far too emphasized.

The strength of the album is the musical part, well crafted and precise, better than in the subsequent LPs. "Slow Train Coming" stays afloat with dignity, buoyed by three or four Dylanian gems and a victim of the exclusion of "Ye Shall Be Changed", an excellent out-take... Yet the album struggles to get under the skin, doesn't hold up to repeated listens, and sometimes bores.