A Contrarian's View of Dylan

This album bugged out a lot of people, particularly when it first came out, almost solely because of its unremitting message. But really if you ignore the lyrics, there's a good record in here. Not great but good. And as the fear that Bob has totally lost his mind and will be doing nothing but singing Jesus songs for the rest of his life, this album's stature has grown. Clearly, whether you agree or even care about what he's singing about, he really means it. Personally I don't care if the lyrics are about sins, salvation and Satan or if they're about hoboes, immigrants and landlords. I'm only interested in the music. And musically, it's a lot more consistent than Street Legal. Although there aren't any songs as good as the three good ones on that record, overall it's much better. Clearly "New Pony" has re-inspired Bob to write more songs around a single riff. "Gotta Serve Somebody", "Slow Train", "Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking" and "When You Gonna Wake Up?" all follow this formula. They're best songs on this album. The slower numbers, "Precious Angel", "I Believe In You" and "When He Returns" are powerful, but not nearly as impressive. Also included is a whole new category for Dylan, Kid's songs. Since the first songs most of us ever learn are Bible songs, it does make since. "Man Gave Names To All The Animals" is silly and fun (which is nice on such an otherwise heavy record). And "Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)", with it's extra beat added every fourth measure (going from 4/4 to 5/4) is one of the most musically complicated things Bob's written since the jazz chords of "If Dogs Run Free" or the constantly shifting keys of "In Search Of Little Sadie". Overall Slow Train Coming is a pretty good album, and despite being a fairly staunch atheist, I enjoy listening to it.

Not all that great but not all that bad either.

I'm not going to talk about Bob's embracing of fire and brimstone religiosity. Not unexpectedly, that turned out to have a short shelf life anyhow. With regard to the music, as an overall package, on artistic terms, this is a very well crafted album. The songs are tightly produced and performed and sung with conviction. Mark Knopfler provides a marvelous contribution here. This album has gotten a lot of praise, often being called one of his best. Being one of his better produced albums, it gained a bit more weight than the quality of the songwriting alone would otherwise have generated. The conversion controversy actually helped this album sell also. However, I find the quality of the songwriting to be rather uneven overall and, in particular, not up to the standards he set on his previous three albums, all of which are masterpieces (BOTT, Desire, Street Legal). While the first four songs on this album are indeed absolutely spectacular, and on par with his great 70's works, beyond that the album runs out of steam. In the final five tracks the music does not manage to overcome the, at times, cheesy and simplistic bargain basement, paranoic form of "Christianity" being proferred here. In fact, rather than being a career highlight, to my mind, this album actually marks the start of a post-70's downward trend in the quality of Bob's songwriting that would last until Infidels (and Infidels only marks a temporary reprise). The best song here in my opinion is "Precious Angel". It has a wonderful melody, interesting lyrics, beautiful beat and is magnificently sung. And again, Knopfler's guitar work is dead on. The backing vocals even work well on this one. Musically, Precious Angel is a good as anything he has done in any era. Overall, not a bad album and - yes - recommendable, but generally, this album has been overrated. If you're new to Dylan, I would not recommend this is where you should start.

Simply the best Spiritual Music I have heared.

Of all the albums I own,somewhere between 500-1000?
This is without doubt the most Spiritual.
I think if limited to just 5 albums on a desert island (or even on the 'island' we all live on)

Street Legal
Slow Train Coming
Saved
Shot of Love
Infidels

Would be my 5 chosen albums,outside of the Psalms themselves,i don't think there is a more spiritual and personal opening of the soul,Dylan's honesty for me is very moving.
Those who don't like it or don't see it (Dylan's Faith/Revelation),are missing out ,but you can't tell men that,they will throw stuff at you,they even through food at Bob when he sang this album to them,and I don't think Frank Zappa ever understood Bob's visit to his home,Zappa didn't even know him,but Bob has always been a man of conviction who takes risks!!
Slow Train Coming is the best out of the five I think.
Not just Lyrically ,the music is fantastic!!!Well done Bob.

Slow is right.

In 1978 Dylan released `Street Legal' which was beyond brilliant in its material. The lyrics were a genuine heartfelt progression from everything he had written up to that point. The problem was that the words were drowned in a vomit-like mish-mash music of screetchy sounds with Dylan's vocals sounding like a screaming brat baby! The result was that if you put it on your turntable (this was before CD players) you were guaranteed to drive away any and all guests you may have over. The critics hated it passionately and panned it beyond reason. Wounded to the core, Dylan went away and wrote, `Slow Train Coming'.

Now when I heard he was writing an album of Christian music, I thought, "This is going to be good." After all, he had already written some brilliant ones, "I Shall Be Released" and "Knocking On Heaven's Door". So like I did with every new Dylan lp, I bought `Slow Train Coming' the day it was released. When I got home and played it, I was dumbfounded by its severe lack of depth. These were songs that could have been written by any seven year old in a sunday school class. I couldn't believe it, I knew that Christian converts usually come across as having their brains sucked out through their noses, but I never really expected Bob Dylan to suffer from this fate! I listened to the record a dozen or so times until I couldn't stand it any more and gave it to Goodwill.

SOUNDS good, but...

The music is good, his voice is still that lovable, scratchy drawl, but there's something different...the lyrics are awful. This is his second album from his born-again christian stage. Leave this one alone, skip it, don't even bother with it, unless you can completley ignore the lyrics and focus soley on the music and his voice. "What God has given us, no man can take away" - Precious Angel. Arghh!



Go to Blood on the Tracks, or Blonde on Blonde. Some older stuff. Leave this alone.

Underrated in it's own way

Bob Dylan went from acoustic to electric, from electric to country, from country to Christianity. Just when the fans had gotten used to the constantly transformed Dylan, and perhaps appreciated him too, he turned away and did what he had to do, maybe in desperate attempts to escape the myth of himself or maybe just through instinct.

SLOW TRAIN COMING, the first of three Christian albums, then naturally made a lot of people feel betrayed.



Well. Who knows what he was thinking. Some of the lyrics are indeed over-the-top in a senseless, almost scary manner, and just the idea of the song DO RIGHT TO ME BABY (with almost humorous lines like "Don't wanna judge nobody") is a walking contridiction.

Still, it is not an "angry" album. It has been made in good will and comes off in a good hearted spirit. You feel just as good as you do bad while listening to this, and if you manage to shut off, or ignore some of the lyrics and ideas, you'll find that SLOW TRAIN COMING has some of Dylan's best efforts in making memorable melodies.



On the other hand, I'm not that sensetive regarding the lyrics. I think everybody can agree that Dylan, even for Dylan, was in a strange period of his career. The man who once sang "Don't follow leaders", on his knees and violently convinced. Still, his confidence is powerful enough to make me see this as fair enough album. I simply buy it, it doesn't feel fake (it never does when it comes to Dylan).

And GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY, PRECIOUS ANGEL, I BELIEVE IN YOU and WHEN HE RETURNS are some of his most memorable post-60's songs, wheter you take them out of their context or not.