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Sometime in the late seventies Bob Dylan became a born again Christian, much to the chagrin of many of his fans, who had considered him a standard-bearer for various social and protest movements. His 1979 album Slow Train Coming was much maligned at the time for what were considered to be its harsh and unforgiving Old Testament-type themes, but is now recognized as one of his greatest works. From that album, accompanied by the lovely solo guitar work of Mark Knopfler, here’s I Believe In You.
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  5. Dylan became a born-again Christian! I didn’t know that, the anti-religious MSM doing their best to studiously ignore or disparage that news.

  7. Dave in Pa
    “! I didn’t know that, the anti-religious MSM doing their best to studiously ignore or disparage that news.”
    Dave, that happened over 30 years ago, and you are blaiming some one other than yerself for not knowing?????

  8. Black Mamba, your link contained two words – “online” and erm, pee-oh-are-enn, both of which will get caught in the filter one-hundred percent of the time. You also used an incorrect closing tag for the live link, which took me over an hour, and a great deal of physical exertion, to correct.
    The filter was actually smoking and making grinding noises – I’ve never seen that before.

  11. EBD – um, thanks. At least it didn’t mention inshoorance.
    SolidFPlus – he’s a foul-mouthed abusive limey celebrity chef everyone hates.

  12. Saved, by the Blood of the Lamb.
    Gotta serve somebody, might be the devil or might be the Lord.
    Slow train coming, Saved, Shot of Love all great albums, i have them all, keepers.
    Just for the record Bob Dylan is a Jew. Not orthodox but rather a Messianic Jew, one who believes Jesus is the messiah.

  14. Steyn’s new online homepage layout must have made his RSS feed go haywire because it sent out dozens of new and old columns. A really old one caught my eye – BIG-CITY HAMLET. It is quite funny (and refreshingly non-political).
    http://www.steynonline.com/20/big-city-hamlet
    I love reading but I admit that Shakespeare is not one of my favorites – junior high and high school teachers have the unique ability to sour students on classic literature. I generally used The Hour of Boredom to do more important homework but Hamlet was tolerable because the teacher showed the movie version which allowed students a fighting chance at following along.
    Besides, I actually recognized one of the songs for a change. One of the other lab techs and I had an unspoken agreement that if it was just the two of us then I wouldn’t tease him about his highbrow musical interests if he didn’t complain about my redneck country tunes. Four Seasons is one that I enjoyed listening to.

  15. Of Taliban Jacques Bloc Separatist*.
    “He* came on a bicycle. I escorted him down and he went away on his bike.”
    …-
    “The session begins Monday with a tribute to Jack Layton*, who died last month. Politicians of all stripes will give speeches honouring the late NDP leader.”
    “Harper’s moment to entrench Conservative politics has arrived”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/john-ibbitson/harpers-moment-to-entrench-conservative-politics-has-arrived/article2170769/
    *TJBS:
    http://www.torontosun.com/2011/04/29/layton-found-in-toronto-bawdy-house-former-cop

  16. Dave in Pa: ” … Dylan became a born-again Christian! I didn’t know that …”
    ‘Happened at the end of the ’70s. I knew it, because I’d just come off years of a hippy bender, having rediscovered the faith of my childhood — but in a much more powerful and realistic way than the Sunday School pap I’d ingested.
    I used to cry, listening to Slow Train Coming. When none of my university/hippy friends in any way affirmed my conversion (“weird”), there was Dylan, singing his heart out, about his new-found faith. Some Jews, when they accept Jesus as the Messiah call themselves “completed Jews.” I don’t know if Dylan did.

  17. Mao’bama.
    “Anita Dunn, a former Obama communications director, is quoted as saying that “looking back, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace … Because it actually fits all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace for women.”
    “Barack Obama book casts grim view of president’s leadership (It’s confirmed, Obama’s an idiot)”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2780417/posts
    …-
    “Score one for Beck”:
    “Anita Dunn names Mao Zedong her “favorite philosopher” » The …
    16 Oct 2009 … Anita Dunn names Mao Zedong her “favorite philosopher”. Anita Dunn is the White House Communications Director, who’s been quoted …”
    http://www.pekingduck.org/2009/10/anita-dunn-names-mao-zedong-her-favorite-philosopher/

  18. Neo-AGW Progress Report:
    H/T Liberal Citoyen Kyoto Dionky.
    ““They must recognize we’re in a post-Kyoto situation,” he said.”
    “Mr. Kent was speaking from Washington, where he was attending the Major Economies Forum on Climate Change, a meeting of 21 countries attempting to get some pre-agreements in place before the major Convention on Climate Change conference in Durban, South Africa, in December.”
    …-
    “No new oil sands emissions rules this year: Peter Kent”
    http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/19/no-new-oil-sands-emissions-rules-this-year-peter-kent/

  19. Slow train coming is a beeautiful timeless work of art by Dire Straits that is awfully marred by a nasty goat with inflamed sinuses doing “vocals”.
    Dylan/zimmerman found Christ just as quickly as he misplaced him.there is very little about the man that is not fake, imagined or stolen without attribution from someone else.
    there will be legions of impressionable hippies who will be impressed by both charlatans.
    I wish i could somehow doctor out Zimmerman’s nasal bleats (maybe the snot froze in crisp Minnesota breeze) and have a great instrumental Dire Straits work.

  20. Spot on, dylan-shmylan. Google search yields About 455,000 results for Bob Dylan Plagiarism. Phucking phoney.
    I am however not knocking Christianity, though. It is a fascinating phenomenon, one of the few confirmed marketing ploys where the end user blames him/herself for the product failure.

  21. When I first heard of Dylan’s conversion I was surprised – how could anyone become a religious person in this age of science? I remember laughing at a review of his concert where the fans were frustrated by him. I was no fan of Dylan, but of course he was on my cultural radar.
    When I converted, I was even more surprised. Soon afterwards I picked up this album, and I found that it spoke to me in a way that none of his other work ever did – we were on similar journeys perhaps (it also spoke to me in a way that other Christian music I had started to pick up didn’t). The lyrics were less, uhm, Dylanesque, and that was an improvement. And as for the singing, when you buy a Dylan record, don’t expect Pavarotti.
    I have read a little of his life during this time, and the thing that strikes me is how… alive… his friends found him at this stage of his life.
    I don’t know where he is at these days. As he gets on in years, I hope he can rekindle the joy he once had.

  22. Bob Dylan (andJimi Hendrix) continue to be two of the most over-rated music celebrities of modern times. Why people continue to pine for the phony mysticism of the 60’s is beyond me.

  23. Perhaps Jason Kenny could take this new American tradespeople immigration thingy and turn it into American tradespeople and super rich immigrant thingy. If Obama is going to tax the crap out of the richest Americans perhaps we could find it in our hearts to expedite their immigration papers to become Canadians. I would welcome their billions here.

  24. Eskimo – Bob Dylan (andJimi Hendrix) continue to be two of the most over-rated music celebrities of modern times…
    I’ve spoken to many who would agree with you about Dylan. I don’t, but I’ve never managed to convince those who don’t like him (my bro for one). He has re-invented himself many times and his voice has gone through various phases too. Right now, I find his performances painful, playing a little piano and croaking away in his long coat, but it doesn’t seem to worry him. He never had the crooner voice but his phrasing was unique and his lyrics unmatched. Many groups covered his songs and made their breakthrough on them. My favorite album is Blood on the Tracks followed by World Gone Wrong. And The Traveling Wilburys is a lot of fun (interesting to hear the great Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan on the same songs).
    Mark Knopfler went through many incarnations too. I love his work. Two favorites: The album he did with Chet Atkins (Neck and Neck) and the one he did with Emmy Lou Harris (All the Roadrunning).
    If you want to hear what Bob would sound like if he sang “nice”, try his son Jakob Dylan’s work. I find it smoothed down and professional, but not as interesting.
    On Jimi Hendrix, I have no opinion–not my style. I suspect that some of his aura is that he died young.

  25. Socialism’s Chicken in Every Pot; pot in every chicken.
    Socialism is a chicken plucker.
    Say it ‘taint so, Jack.
    …-
    “‘Sell cannabis in chemist shops’
    Cannabis should be legalised and all other personal drug use decriminalised, delegates voted yesterday by an overwhelming margin.
    They called for the creation of a panel to review the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act so that ‘possession of any controlled drug for personal use would not be a criminal offence’.
    The motion said those caught with hard drugs should be despatched to a panel of social workers.”
    “Coalition is ‘doomed to divorce’: Wicked Tories have tainted us, claims the Lib Dem president”
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038897/Coalition-divorce-Tories-tainted-claims-Lib-Dem-president-Tim-Farron.html

  27. What to hear a phenomenon?
    Ironically, I was one of those who mocked the term “born again” or agreed that religion was opium for the masses.
    That is, till I realized how empty I really was and humbly received Jesus as my Lord and Master on a stretch of highway (#28 between Vilna and Smoky Lake). All this happened on a bright sunny day – except for one little cloud that suddenly showed up and dumped hail, accompanied by thunder and lightening, right over exact patch of road I was driving on. Then it suddenly disappeared.
    However, in the midst of the noise, monsoon rain, and light show, I heard, in my heart, a small peaceful voice quoting the gospel verse of John 3:3 – “you must be born again”.
    That very same verse I would mock in my term psychology classes assignments at Langara College in Vancouver.
    The very same verse I would mock in Bible tracts someone would give me in the hallways.
    Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humour?
    Back to the road – realizing God was talking direct to me, I asked for His forgiveness and that Jesus to come into my life to be my Lord and Master.
    It wasn’t the hail or boom boom that got my attention, it was the opposite. In the midst of all that noise and confusion a small comforting voice said He loved me and said I must be born again too.
    That was 32 years ago – July 26, 1979 – and I still recall the spot on the road, and wait – good timing! I will be driving past ‘that spot’ on road again in a few hours to head up to Bonnyville for a contract.
    This time with a smile on my face and joy in my heart, Jesus loves me!
    That ‘phenomenon’ as one poster called it, surpasses any science or psychology teaching as well mockery for Christians I garnished growing up in Vancouver during the rebellious 70’s.
    I swore “Jesus Christ” so much in those days (as well while in the Military) I can’t wonder how much it must have hurt Him listening to me use it like a curse word.
    Yet, He still loved me.
    That same phenomenon of love is why God loves the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die in our place to spare us from eternal darkness and damnation.
    Consider Jesus today – so much easier here in front of your computer than thinking your windshield would cave in from the loud pounding of hail, or feeling the whole car vibrate from a thunder clap while seeing about 100′ in front of you a lightening bolt hit the side of the road.
    Then again maybe some here are as thick headed as I was in acknowledging someone loving you.
    😉
    http://www.tomax7.com/thoughts/biography3.htm

  28. Tomax,
    do you get a second belly button for the 2nd birth?
    I was skeptical about this great conditional love of Lord Yeshua, until I had an epiphany and decided to accept Him into my esophagus.
    Not as my personal Lord and Saviour (that is so quid pro quo) but as a man I intend to borrow money from.
    Matthew 5:41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
    So if I ask the perforated carpenter for a thousand bucks, he will give me a magic quarter that will multiply into two thousand bucks, and there will be 5 bushels of dimes and nickles left.
    Hosanna Hosannorum!

  29. Matlock: is that in English? At my age it is so far over my head it makes no sense. Or was that the point?
    Tomax7: fantastic. Now my day has been made and I can put a smile on my face and say All is right with the world.

  30. Of Liberal McGuinty’s Plan for the Electrification of Ontario.
    The role of the MSM:
    “Pravda, Izvestia, and especially Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn 2 must be instructed to popularise the Plan for the Electrification both as a whole and as regards its concrete points dealing with individual parts, bearing in mind that there is only one “single economic plan”.”
    Communist Stalin*: Been there, done that.
    …-
    “*A Plan for the Electrification of Russia.”
    “J. V. Stalin
    A Letter to V. I. Lenin
    March 1921″
    “Comrade Lenin,
    During the last three days I have had the opportunity to read the symposium: A Plan for the Electrification of Russia. 1 My illness made this possible (it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good!). An excellent, well-compiled book. A masterly draft of a really single and really state economic plan, not in quotation marks. The only Marxist attempt in our time to place the Soviet superstructure of economically backward Russia on a really practical technical and production basis, the only possible one under present conditions.
    You remember Trotsky’s “plan” (his theses) of last year for the “economic revival” of Russia on the basis of the mass application of the labour of unskilled peasant-worker masses (the labour army) to the remnants of pre-war industry. How wretched, how backward, compared with the Goelro plan! A medieval handicraftsman who imagines he is an Ibsen hero called to “save” Russia by an ancient saga. . . . And of what value are the dozens of “single plans” which to our shame appear from time to time in our press—the childish prattle of preparatory-school pupils. . . . Or again, the philistine “realism” (in fact Manilovism) of Rykov, who continues to “criticise” the Goelro and is immersed to his ears in routine. . . .
    In my opinion:
    1) Not a single minute more must be wasted on idle talk about the plan.
    2) A practical start on the work must be made immediately.
    3) To this start must be devoted at least one-third of our work (two-thirds will be required for “current” needs) in transporting materials and men, restoring enterprises, distributing labour forces, delivering foodstuffs, organising supply bases and supply itself, and so on.
    4) Since the staff of the Goelro, for all their excellent qualities, lack a sound practical outlook (a professorial impotence can be detected in the articles), we must without fail include in the planning commission live practical men who act on the principle — “Report the fulfilment,” “Fulfil on time,” etc.
    5) Pravda, Izvestia, and especially Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn 2 must be instructed to popularise the Plan for the Electrification both as a whole and as regards its concrete points dealing with individual parts, bearing in mind that there is only one “single economic plan” — the Plan for the Electrification, and that all other “plans” are just idle talk, empty and harmful.
    Yours,
    Stalin”
    http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1921/03/x01.htm

  33. The kulaks/wreckers are ripping to shreds Liberal McGuinty/Stalin’s Plan for the Electrification of Ontario.
    “McGuinty, meanwhile, said Sunday he will reduce subsidies to the feed-in tariff if re-elected to a third term.
    “Yes,” he said when asked if he will cut FIT rates. “With every passing year, particularly in the area of solar technology, those prices keep coming down and our FIT rates will keep coming down.”
    McGuinty did not say/stay focused, he said focus.
    McGuinty is in retreat; kick him hard & OUT.
    …-
    “Ontario Votes: Green energy plan fizzles, figures show”
    “TORONTO — Ontario’s contentious green energy legislation, quickly emerging as the most substantive single policy difference between the Liberal and PC election campaigns, has so far resulted in virtually no renewable energy in the province.
    As of Sept. 2, all projects stemming from the Green Energy Act amount to 86 megawatts (MW) of power.
    That is equivalent to 0.25 per cent of the province’s 34,882 MW of installed capacity.
    The fact that power derived from the green energy act forms such a small proportion of Ontario’s power generation mix raises questions about the pace of the Liberal party’s signature subsidy plan, known as the Feed-in Tariff (FIT).
    Those questions were amplified late this week when the National Post revealed that a solar plant used for a Liberal campaign photo op days earlier had temporarily shut down production.”
    http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Ontario+Votes+Green+energy+plan+fizzles+figures+show/5421856/story.html

  34. I commented on Dylan’s fabulous resonant voice from the diaghram in a recent thread (Don’t Think Twice).
    His current voice I describe as “dirty old man in a raincoat” AND he’s really strugglig in this performance.
    I didn’t realize the “dirty old man” voice went back this far.
    NEVERTHELESS, I still greatly admire the man and esp. his refusal to pimp fashionable causes [see Sting, Bono].
    Dylan, the man, is poetry.

  35. I saw Dylan in San Francisco during the supporting tour of that album. The music was profound. The only reason I was able to get tickets was because Dylan had become born-again. All the hipsters stayed home [thank you very much].

  36. On Jimi Hendrix, I have no opinion–not my style. I suspect that some of his aura is that he died young.
    Posted by: rita at September 19, 2011 10:37 AM”
    I gotta take exception to this dismissal and the original posting that caused it.
    how many of Hendrix’s contemporaries shook their heads and pondered their futures when they first heard this ‘new black kid’ in the clubs of London?
    James Marshall Hendrix’s style and musical interests were evolving at an accelerating pace but sadly at the same time (you can see it in later photos) becoming totally drained by the whole gig.
    I especially take exception to this ‘over-rated’ crapola so close to the anniversary of his death.
    p.s.: those who share my opinion vastly outnumber those who don’t.

  37. CEO, I didn’t mean to be dismissive of Hendrix. Who knows what he would have become–already having achieved so much. If he had lived, would he eclipse those who now hold the top spots or would he just be “one among the greats”? Who knows. Very sad. I know many in the music world rate him as brilliant even though he’s been gone so long.
    The myths that grow from those who die tragically young, right in the midst of their stratospheric rise(James Dean, Hendrix et al) are difficult to separate from the reality. That’s what I was speculating about.

  38. CEO – to make amends, I went on Youtube and listened to a Hendrix clip: All Along the Watchtower, originally written by…you guessed it. Dylan. Yes Hendrix had a style and a sound that were superb.
    So how about Stevie Ray Vaughan? 😉

  39. Socialism’s natural end result: “a commmon meal” “famine”.
    “There’s a real famine,” insists Samat Eftehar. “I don’t mean a famine where there is nothing to eat, like in Africa. I’m talking about a famine where people can’t even afford to buy meat once a month.”
    …-
    “Greece”
    “Eating from bins – the new make do”
    “A man eating a common meal next to a church in Thessaloniki on 9 September”
    http://www.presseurop.eu/files/images/article/greece-middle-class_0.jpg?1316443941
    “On 19 September, the Greek government announced new cuts designed to convince its partners to hand over the 6th tranche of international aid. Meanwhile in the streets of Athens, more and more people are searching for a cheap way to feed themselves.”
    http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/964881-eating-bins-new-make-do

  42. It’s all fun and games Matlock until you wake up with a really bad case of warts on your power tool that never goes away.

  43. The natural end result of Pat MartiNDP’s socialism:
    “Greek media reports indicate the list includes shedding 20,000 more state workers, reducing or freezing salaries and pensions, increasing a heating oil tax, shuttering money-losing state companies, cutting health spending and picking up the pace of privatizations.”
    “Europe braces for Greek default”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/european/europe-braces-for-greek-default/article2170959/

  44. Regarding Dylan’s voice, it’s obviously a matter of taste. I *love* his voice on that song, but then I’ve always preferred the heartfelt vocals of technically lousy singers — Shane McGowan, Leonard Cohen, Franki Valli, Neil Young, Dylan — to, I don’t know, Robert Goulet or Englebert Humperdinck.

  46. One has to consider Hendrix in the context of the times he was in. He was thoroughly original, in a time where “Clapton was God”.

  47. Hendrix was a decent guitarist, don’t get me wrong, but there have since been far better guitarists. Because he only lived until 27 (I believe) he never reached his full potential. Contrast Hendrix with Frank Zappa, another guitarist who started his career in the 60’s. Frank, like Jimi, died too young but Frank’s career was twice the duration of that of Hendrix and I feel Zappa was better simply because he was able to play for twice as long. Zappa lived into his mid 40’s and died from prostate cancer. I’m hoping 3 of my current favourite guitarists live long lives. These 3 are Steve Vai (who toured and recorded with Zappa), Joe Satriani and Brian Setzer. All 3 are blistering artists and composers. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I’ve learned over the years that bad mouthing Hendrix can be like calling Oprah the “c” word in front of a crowd of stay at home moms.

  49. Hendrix was a genius. That is not a word I use frivolously. You could, and with a few exceptions should, have stopped rock and roll after Jimi did the honourable thing and choked to death on his own vomit in an alchoholic stupor in 1970.

  50. I have re-listened attentively to Slow Train Coming and it tugged on my heartstrings so much that I renounced my iniquity, embraced the empty sepulcher and now tread on the path of everlasting righteousness.
    Dylan’s lyrics would fit anywhere: Bible, Sesame Street, National Academy of Science, Smithsonian Museum, you name it.
    Baaah-Baah! someone please shear my wool, my tithes, my vote, my chilrun because Jesus is Love and Love is Jesus.
    Man gave names to all the animals
    In the beginning, in the beginning
    Man gave names to all the animals
    In the beginning, long time ago.
    He saw an animal that liked to growl
    Big furry paws and he liked to howl
    Great big furry back and furry hair
    “Ah, think I’ll call it a bear”.
    He saw an animal up on a hill
    Chewing up so much grass until she was filled
    He saw milk coming out but he didn’t know how
    “Ah, think I’ll call it a cow”.
    He saw an animal that liked to snort
    Horns on his head and they weren’t too short
    It looked like there wasn’t nothing that he couldn’t pull
    “Ah, I’ll think I’ll call it a bull”.
    He saw an animal leaving a muddy trail
    Real dirty face and a curly trail
    He wasn’t too small and he wasn’t too big
    “Ah, think I’ll call it a pig”.
    Next animal that he did meet
    Had wool on his back and hooves on his feet
    Eating grass on a mountainside so steep
    “Ah, think I’ll call it a sheep”.

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