Bob Dylan: right-wing Christian?

The front cover photo of Dylan Redeemed: From Highway 61 to Saved is challenging. It shows a gospel-era Dylan addressing an audience, arms outstretched, palms upwards, in classic Jesus of Nazareth pose.

The text of Dylan Redeemed, an important new book, is equally challenging: it subverts the orthodox view of Dylan as a ‘60s liberal spokesman who later, in mid-career, unexpectedly found Christ.

Author Stephen H Webb, Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wabash University, Indiana, sets out his credentials. He’s an Evangelical seeking to put the record straight - to claim Dylan for conservative Christianity. According to Webb, Dylan is “one of the greatest American theologians of the late 20th/early 21st Centuries”, with a consistently conservative view of both Jesus and the world.

He convincingly details how Dylan’s entire oeuvre, not just the trio of gospel albums, is imbued with deeply spiritual undertones – how Dylan has always had a musical vision with theological coherence. And, despite the sub-title, Webb covers most of Dylan’s recorded output.

In a welcome corrective to the dominant liberal/left interpretation of Dylan’s art, Webb challenges some sloppy thinking, supplying innumerable revelations in support of his thesis. At the simplest level, for example, he undermines the view that Hard Rain was “about” the Cuban crisis, by pointing out that it was written before the Great Power stand-off. By piling up similar examples, for a succession of songs, Webb punctures the idea of Dylan the liberal. Masters Of War: pacifist? Naaaah!

Of course, Dylan’s rejection of “the Movement” is already well established. But Webb goes further, showing just why Dylan refused to go along with radicals – not only was he indifferent to the anti-war leftists, he was actually hostile to their worldview.

Webb engages several Dylan scribes who have trodden this ideological and spiritual ground before, including Paul Williams, Greil Marcus, Michael Gray and Mike Marqusee (here called “Mark” - but then Bill “Harley” is cited as a key early rock ‘n’ roller!).

The work of Gray and Marqusee, in particular, is subjected to some lively analysis. Though Webb shares Gray’s lofty view of Lay Down Your Weary Tune, he interprets it very differently, in the course of an appropriately masterful analysis. Marqusee’s leftist reading of Dylan is scrutinised in detail. And dismissed.

Surprisingly, Scott Marshall - who’s written tellingly on Dylan/Christ - is not mentioned.

Webb has delivered, in part, one of the brainiest, most challenging of Dylan books. In part? Well, the on-topic stuff would have made a definitive 10,000 word essay. But he was allowed to wander, and his wanderlust dilutes the argument.

I happen to like Webb’s discussion of the parallels between Picasso and Dylan, but I couldn’t see why it was included here. And the author’s not at his expert best on topics like Dylan’s voice, discussed at length. I’m not really interested, either, in such topics as the doctrinal divisions in American Protestantism, the emergence of the (unlistenable) sub-genre of Christian Contemporary Music (aka CCM, aka Godpop) or the theological leanings of various Popes, but they’re all covered extensively here.

Ignore such lapses (and the shameless over-hyping of the book on the back cover), and you have a forceful, original analysis of Dylan’s songbook. It could well change how you hear this great body of work.

Dylan Redeemed is a fitfully outstanding addition to the Dylan bookshelf. Believe me.



Details: Stephen H Webb, Dylan Redeemed: from Highway 61 to Saved, Continuum Books, 2007, 196pp, £9.99, paperback.



Gerry Smith