Bob Dylan Man of Religion

Chapter 2

Author John Herdman: "There is one persistent area of preoccupation with which he is recurrently concerned and that is religion. It is not at least until 1979's Slow Train Coming album something which he sets out to define and elucidate, not a message that he strives to convey; rather it is something which will not leave him alone, which again and again obtrudes on his consciousness and asserts its claims through his songs. It represents, in the last resort, a part of his personality which has not been under his control, which repeatedly breaks through into consciousness in the form of persistent themes and obsessive images."

Bert Cartwright analysed the songwriter's lyrics during 1961-78. Out of 246 songs there were 387 individual Biblical allusions, split about 50-50 between Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

In 1975 Dylan told Jim Jerome of People magazine, "I didn't consciously pursue the Bob Dylan myth. It was given to me by God. Inspiration is what we're looking for. You just have to be receptive to it. I don't care what people expect of me. Doesn't concern me. I'm doing God's work. That's all I know."