Journal of Religion and Popular Culture

Michael J. Gilmour, Assistant Professor of New Testament^*
Providence College, Otterburne, MB

Bob Dylan has always drawn language and imagery from the Bible. One example is considered in this paper, namely, how Dylan often portrays himself (or at least characters in songs) in ways that recall stories about Jesus. Two areas are treated: (a) imagery associated with Jesus’ death; and (b) Dylan’s use of deliberate ambiguity in Christ/antichrist language. The paper opens with two sections on methodology: the first includes comments on the limitations of artistic works for biographical research. The second treats the relationship between artistic literature and earlier sources.

[1] Throughout his career Bob Dylan has, for various reasons, used the Bible in his writing. Certainly the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible^[2] is a rich source for poetic imagery but it also provides a basis for critique on moral issues, and for a time it even functioned as the script for his proclamation of the Christian Gospel. We could also trace some of the biblical language in his lyrics to certain musical and literary influences. What follows is an examination of a very specific way the Bible appears in some of Dylan’s songs, namely the application of Christological imagery to himself and his vocation as an artist. But before turning to this we will consider some points of methodology.

[2]The writer and director of the movie Immortal Beloved was asked by actor Gary Oldman to recommend biographies of Beethoven to help prepare for the lead role.

To a point I agree with this line of thinking but at the outset of a paper analyzing another artist, I would like to offer some qualifications on the use of art as the basis for biographical construction. I do so because the study of religious aspects of artistic work frequently turns to questions about the artist’s faith, as if art is necessarily a window to the soul. These two areas go hand-in-hand for instance in a recent treatment of rock group U2 by Steve Stockman whose book is "a spiritual companion to their career. It is an attempt at telling the story of the band members’ journeys of faith and exposing the underlying spiritual themes in U2’s music" (2001, 6; italics added). I would suggest that in some cases - including research into the life and writings of Bob Dylan - this is not the best approach.^[3]

[3] Why does this easy equation of art and (religious) biography occur? Perhaps one reason is found in researchers’ interest in the subject matter. I suspect that many students in the field of religion in popular culture could trace their zeal, at least initially, to a fascination with celebrity. Naturally enough, we want to know all we can about the object(s) of our research and so, though not often considered a goal of the discipline, biographical insight is often in the background of studies on particular artists. A second and related issue here is the sometimes uneasy combination of popular culture (some might say low-brow entertainment!) with our professional activities. There is a potential tension in marrying the two, as has been noted by Bruce David Forbes:

Because of this enthusiasm, and because there is perhaps a perceived pressure to justify our ‘hobby’ in the eyes of our academic colleagues, extreme caution is necessary to avoid reading too much into material treated. Still, the scholarly analysis of popular culture is a worthy pursuit, regardless of what brings us to the table initially. Forbes continues,

And so here is my confession. My interest in Bob Dylan’s use of the Bible certainly began with an appetite for insight into this man’s remarkable life. Further, as a student of biblical studies I am curious about how Dylan has used the writings I have a professional interest in. Having said this, and with perhaps an acute sense of guilt for spending more time listening to "Love and Theft" (his latest album) in the past year than reconstructing Q or studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, and with a strong need to justify this time before my peers in ‘the guild’ of religious studies, I am presenting some thoughts on Bob Dylan’s writing in an academic forum.

[4] But this is not to say that objectivity is completely absent because of my curiosity about Dylan’s life. In fact, I have less confidence in our ability to know much about Dylan’s religiosity on the basis of his writings than other, more dispassionate readers/listeners. In my opinion, art has limited usefulness for biography if by the term we mean a clear portrait of the artist in question. With respect to Dylan, the questions ‘is he still a practitioner of Judaism?’ or ‘is he still a Christian?’ and the like are often asked, but the hunt for answers to such questions with song lyrics and poems as the primary data are doomed to failure. Here are a few reasons why.

[5] (a) To begin with, the correspondence of Dylan’s personal life and his lyrics and poems is not always straightforward. For example, early in his career this Jewish writer frequently referred to Jesus and themes in the Christian New Testament. This does not tell us anything about his Jewish faith or interest in Christianity at that stage of his life - it simply tells us that he was well-read and felt free to draw imagery from a wide range of sources.

[6] (b) It should not be assumed that Dylan’s writings are always deliberately constructed expressions of his worldview. Genre is an issue here. If we consider, to illustrate, samples of his free verse poetry, such as that found in his 1971 book Tarantula, it is clear that at least some of his work resists attempts to find clear statements on religion or any other topic, and to seek them imposes questions on the poems that they were never intended to answer. And while there are certainly autobiographical elements in several songs, including some explicitly religious statements, these can provide only fleeting glimpses into the songwriter’s private world, captured at a moment in time.

[7] (c) The use of the Bible and religious motifs often serves literary, not mere autobiographical, purposes (examples will follow). Better is an approach to his work that focuses on artistic merit and aesthetic qualities - how are the biblical texts used? In a study of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Catherine Brown Tkacz reminds us that use of the Bible can have everything to do with art and nothing to do with self-disclosure:

[8] (d) Finally, Bob Dylan is a very private man. He does not give many interviews and when he does he is often reticent to discuss his private life and this would naturally include his most deeply rooted beliefs. Only Bob Dylan himself knows ‘what he believes’ and unless he is willing to tell us explicitly, we should admit that we simply do not know.^[5] For these reasons, the study that follows is not an attempt at biography. It is a literary analysis, concerned solely with ‘the text’ of Dylan’s work. Of interest is the question ‘how are the biblical texts used?’ not ‘what does the use of biblical texts tell us about Dylan’s religious beliefs?’

[9] At this point I offer some general reflections on methodology. This study is largely a source-critical reading of Bob Dylan’s lyrics and admittedly, in the light of recent literary theory, such a project seems a little naïve. Julia Kristeva once referred to the "banal sense of ‘study of sources’" (Kristeva 1984, 59-60). Of course the mere identification of sources behind a literary work is not synonymous with interpretation, nor are authors influenced only by the written word. It is also relevant that readers themselves bring a bundle of (con)texts to the objects of their study. As a result, it is not only difficult to distinguish what an author has created from what is borrowed, it is also true that what is ‘heard’ or ‘read’ by different listeners or readers will not always be the same. A simple example illustrates some of the ambiguities involved. If I use the well-known expression "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," some will hear a quotation of Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism (3.66), and others, Bob Dylan’s "Jokerman" (Infidels, 1983; 1985, 471). Both are correct. Further, it is appropriate to ask if Dylan was quoting Pope or if the expression was simply part of his language and cultural repertoire (i.e., it is a familiar phrase in the English language). And did Pope himself really create this expression in the first place? Others before him said similar things (e.g., "wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch" [William Shakespeare, Richard III, 1.3.70]). It may be that Pope merely wrote down a familiar expression (or at least adapted one). This raises an important question. Since readers/listeners hear different things, is a source analysis that hunts for one particular text (the Bible) behind another (Bob Dylan) a valuable exercise? Will it not tell more about me (as listener/reader) than it will about Bob Dylan? Probably. But I will foolishly rush in regardless of the potential pitfalls and allow Dylan himself to provide some rationale.

[10] He is well aware of the significance of sources or influences in his work. Consider his poem "11 Outlined Epitaphs" (first published in 1964 as liner notes to The Times They Are A-Changin’):

Dylan’s phrase "thief of thoughts" illustrates the concept of intertextuality quite well: there is an ongoing absorbing and reworking of what has been said or written before and there is great benefit in not only identifying what those earlier sources are, but in appreciating how they have been reshaped by a later author.^[7] Dylan goes so far as to suggest that these provide "keys" to help unlock his mind. Consider further the following comments made during an interview in the early 1980s:

At the time these words were spoken Dylan was working on Empire Burlesque (released in 1985). This album is a good example of his point because his sources/influences range from a variety of old movies, several with Humphrey Bogart, to an episode of Star Trek.^[8] As noted earlier, his reasons for using the Bible vary song to song.^[9] I turn now to specific ways Dylan makes use of the Jesus-story as a paradigm in his work.

[11] As early as 1962 Bob Dylan was reflecting on the theme of the rejected prophet:

This allusion to Jesus is followed by a rehearsal of various social evils that make the call for peace and brotherhood necessary in the first place (e.g., slavery, war, poverty), and few would challenge the need to rid the world of such things. But like many good stories, this song ends with an unexpected twist:

This is a loaded rhetorical question. One would not think that addressing such noble themes would be dangerous but since that (supreme example of a) prophet/preacher paid the ultimate price, what would prevent a latter day prophet^[10] from experiencing a similar fate? Compare the following scene depicted in liner notes written a few years later:

Dylan’s art creates opposition. By likening his activities to Jesus, an innocent prophet who was rejected, Dylan accomplishes various things simultaneously. For one thing, readers would generally recognize the allusions since the Jesus-story is a familiar one. He can thus invoke a much larger narrative in just a few words, confident that most will catch the intended echo. There is also an emotive power in this imagery that can generate sympathy because Jesus was a good man wrongly accused, despite noble intentions. And since Jesus was innocent, Dylan makes himself appear innocent and indirectly heightens the guilt of those critiqued in the songs. Such attempts by Dylan to view himself and his art in relation to the Christ-story is sufficiently prominent to warrant further investigation. Specifically, Dylan’s use of this imagery provides him with a paradigm that helps communicate/illustrate his role as an artist.^[11] With the selected illustrations that follow, I hope to demonstrate this point. A more general objective is a presentation of the importance of biblical imagery in Dylan’s writing.^[12]

[12] Bob Dylan frequently portrays himself as a martyr; he is a prophet not respected in his home town (or maybe "an arch criminal who’d done no wrong"; "Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2"; 1985, 78).^[13] Frequent shifts in musical style and subject matter have likely reinforced this as each change would have alienated some listeners, leaving them feeling betrayed.^[14] His subject matter also makes enemies; whether critiquing society or rehearsing the lows in romantic relationships, he often points fingers. Those who are guilty may turn against the singer and so, even within the brief narrative of a song or album, Dylan can assume the posture of a victim or martyr.

[13] Thus we find Dylan’s autobiographical language making good use of Christ imagery. A brief scene in the humorous "Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream" (Bringing It All Back Home, 1965) introduces the point. Turned away by a man when seeking help the singer retorts "they refused Jesus, too" which brought the reply "You’re not Him" (1985, 170; full text 170-71).^[15] For Jesus, sacrifice (= death) followed refusal (e.g., John 1:11) and the same is true for the artist - with obvious hyperbole. We might compare at this point the allusion to the Akedah (Abraham binding Isaac in order to sacrifice him in obedience to God [Genesis 22:1-19]) in "Highway 61 Revisited".

Here we have not only a retelling of the Akedah, but an allusion back to the songwriter himself which is hard to miss. Abraham is the name of Bob’s father, and Highway 61 runs through Duluth, Minnesota, where Bob was born. Like Isaac, and like Jesus, Dylan sees himself offered up for sacrifice.^[16]

[14] Sacrificial imagery is further present in his 1975 release Blood on the Tracks. "Shelter from the Storm" is a beautiful song in which a female character offers refuge to the songwriter (cf. Isa 4:6)^[17] and in each of its 10 verses the same kindness is extended. But there are two separate moments in time that appear to be described. Verse 1 opens with the words "‘Twas in another lifetime" and verse 6 - at the half-way point in the song - with "Now there’s a wall between us, somethin’ there’s been lost" (1985, 361-62). This division of the song into two parts of equal length presents the relationship in two distinct phases, one of salvation, when this woman rescued him from despair, and the other, a time of pain when things have gone wrong. Even after things fell apart, the refrain ("‘Come in,’ she said . . . ") is repeated, recalling pleasant memories from earlier times. But the break-up is not the songwriter’s fault and his innocence is emphatically demonstrated by the application of Christ imagery to himself.

After dramatically stating his innocence (and implying her guilt?) the songwriter ends with a longing for those earlier times of happiness: "If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born" (line 10).^[18] The pain involved in this breakup/sacrifice is obvious.

[15] Identification with Jesus Christ is not always so dramatic or obvious. But when we move away from explicit images such as "crown of thorns" there is room to ask whether we are dealing with conscious allusions to the biblical story or mere coincidence. For example, the phrase "I seen the kingdoms of the world" ("Shot of Love", Shot of Love, 1981; 1985, 453) could be understood as Dylan identifying with Jesus’ temptations (Matt 4:8; Luke 4:5) but this is not required to make sense of the line. Elsewhere, repetition of terms, phrases, or concepts are clearly derived from the Bible, as in the expression "rumors of war and wars that have been" (cf. Matt 24:6; Mark 13:7; Luke 21:9).^[19] The presence of explicit use of biblical material in some of Dylan’s work, and his own statements about what writing involves for him - "It comes to me so I give it back in my particular style" - invites reading between the lines.

[16] I have suggested that Dylan has presented himself as a Christ-like figure but I do not mean by this that he is a megalomaniac. This is emphatically not the case as is clear from various self-deprecating statements in his writing. Here we have a safeguard that prevents listeners from placing inappropriate expectations on him. Dylan the Christ-like prophet is quick to say "It Ain’t Me, Babe."^[20]

[17] In 1983 Dylan released Infidels. Coming as it did on the heels of three gospel albums, with its intriguing title and the apparent shift away from fundamentalist Christianity to more secular (or perhaps Jewish) content, there was (and still is) much interest in deciphering its lyrics. This is particularly true for "Jokerman", a song which seemed to announce that Dylan’s interest in biblical themes (demonstrated in the albums and concerts of 1979-1981) was continuing, but that the form of presentation had changed.

[18] "Jokerman" (1985, 471-72) explores ambiguity and the dangerous deceptions possible for those looking to place their faith in something or someone.^[21] Of course the question ‘who is he?’ is the one usually asked though clear identification seems out of reach.

Paul Williams’ answer to his own question is a wise one. If the Jokerman is reduced to a single character (as in n.21), it would impose a sense of logic and order on the song that would be artificial. Ambiguity is the point. Things (especially religious things) are not always what they appear to be.

[19] I return briefly to Paul Williams’ writing because unlike many commentators he is careful to observe what Bob Dylan songs do to the listener, not just what the lyrics say. Commenting on a different song ("Angelina" [recorded 1981; released in The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3, 1991]), Williams writes,

The same is true for "Jokerman". Feeling is important and there must be caution against trying to explain the use of biblical imagery at every turn.

[20] Having stated this concern, I offer a brief reading of the song that builds on one key line:

The red dragon - Satan - attempts to devour the child who is born, usually understood to be Christ ("a man child, who was to rule all nations" [v.5; cf. Ps 2:9]). In "Jokerman," it is surprising to find that the child is dressed in scarlet (red). Is this part of the joke? At times the Jokerman is presented in a clearly negative light: "born with a snake in both of your fists," "dream twister," "going to Sodom and Gomorrah," and he looks "into the fiery furnace" (hades; hell) suggesting that he too is on his way there (cf. Rev 20:10: "the devil . . . was cast into the lake of fire"). Is there any hope for this ‘man’? Apparently "freedom is just around the corner . . . But with the truth so far off, what good will it do [for him]?" Knowledge of the truth is not enough to save.^[24]

[21] Strangely, however, the descriptions are occasionally positive: "man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds" (recalling both Moses and Jesus [Sermon on the Mount; the transfiguration]); a "Friend to the martyr"; he knows Scripture ("the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy"^[25]). But there is danger here. What appears good is in fact deceptive. Throughout the Bible there is talk of false prophets, false teachers, and false Christs. Jesus himself warned against those who would claim to be Christ (e.g., Matt 24:5) and it would appear that the Jokerman is one of them (cf. 1 John 2:18: "even now are there many antichrists"). The terror of the scene comes in the potential (or maybe inevitable) confusion that can arise. At times the Jokerman takes the form of a "rifleman stalking the sick and the lame" - if so, he is clearly a man of violence and a threat (cf. "License to Kill" on the same album; also "Neighborhood Bully" with its treatment of violence against Israel). But he is also a "preacherman" seeking the same weak people. Do they both have violent intentions? Is the preacherman an example of "corrupt religious establishments" (liner notes to World Gone Wrong, 1993)? It is more difficult to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing.^[26]

[22] Aware of this, Dylan warns elsewhere that he himself may be dangerous. Jesus’ words about "false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matt 7:15) are echoed in "Trust Yourself": "Well, you’re on your own, you always were, / In a land of wolves and thieves. / Don’t put your hope in ungodly man / Or be a slave to what someone else believes" (Empire Burlesque, 1985; 1985, 495). In the same song, he includes himself among those wolves and thieves: "Don’t trust me to show you the truth / When the truth may only be ashes and dust . . . . Don’t trust me to show you love / When my love may be only lust."^[27] On two occasions in Revelation, John the Seer directs worship to angels/messengers and was rebuked for doing so (Rev 19:9-10; 22:8-9) because angels are fellow servants and not worthy to receive the same devotion as Christ (cf. Rev 1:17). Similarly, Dylan the "messenger" would have us remember that his role as artist has its limitations.

[23] Several issues have been raised in this paper. Initial observations on the use of art in biography were presented and the suggestion was made that caution was necessary in any attempts to do so.^[28] It was also argued that ambiguities exist when trying to pin down sources used in artistic works. With respect to Bob Dylan’s writing specifically, the importance of the Bible as a source is not in dispute though the ways it is used varies greatly.^[29] From this fixed point we proceeded toward an analysis of a specific way Scripture is used in his lyrics.

[24] I have argued that Dylan finds a heuristic device in biblical imagery related to Jesus.^[30] Like Jesus, he too is an innocent messenger or prophet without honour, offering a critique of an audience that sometimes responds in anger. Introducing biblical themes is effective because of its mass appeal (the Jesus-story is well known and emotionally charged). The material considered above is obviously selective but I would suggest sufficiently representative to call attention to the importance of Christ-imagery for Dylan as a model for understanding his role as an artist.

^*I would like to thank Prof. Stephen Scobie of the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) for reading an earlier draft of this paper and offering helpful suggestions.

[2] More times than not Dylan seems to use this version, as he does for example on the album jacket of Saved (1980) which includes this quotation of Jeremiah 31:31: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord [sic] that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." There are exceptions, such as the allusion to the Revised Standard Version of Isa 4:5-6 in the title and lyrics of "Shelter From the Storm" (Blood on the Track, 1975; text in Dylan 1985, 361-62). The KJV reads "a covert from storm and from rain" whereas the RSV uses the word "shelter." On this matter, Cartwright found that "at some points Dylan is clearly basing his allusion upon a specific translation of the Bible; at others it does not seem to matter. . . . It is clear, contrary to some critical analysis, that Dylan was not bound to the use of the King James Version" (1992, 17). Michael Gray maintains, despite Cartwright’s suggestion to the contrary, "that Dylan’s overwhelming preference . . . is for the Authorized Version" (2000, 404n. 7). Unless otherwise noted, all biblical citations in this paper are taken from the KJV. Citations from Dylan’s lyrics and poems up to 1985, other than Tarantula, are taken from Lyrics 1962-1985 (1985). Citations of work after 1985 are taken from the Columbia House website Bob Dylan.com.

[7] The importance of continuity with earlier authorities is evident in the jacket notes to Bringing It All Back Home (1965) where we find a short, somewhat cryptic glimpse into the creative process as he understands it. Conscious of the inevitable flow of ideas from earlier artists, a point illustrated with the numerous names scattered across these pages (e.g., Jayne Mansfield, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Ginsberg, Hank Williams, Bach, Mozart, Tolstoy, and James Dean), Dylan can write that "the / Great books’ve been written. the Great sayings / have all been said" (1985, 180, 182). This is a startling admission for an artist writing an introduction to a collection of new, original music. It is all the more startling because he follows this statement with the words "I am about t’sketch You / a picture of what goes on around here some-/ times. though I don’t understand too well / myself what’s really happening." It has all been said, yet he is setting out to paint yet another portrait in words and music. A writer’s responsibility, it would appear, involves a repackaging of things said before, of things worth repeating.

[9] It is often for dramatic effect. To illustrate, an allusion to the Bible that invokes both an ideal by which a moral issue is measured and an emotive punch, is found in the line "Even Jesus would never / Forgive what you do" ("Masters of War", The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1963; 1985, 56). Here Dylan justifies his anger and criticism by claiming that Jesus would be in full agreement with him (the implied message: disagree with me and you disagree with this [ultimate] authority on morality and forgiveness). Comparing these masters of war to "Judas of old" reinforces the point further.

[10] A near exact citation of Amos 7:14 in "Long Time Gone" (recorded March 1963; 27) involves an ironic rejection of this title: "I know I ain’t no prophet / An’ I ain’t no prophet’s son". These words are taken from the prophetic words of one denying that he is a prophet! Prophet-imagery is used in a variety of ways in Dylan’s writing. E.g., he tells readers to "be like Jonah" in the poem "Alternatives to College" (1985, 216). He implies that he is a prophet, or that he is at least reading one of them, in "Dignity" (Greatest Hits: Vol. 3, 1994; Unplugged, 1995): "I went . . . / Into the valley of dry bone dreams" (i.e., by identifying with Ezekiel who saw this very thing [37:1-6]). For some interesting reflections on Dylan-as-prophet, see Alan Jacobs’ recent essay (2001, 97-108).

[11] This is not the only paradigm/role model used by Dylan. At times he can be seen consciously imitating other artists (e.g., Woody Guthrie in the early years of his career) or referring to others in attempts to explain his own situation. For example, in "Brownsville Girl" (Knocked Out Loaded, 1986) Dylan identifies with Jimmy Ringo, a character played by Gregory Peck in the movie The Gunfighter (1950; see Scobie, 1991, 153-56). We might also note at this time that Dylan’s fondness for the biblical stories is not in doubt, and further, his interest in the Bible is not limited to Jesus alone. Consider the following comments recorded by Crowe (1985): "As far as the sixties go, it wasn’t any big deal. Time marches on. I mean if I had a choice I would rather have lived at the time of King David, when he was the high King of Israel, I’d love to have been riding with him or hiding in caves with him when he was a hunted outlaw. I wonder what he would have been saying and about who - or maybe at the time of Jesus and Mary Magdalene - that would have been interesting huh, really test your nerve . . . or maybe even later in the time of the Apostles when they were overturning the world . . . ."

[12] This was the initial intent when starting out with this research project but it turned out to be ‘a paper that nobody could write’ because of the scope of the subject matter. I hope to provide a more complete investigation of this topic in my ‘From the Bible He’d Quote’: Biblical Imagery in the Writings of Bob Dylan (forthcoming, Trinity Press International). Bert Cartwright’s The Bible in the Lyrics of Bob Dylan (1990) remains the most complete study of the subject. Also valuable is Wissolik and McGrath (1994).

[14] No where is this better illustrated than in the famous moment during the 1966 British tour when an irate fan shouted out "Judas" during a concert in Manchester (this moment is preserved in the recently released recording of this show [The Bootleg Series, Volume 4, 1998]). Here the act of betrayal was an electric set (i.e., the shift from traditional folk to rock). Dylan denies any guilt ("I don’t believe you . . . you’re a liar"). In the present context, this charge is of course quite ironic. Cf. the 1978 album Street Legal where he is the one "Betrayed by a kiss" ("No Time to Think"; 1985, 406; full text 406-07).

[27] Dylan has little patience for hypocrisy among religious people. A lack of love among Christians is specifically highlighted in "Dignity" (Greatest Hits, Vol. 3, 1994; Unplugged, 1995) with the words "Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men / Wasn’t any difference to me". An allusion to St. Paul’s encomium on love (1 Cor 13) is clear: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [RSV: love], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (v.1). Saying there "wasn’t any difference" between the words of angels and men implies that those Christians he has in mind produce the meaningless noise Paul wrote about, a consequence of loveless Christianity. A different kind of critique is found in "It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)" (Bringing it All Back Home, 1965; 1985, 176-78). Here religion is reduced to shoddy merchandise ("plastic Christs that glow in the dark"). Capitalism is the villain here, but it is supported to some extent by those who buy those plastic Christs - who else but religious people? Plastic suggests artificiality and mass production. It is no wonder that those offering moral directives are ridiculed ("fake morals"). Are these the sort of people he has in mind when he writes "i am so Sick of Biblical people" (1994, 84)?

[28] A fine example of a Dylan scholar who is sensitive to this point is Michael Gray, in his encyclopedic Song & Dance Man III (2000). An exception to the rule illustrates the point. When discussing Dylan’s "Wedding Song" (on the 1974 album Planet Waves), which includes lyrics that clearly connect to the songwriter’s marriage, he writes the following: "I feel some unease about taking the biographical approach so baldly in this chapter - it had never been my chosen critical method before to ‘interpret’ the songs as if they were autobiographical statements, even though a general consciousness of the sort of person the artist was had inevitably been a part of what informed my writing about his work. The break-up of Dylan’s marriage, though, and his conversion to Christ: these were subjects Dylan elected to tackle head-on in his work and it seemed valid to write about the pattern I saw as tracing through these changes in the albums released 1975-78. I still see these ingredients in the albums but feel some unease at having ascribed to the songs, crudely as it seems to me now, such direct bulletins on the state of the artist’s marriage" (210n. 2; see too 215n. 8).

[30] It would be interesting to continue this discussion with reflections on Dylan’s 1975 movie Renaldo and Clara in which he clearly comes across as a messiah figure in some scenes. This was not pursued here in the interest of space.

Works Cited

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Crowe, Cameron. 1985. Liner Notes and Text for Biograph. Columbia (CBS).

Dylan, Bob. 1985. Lyrics: 1962-1985. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

_____. Tarantula: Poems. 1994. New York: St. Martin’s Press (originally published 1970). Forbes, Bruce David, and Jeffrey H. Maham, eds. 2000. Religion and Popular Culture in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Gray, Michael. 2000. Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan. London: Continuum. Heylin, Clinton. 2000. Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, The Biography - Take Two. London: Penguin.

_____. 1995. Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions 1960-1994. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Jacobs, Alan. 2001. A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age. Grand Rapids: Brazos.

Kristeva, Julia. 1984. Revolution in Poetic Language, trans. M. Walker. New York: Columbia University Press.

Rose, Bernard. 1994. Liner notes to Immortal Beloved: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Sony Music.

Scobie, Stephen. 1991. Alias Bob Dylan. Red Deer, AB: Red Deer College Press.

Stockman, Steve. 2001. Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2. Lake Mary, FL: Relevant Books.

Tkacz, Catherine Brown. 1994. "The Bible in Jane Eyre." Christianity and Literature 44: 3-27.

Williams, Don. 1985. Bob Dylan: The Man, The Music, The Message. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell.

Williams, Paul. 1992. Performing Artist: The Music of Bob Dylan, the Middle Years: 1974-1986. Novato, CA: Underwood-Miller.

Wissolik, Richard David, and Scott McGrath. 1994. Bob Dylan’s Words: A Critical Dictionary and Commentary. Greensburg, PA: Eadmer Press.