The last two nights I heard a prophet. I was not in Vatican City
I was following Bob Dylan. On 8/1/11, he performed on the same stage at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Evansville , Indiana
Dylan’s song writing is so prolific he could not have performed more than a small percentage of his songs on any night. Many other examples of the prophetic and religious nature of his music could be given.
To name just a few, Dylan’s 1962 “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” describes the heart-rending 8/2/11 N Y Times photo of a starving child in Mogadishu
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
Where black is the color, where none is the number
…how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died? “Blowin’ in the Wind”, 1962.
It’s not hard to match a current news story, for example, “Reaping Millions From Medicaid In Nonprofit Care for Disabled”, 8/2/11 NY Times, (Phil and Joel Levy taking $1 million a year each for running a Medicaid “nonprofit” for the disabled) to even an old Dylan song:
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth “All Along the Watchtower” from 1968.
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth “All Along the Watchtower” from 1968.
From Dylan’s 1980’s religious era the extent to which the traditional religious sector fails to provide guidance in modern times sounds if it were from the Bible.
Ring them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep Ring Them Bells, 1989
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep Ring Them Bells, 1989
The summer‘s record-breaking heat and drought in some parts of the country with floods destroying other parts brings a more recent song to mind:
Tryin’ To Get to Heaven, 1997.
The air is getting hotter
There’s a rumbling in the skies
I’ve been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes
Every day your memory grows dimmer
It doesn’t haunt me like it did before
I’ve been walking through the middle of nowhere
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door
There’s a rumbling in the skies
I’ve been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes
Every day your memory grows dimmer
It doesn’t haunt me like it did before
I’ve been walking through the middle of nowhere
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door
Blowing his harmonica as sweetly as Gabriel must have blown his horn Dylan still regularly performs the music that enraptured a young generation of baby-boomers. It’s no surprise that at both locations large crowds of gray-haired men and women, students and children stood, cheered and clapped for the 70 year old singer and songwriter whose words are as meaningful today as they ever were.
Listening to Bob Dylan is more likely to get me to heaven than going to church. Call me a blasphemer and heretic. I will be in good company.
Interesting points about the apparent 'prophetic' nature of Dylan's work. I suppose that an artist with such a highly refined sensibility is bound to paint accurate pictures of the world as it was, is and will be. I'm not so sure he is a 'prophet' as such (although that may be open to debate depending how one defines the term) but the way he reflects reality makes him one of the most important voices of our time. I like what you say about listening to Dylan over going to church. I expect it depends on the particular church but I can relate to what you say.
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