Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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70 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Record, Too Bad it took Me so Long to Figure it Out, April 21, 2005
I have to admit, despite Dylan's fine voice on this record, despite Mark K's excellent guitar work, despite the fact that musically, this is one outstanding piece of work, I didn't like this record at first, didn't like it for years. Bought it when it came out, listened to it once, filed it away. When CDs took over, of course I had to buy it again and I gave it another listen and I discovered that it wasn't so bad, after all, lyrically, that is.
You see I had a problem when Dylan appeared to be taking his audience along with him on his quest for God, so when this record opened with "Gotta Serve Somebody" my pea brain shut down. Yeah, I tried to tell myself that "I Believe in You" could be about a girl, "Precious Angel" too. But I really knew better. Now that I've got a few more years under my belt, I realize that this record is like all of Dylan's records, word pictures about what he was going through in his life. This record is about a man seeking and finding his way. He's not trying to convert me or anybody else. He's just simply chronicling his life in his way, with music and words that rhyme. I like this record now, play it quite a bit. It's really pretty darn good.
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42 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dylan's Got Dylan Back Again, June 17, 2004
"Slow Train Coming" was exactly that-this album was more inevitable than most people realized, and a turning point in the career of Bob Dylan, not just commercially but, obviously, spiritually. Some called the Christian transition "bizarre;" but it's strange how no one complained when Pete Townshend expressed his religious beliefs in Meher Baba, or when actor Richard Gere became a Buddhist, which suggests some sort of prejudice. There's nothing wrong with a celebrity finding religion, but Dylan's transition is another example of the harsh standards that fans set for celebrities. What's worse is that they expect them to live by those standards. (Confusingly enough, Dylan actually said in 1983 "Whoever said I was Christian? I am a humanist!")
Dylan had been wandering for quite sometime, searching for himself in a way, while all at once becoming the "voice of a generation." What that generation probably didn't know was that their leader (a title Dylan denounced), the person they came to believe in, was searching for something to believe in too. And he obviously had good reason; in 1970, the generation he inspired turned on him at the drop of a hat, only that hat was in the form of an album called "Self Portrait," a purposely disastrous album Dylan released in hopes that critics and fans would remember he had told them "don't follow leaders." As he would later say, "I wanted out." They forgave him after another album, "New Morning." One rock and roll headline read "We've Got Dylan Back Again." But did Dylan have Dylan back? He wandered throughout the 70s, singing about what he was becoming increasingly knowledgeable about, his domestic family life (1974's "Planet Waves") and later the trials of a shaky marriage ("Blood On the Tracks," pieces of 1976's "Desire").
Therefore, "Slow Train Coming" is a joy to listen to because it finds Dylan finally at some form of peace. The last time he'd sounded this satisfied was probably on the laid-back country of 1969's "Nashville Skyline." He had been singing about the elements found in this album for years. Only now, Dylan knew that it was God who gave him the gift to do so. One should look back at the echoes of the book of Isaiah in 'All Along the Watchtower,' a song that seemed eerily similar to Mark 13:35. Some would accuse Dylan's lyrics for this album of being judgmental. Not so. He was actually singing about the same kinds of people found in older songs like 'Ballad of a Thin Man;' those who have "been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books," who are "very well read" but still "something is happening" and they "don't know what it is." Dylan is more focused and diligent on "Slow Train Coming" than anything he had ever recorded before, and this clear-headed motivation would even carry into his albums of the 80s and 90s, whether they were Christian or secular. Songs like 'When You Gonna Wake Up' and the subtle-but-anthemic 'Gotta Serve Somebody' are no more "judgemental" than the lyrics of 'Like a Rolling Stone.' As a matter of fact, none of his work was judgemental, they are simply Dylan describing the kinds of characters and truths life is full of. Tracks like 'Precious Angel' and 'Slow Train' meanwhile are the peaks of Bob Dylan's goal on this album.
"Slow Train Coming," in some ways, had the same side-effects as "Self Portrait." The non-Christian fans became disgusted that "their" Bob Dylan could think for himself and not simply follow the beliefs his fans wanted him to follow, rather than his own. Some fans covered their ears, others made excuses and claimed it was just a cry for help. The reviews for mixed, but the record sold, making it a minor classic, and the music within is always superb. Subsequent Christian albums "Saved" and "Shot of Love" were not as well respected, and Dylan would allegedly move back to "secular" recordings with the strong "Infidels"; but even that album contained some references to both Christianity and Judaism influenced by Dylan's research in spiritual Rastafarianism, sparking many theories as to what exactly was influencing the songwriter at that point and whether "secular" was the word to describe it. But it was the best thing he could have done at this point; had Dylan continued to record strictly Christian rock his star would have faded, his audience lost. And whether or not he kept the values of "Slow Train Coming," every word, every note is the solid truth, something Dylan was never afraid to tell.
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Dylan's best works, July 10, 2000
Although the word "hip" has never been in my vocabulary, "hip" is not the way to describe an album of Christian rock songs released in 1979 when new wave and the decadance of disco were dominating popular music. That's one reason why Bob Dylan is hipper than anybody. The critics be damned (in more ways than one, I suppose), Dylan was a man with a message who wasn't going to dilute that message to curry favor with anyone. Thank God for that because "Slow Train Coming" is a great, powerful album. The songs may be arrogant, as some critics have charged, but so was "The Times They Are-a Changin'" and "Like a Rolling Stone." The fire and brimstone mentality might have been grating if not for the fact that, musically, Dylan is operating at full power, and, lyrically, he is obviously very sincere in his beliefs. Whether sympathetic to the message or not, it's hard to believe anyone could not be moved by the beauty of "I Believe In You" and "Precious Angel," amused by "Man Gave Names to All the Animals," and overpowered by the dynamic "When He Returns." This album is right up there with his best work, and the follow-up, "Saved," is, in some ways, even better.
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Bob Dylan: "At last I was here, in New York City... I was there to find singers, the ones I'd heard on record--Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger, Ed McCurdy, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Josh White, the New Lost City Ramblers, Reverend Gary Davis... most of all to find Woody Guthrie." Read more musical excerpts from Chronicles, Vol. 1 on our Music You Should Hear page.
by Bob Dylan 
