Friday Open Thread ~ transitions edition ~ A Journey To Wellness


Actors Kerry Shale and Lucas Hare talk to interesting people about Bob Dylan. [55 episodes]

Bob Dylan on the Atomic Bomb, Neil Young and religion with Jann Wenner

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WA0S2_HQ5o]

Nothing is Ever Just a Phase: how Bob Dylan’s overlooked Christian gospel period shocked and inspired the world.

Bob Dylan was brought up in a Jewish household in the American Midwest, but kept his faith away from the spotlight of his professional counter-culture persona. That was until the late 1970s when he converted to evangelical Christianity and released an album that shared his born again beliefs with the world.

We join his childhood friend, Louie Kemp, as we delve into why the boy he met at a Jewish summer camp turned to Christianity.

We hear from Regina McCray, his backing singer from the time, who retells the story of her audition where she sang Amazing Grace. She went on to get the job, but little did she know that the song would go on to inspire Dylan’s sound for his next three albums - Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love.

We also hear from Australian journalist, Karen Hughes, whose in-depth interview with the singer broke to the world how serious Dylan was about Christianity - and from Swedish doctor and musician, Valdemar Erling, whose accidental discovery of Slow Train Coming has been the foundation of his faith for many years.

Along with live music tracks, archive excerpts from outraged fans and even the sounds of Bob Dylan preaching to his crowds, we hear how Dylan’s often overlooked ‘Gospel Period’ helped people develop a deeper connection to spirituality that is still relevant today, years after the singer-songwriter appears to have turned his back on organised religion altogether.

Listen to Bob Dylan: Born again

What phase of life are you in?

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Comments

It's a stunning phase.
This too shall pass.

Wink

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6 users have voted.

Stagnation is antithetical to growth, unless you happen to be pond scum. New ideas, new vistas, bring a new perspective and perhaps a new direction. Sometimes change is subtle, sometimes a hard jibe. Fandom has a hard time with idol changes. Everything is in motion, like it or not.

Perhaps wisdom brings open arms to change, me, I’m still working at it…..

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7 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

The music is pretty. The tune is catchy. The message is that we are basically "wretch(es)' that need to be forgiven for the basic state of being born. I remember my mother in law who was a devout Christian telling me in all teary sincerity that she was amazed that God and Jesus still loved her even though she didn't deserve it. I was horrified.

The fact that Bob Dylan bought into a set of fables, superstition and the claim of one particular imaginary god does not in any way enhance my opinion of him as a musician or those kinds of beliefs.

I think Dylan is a brilliant poet and love some of his music. Was sorry to see him put it all in one box during his Jesus tour years.

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5 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Dawn's Meta's picture

almost an acre into a creekside meadow; raising veggies; trying water color; making music; cooking; traveling. But it's turned into a homesteading effort, as we have had to remove and rebuild alot of the house we bought. French language is better around phrases in construction, utilities, technical stuff, learning how to assure our place in line to get something done and on and on. We are finally getting to see some of the things listed above, but not without a lot of more basic needs being worked on as well.

About Bob Dylan: odd coincidence in the May issue of Harper's is a memoir called 'The Silent Type: On (possibly) being Bob Dylan's son' by Sam Sussman. An interesting read, which may contain a truth about the writer's pater lineage. It is an hommage to his mother really.

Such a complex and prolific guy is Dylan.

QMS - I prefer 'Beam me up Scotty'. Anywhere good and peaceful in every sense of the word.

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4 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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enhydra lutris's picture

can't sustain a contain of either liquid or gas long enough to get stuff done. Truth be told, the classic "phases" of matter are a pretty simplistic model; I personally would opt for gel or colloid as to the internal structure of the external bag.

Mentally is another matter, something akin to a gas, what with random brownian motion and ricocheting data points and all that.

Seems to me that we are permeable, mentally and physically, and temporary, largely ideational and with an indefinite and indeterminate boundary.

The main thing is that "Life is to important to be taken seriously", after all, nobody gets out of here alive, and you are what you do, what you sense, and what you think and at the moment I am thinking that I am ready for breakfast, ergo: I am breakfast, in some state of becoming. (the existentialists got a lot of it right, they just dwelt on it too much and made too big a deal out of it)

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mimi's picture

everything. In a state of life where I say "get of my sight you are between me and the sunlight."

Now, we have right now in my parts of Germany the hottest days with so much sunlight that I probably have just got a sunstroke. Nutty

That Bob Dylan stuff amazes me. Wouldn't have imagined such a journey to go through in his life. Can't say I like it much. Nutty too.

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1 user has voted.