What's your opinion of Dylan's "born again" albums?

It's the confusion. Or what sounds more to me like, for want of a better word, a struggle -- the yearning for a shot of love, a love that's pure; the clinging to a memory of a moment of grace that's cherished and saved in a world that's full of trouble; a realization onward in one's journey that every hair is numbered like every grain of sand -- which I think probably resonates with someone like me, a rationalist with spiritual needs who struggles with any kind of faith and belief. I also feel that deeply in the power of the song and the image of hanging on to a solid rock made before the foundation of the world. FWIW, I'm also a huge fan of COGIC gospel of the golden age from the '30s through the early '60s.

 

Currently, this is my favorite Dylan period. (Before it was Another Self Portrait.). To give credit for this realization, my ears were opened by Trouble No More. What inspired performances by Dylan and the band. For me, Dylan’s Christian period music is evocative of earlier Gospel music and Christian hymns but with the added features of Dylan’s lyricism and phrasing.

I was always a big fan of Slow Train Coming, particularly side one and When He Returns, but now am a big fan of Saved and the live performances. For me, Pressing On captures the overall feel of the live collection.

 

Well said

 

Pressing on has that churning, burning,moving feel to the music that perfectly compliments the lyrics. Alicia Keys takes it to church on her version from Muscle Shoals.


Pressing On - Alicia Keys

 

What Mark said. Total co-sign here.

 

It's the era from when I first got into Bob. Slow Train Coming is a strong Bob record in my view. I think one thing that is forgotten is how funky some of it is (Hey it was recorded at Muscle Shoals with Jerry Wexler producing). "When You Gonna Wake Up", "Change My Way Of Thinking" and "Gotta Serve Somebody" have great grooves to them. "I Believe In You" and "When He Returns" are great ballads. I also love the B-side "Trouble In Mind" - the one song from the sessions that sounds like Dire Straits and a great Bob vocal.

I always saw Saved as Slow Train Coming - lite. Similar but nowhere near as good. I remember hearing the title track at the end of an episode of The Newsroom and it came alive for me. I enjoy Saved much more these days.

Shot Of Love is a personal favourite. It was the current record the first time I saw Bob live. I really like "Property Of Jesus" (sounds like the Staples) and the two great harmonica songs from Clover Studios - "In The Summertime" and "Every Grain Of Sand" (a truly great Bob song in my view).

I love the Trouble No More box set. The Toronto 1980 multi-tracks are fantastic especially the version of "Cover Down. Pray Through" (which I knew before the box set came out but it never sounded as good as it does on the box). It is probably my favourite box set right now. "Yonder Comes Sin" was my favourite Bob unreleased song. One of his great vocals.

 

I opened this thread thinking I’d see a ton of hate for these albums. I’m pleasantly surprised to see so many others admiring them. They’re wonderful. And I say that as someone who’s completely agnostic and couldn’t give a rat’s butt about religion ever.

 

I love all three. Saved came out the week I was born! I do have religious faith so I don’t have any conflicts regarding the subject matter. An amazing single album could be made from all three. Also, I don’t think it was just a fad.

 

Me neither. I also firmly think he never really snapped out of it again.

 

I only bought Slow Train Coming and I like it a lot. I'm not familiar with the other two.

 

I didn’t like them at all at that time
But Trouble No More is great and whilst I’m not a Christian and don’t like in particular that born again stuff you can’t deny the passion backed up by a killer band and gospel singers
Close to being my favourite biograph series

 

Great albums.
The song Slow Train seethes with disgust at the state of humanity....as relevant today as it was in the 70's.

 

There are some great songs on Slow Train, but I hardly listen to the lyrics and very rarely to the whole album. Don't know the other two.

 

I like Slow Train and Shot of Love about the same, and Saved a little less - and Infidels better than all three.

 

I like Slow Train Coming some, though it's been a long while since I listened to it. Saved I hate, though the songs are very good in live recordings with a passion that the studio versions completely fail to capture. Shot Of Love is fair.
The live performances from 1979, esp. on bootlegs, are incredibly impassioned (with the Warfield, San Francisco, 11/16/79 as the best I've heard, which though not perfect sound is better than the entire Trouble No More box set).
The Warfield show made me appreciate and want to hear more - this is after Trouble No More left me cold (not for it being without anything good, but I went through such a hassle making the mistake of ordering it from Dylan's site,
to get the damned San Diego show (which I have to check out again), that it made it impossible for me at the time to really try and enjoy the set containing music I considered before the worst of his career, to give it a shot.
I really wished I had ordered the regular box set (or even the double set instead, though the DVD has great performances...that are ruined by the actor doing the preaching thrown on it in between songs. It should have been Bob's original parts or not on there at all.

So basically I like Slow Train but don't listen to it often, and think Shot Of Love also has its moments.

But neither are as good as the Warfield show.

 

They all have the ability to move me to tears - love all 3.

Box set is incredible too.

 

Slow Train - 7.5/10
Saved - 6.5
Shot - 7.5

I like Shot of Love best; it has a loose, lively feel to it

 

Love Slow Train. Saved’s not bad. Could never warm to Shot.

 

I like all three and think Saved and Shot are usually rated unfairly compared to Slow Train. Saved is passionate and fun to my ears, Shot has a few disposable tunes but also some real highlights. All three albums are uneven, but I enjoy the fire and brimstone attitude of tracks like Saved and Shot Of Love, without really caring that deeply about the lyrics.

 

Never worked for me.

If I want something gospel gimme Aretha or Mahalia.

And I do, for one of the atheistical persuasion, play an awful lot of religious music, just most of it is European choral stuff from the 12th to 18th centuries.

 

It's hard for me to 'rank' these albums as each has different good and bad points. Let me break it down according to specific criterion:

Slow Train Coming
9 - tunes / melodies
4 - lyrics
5 - Dylan's voice (He's trying hard, but the whiny voice has arrived and it puts me off.)
8 - overall band performances
5 - recording / production (I know it won a Grammy and people think it's very well-produced. I don't... sleazy, late-disco sound!)
4 - vibe / mood (Never has "discovery of my belief" music sounded so dark and unhappy)

Saved
6 - tunes / melodies (Not as tuneful as the previous one.)
4 - lyrics
7 - Dylan's voice (Some decent singing.)
6 - overall band performances
7 - recording / production (I much prefer this organic, natural sound of production.)
7 - vibe / mood

Shot Of Love
6 - tunes / melodies
7 - lyrics (Good lyrics are mostly back... except for "Lenny Bruce" and "Property of Jesus".)
3 - Dylan's voice (I hate his vocals on this album. Almost ruins it.)
7 - overall band performances
8 - recording / production
6 - vibe / mood


I also sometimes wonder if Infidels isn't a fourth Christian LP. Yeah, he's posing in Israel on the inside sleeve, but every single song references The Bible, whether 'old' or 'new'....

 

Somehow I don't have a copy of Shot of Love, but I very much enjoy the other two.

 

My opinion, then and now, is

 

Slow Train Coming is my favorite Dylan album.

I've tried listening to the others, but they do not grab me like this one does.

 

I always liked all of them.