The Relationship Between 90&9 and.......... Bob Dylan

Many posts the last few months have thrown around ideas as to what makes good music, how to musically get out of a stale box, how to play effectively, how to lyrically make something spiritually legitimate, etc. I would have never imagined finding a music project that, for me, congealed many of the above elements in the most unlikely of characters…Bob Dylan.

I really didn’t know much about Bob, except for hearing his rough, nasally voice braying somewhere where I was basically forced to hear him, as opposed to purposely listening to his music. There is a lot to be said about Bob…I didn’t know he was from Duluth, MN (went there for youth conferences back in the day), didn’t know he went to Greenwich Village in New York and joined up with the counterculture movement and became very popular with his folk singing…didn’t know he came to detest the title of “a voice of a generation” so much that he purposely started producing junk and exhibiting eccentric behavior just to create some space between him and his fan base. Then, in 1979 he had a born again experience and produced three gospel albums, the first of which was entitled “Slow Train Coming.” It is considered one of the greatest gospel albums ever made. It went to number 2 on the charts in the UK and number 3 in the US (as well as platinum). It also won Bob a Grammy Award for best rock vocal performance on “Gotta Serve Somebody.” AND people thought he dove off a diving board into the deep end of a pool with no water.

I downloaded it and have been soaking it in for the following reasons:

1. Sonically, it sounds phenom. You can hear every instrument “breathe.” There is a very solid foundation underneath some amazing guitar, B3, keyboard, and horn splat riffs.

2. The lyrics are obviously Biblically based; however, they are not just gratuitious. I agree that the name of Jesus, and other Christian themes should never be lost, but on the flip side, marketing music to a certain demographic and throwing the name Jesus around (at best), or watering down the approach to appeal to a wider audience (at worst), seems to be CCM’s modus operandi. It seems to me that every genre, be it AP music, secular, CCM, all of them – can get stuck in a rut until someone restless comes along and moves the trail. Then it happens all over again. I’ve probably digressed, but what Dylan puts together in “Slow Train” is a set of lyrics that leave you thinking, and even though you might not agree with his worldview, he still manages to plant a seed by the colorful and at times driving word arrangements.

3. Take the music, add the lyrics, and then put Bob’s wheezing, gasping, cracking, nasally, “fading in and out” voice, and all of the other things you’re not supposed to do vocally, and suddenly you have lyrics sung in raw emotion buttressed by outstanding musicianship. Who would have thunk it?

Some of my friends think I’m nuts and won’t listen at all because of Bob’s counterculture stigma, my kids want to listen to “Man gave names to all the animals” over and over, and my wife has been listening, …but only for the entertainment value. Me? I’ve got a greater appreciation for what makes music resonate long after it was first distributed.