At the March of 1963 in Washington, D.C., Dylan voiced his opinion on the issues of civil rights in America by the power and magic of song. At this time, he wrote “Only a Dawn in Their Game” about the death of Medgar Evers in Mississippi. Some fans called Dylan “leader of protest-song era of early sixties.”
In 1965, Dylan shocked the fans with a mixture of “folk, rock, folk-rock, protest songs, electric blues, and Nashville style country.” He was screaming freedom through songs such as “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” when all that seemed to work was war. Even in his album Another Side of Bob Dylan, a lot of his poetry is printed and simply by reading it, one can feel his spirit, his voice. The cover poetry spells “to” as if it were “t” just to feel his rhythm.
In 1966, Dylan suffered from a motorcycle accident and spent a few months home recovering from not only the pain but the rumors of brain damage and death. This forced him to drop out of “the gypsy life of concert tours for a while.” After many months of close to solitary confinement, Dylan produced The Basement Tapes. At this point, he sold 58 million albums and 500 songs. ()
Not long after The Basement Tapes, Dylan seemed to focus more on the spiritual aspect of his own life by sharing how he felt about different issues in his songs. Even the loved “All Along the Watchtower” is based from Isaiah’s images in the Bible. (.) It was not until 1978 that Dylan made the following statement, “I told you the times they are a-changin’ and they did. I said the answer was blowin’ in the wind and it was. I’m telling you now Jesus is coming back, and He is! And there is no other way of salvation.”
Word flew that Dylan had reverted to Judaism when he was seen at the bar mitzvah of his son at the Western Wall in Israel. Several comments prove him somewhat “shady” in his religion. He believes in the prophets after Jesus’ time but does not see the point in “looking for them in synagogues with six-pointed Egyptian stars shining down from every window.” (.)
Israel's wars & Dylan's muse, at a glance
1967: Six Day War
Dylan finds Biblical images, breaks the silence that began with the motorcycle crash
1973: Yom Kippur War
Dylan recovers from artistic slump with Planet Waves; names new publishing company Ram's Horn Music.
1974-76: Anti-Israel sentiment heats up in U.N. and world arena.
Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Rolling Thunder tour: Dylan's comeback.
1978: Camp David Accords, Israel trades Sinai for peace with Egypt.
Dylan embraces Christianity
1983: Lebanon War
Dylan returns to Jewish fold; Infidels seen as yet another creative comeback; "Neighborhood Bully" defends Begin's policies
1989: Intifada at peak
Jewish-tinged "Oh Mercy" proves yet another comeback
1991-present: Madrid conference, Oslo accords advance peace process
Dylan falls silent, releasing several albums but no new songs.
Note: This may or may not be a correct reading of Dylan's muse, or his politics.
Statistics taken from
Since his conversion, re-conversion, or simple straddling of the religious line, the previous source states his particular “muses” over the past forty years. “By adopting the guise of the folk troubadour he was hailed as the young messiah of folk music,” said the Online Top Success Story of Bob Dylan writer.
Only proving his popularity, he won three grammy’s and Best Contemporary Folk Album for Time Out of Mind. Dylan also received the best male rock performance for the album Cold Irons Bound.
After his spiritual bout of the seventies, Dylanologists confirm that “The Biograph” emphasized five album “backward-looking” songs that “stunned listeners with episodic dissatisfaction.” (.) He had lured his listeners with tunes sung with Joan Baez, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison, but his recent singularity and natural aging had seemingly placed a slow stopper on his own popularity.
The nineties approached and Bob Dylan began to paint. Sadly, people wonder whether he did it out of boredom or simply because it was something he enjoyed, but honestly it does not make a difference – he was an artist and that fact still remains today.
In 1997, Time Out of Mind produced by Daniel Lanois received Best Contemporary Folk Album, Album of the Year, and the Best Male Vocal Performance. Later that year, Dylan was hospitalized with histoplasmosis, a threatening disease that creates enlargement of the sac surrounding his heart. A fast healer, Dylan, was expected to appear at the request of John Paul II to receive the country’s highest award for artistic fineness – the Kennedy Centre Honours.
Only two years ago, Dylan produced the single “Things Have Changed” for the film, Wonder Boys receiving a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Original Song. (.)
Dylan says that when God gives you a flower and asks you to develop it, he means by photographing it or singing it. (.) He is a conscious artist as artist should be. He always wants to make something better out of what is real – to accept the reality and find what is really “real” about it and share it with everyone else. His communicative sexual raspy voice is his longevity. Bob Dylan sums himself and his thoughts and his religion up by saying, “After all, an artist is a seeker of truth. When an artist believes he has found the truth, the art suffers.” He knows he has a lot figured out. He knows he stands as a legend. But he knows there is more to it than just singing poetry from generation to generation to generation.
WORKS CITED:
Yudelson, Larry. “Dylan: Tangled Up In Jews.” Washington Jewish Week.Online
“Israel’s Wars and Dylan’s Muse.” Dylan and the Jews.
“Bob Dylan at 60.”
“Bob Dylan – Top Success Story.”
Another Side of Bob Dylan. Poetry in album slip. Columbia Records.