Seen and Unseen: The journey Bob Dylan biopics fail to capture

My latest article for Seen and Unseen is entitled 'The journey Bob Dylan biopics fail to capture'. In it I argue that the best of Dylan’s work is a contemporary Pilgrim, Dante or Rimbaud on a compassionate journey:

"Throughout Dylan’s career, he writes songs about people travelling through life in the face of apocalyptic storms seeking some form of relief or salvation or entry to heaven. So, what we have in the best of Dylan’s work is a contemporary Pilgrim, Dante or Rimbaud on a compassionate journey, undertaken in the eye of the Apocalypse, to stand with the damned at the heart of the darkness that is twentieth century (and then twenty-first century) culture.”

For more on Bob Dylan see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. See also my co-authored book The Secret Chord which has been described as an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life written through the prism of Christian belief. For more of my writings on music click here.

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

My 18th article was an interview entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence.

My 19th article was entitled 'Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us'. In the article I highlight alt-folk music seeking inspiration from forgotten hymns.

My 20th article was entitled 'Revisiting Amazing Grace inspires new songs'. In the article I highlight folk musicians capturing both the barbaric and the beautiful in the hymn Amazing Grace and Christianity's entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade more generally.

My 21st article was entitled 'James MacMillan’s music of tranquility and discord'. In the article I noted that the composer’s music contends both the secular and sacred.

My 22nd article was a book review on Nobody's Empire by Stuart Murdoch. 'Nobody's Empire: A Novel is the fictionalised account of how ... Murdoch, lead singer of indie band Belle and Sebastian, transfigured his experience of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) through faith and music.'

My 23rd article was entitled 'Rock ‘n’ roll’s long dance with religion'. The article explores how popular music conjures sacred space.

My 24th article was an interview with Alastair Gordon on the artist’s attention which explores why the overlooked and everyday capture the creative gaze.

My 25th article was about Stanley Spencer’s seen and unseen world and the artist’s child-like sense of wonder as he saw heaven everywhere

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.

Bill Fay R.I.P.

Dead Oceans recently announced the passing of Bill Fay, who died peacefully in London, aged 81.

They wrote: "Bill was a gentle man and a gentleman, wise beyond our times. He was a private person with the biggest of hearts, who wrote immensely moving, meaningful songs that will continue to find people for years to come.Bill’s first two albums, Bill Fay and Time of the Last Persecution, found a modest but loving audience upon their release at the dawn of the 1970s. While they weren’t considered commercial successes at the time, they continue to inspire devotion decades on, now known as overlooked classics from the era.

With enormous help from producer Joshua Henry, who tracked Bill down and convinced him to make another album, Bill later went on to make three more albums with Dead Oceans: Life is People (2012), his first release for forty years; Who is the Sender? (2015); and Countless Branches (2020), enjoying his cult status in real time.

Only a month before his passing, Bill was busy working on a new album. Our hope is to find a way to finish and release it, but for now, we remember Bill’s legacy as the “man in the corner of the room at the piano”, who quietly wrote heartfelt songs that touched and connected with people around the world."

'Bill Fay Was a Hidden Gem. One Musician Made Finding Him a Mission.' was the New York Times headline for an article exploring the background to Fay's album 'Countless Branches.'

Bill Fay made two albums at the beginning of the 1970s before losing his contract and disappearing from the scene. The strength of these albums, particularly the second 'Time of the Last Persecution,' led several musicians and producers to find Fay and assist in releasing more of his music.

Fay’s first two albums since his rediscovery, “Life Is People” in 2012 and “Who Is the Sender?” in 2015, were both profitable and effective follow-ups to the records he’d made 40 years earlier resulting in the recording of the most recent 'Countless Branches.'

Grayson Haver Currin notes that Fay's: 'self-titled 1970 debut featured idealistic odes to friendship, nature and peace swaddled in swooping strings and cascading horns. But only a year later, he’d turned to thorny rock for “Time of the Last Persecution.” Fueled by the horrors of the Vietnam War and the violence of the Jim Crow South, Fay railed against social corruption for 14 fractured songs, framing life as a revolving door of chances to get right with God.'

With the more recent albums Fay is: 'still writing about his distrust of governments and his belief in the goodness of people. Henry smartly dressed those songs in chamber-pop elegance. Tweedy lent his voice to a jangling tune called “This World,” while Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce added subtle harmonies to “Bring It On Lord,” a paean to valuing the days you have left. Fay’s voice wavered and rasped with age, the seams worn like proud wrinkles of wisdom.'

A Bill Fay song is often a 'deceptively simple thing, which carries more emotional weight than its concision and brevity might imply.' They are musical haikus on 'his recurring themes: nature, the family of man, the cycle of life and the ineffable vastness of it all.' The most recent releases being 'as pointed and as poignant as anything he’s ever recorded, as if songs waiting for their time have finally found their rightful place within our current zeitgeist.'

Bill Fay - Countless Branches - 'Countless Branches is the third of Fay's later-period albums, following Life Is People (2012) and Who Is the Sender? (2015). It might just be the best, too. It's palatable and concise, comprising ten tracks with bonuses pushing the total to 17. An incorrigible grouch might bridle at these guileless, gently philosophical songs, but they're delivered with such obvious sincerity that the rest of us will be charmed. As ever, Fay focuses on the search for meaning and substance in everyday life.'

Bill Fay's 'beautifully hymnal fourth studio album' Who is the Sender? 'contains sublime, heartfelt ruminations on nature and the world.' With less light and shade than Life is People but with a more consistently meditative tone, With profound simplicity, like that of Chance in Being There, Fay mourns the inhumanity of our warlike impulses while prayerfully calling for a new world to be manifest.

The song 'Who Is The Sender?' on Bill Fay's album of the same title is about the phenomenon which Fay sees as 'songfinding' rather than songwriting:

'Ask Bill Fay about his relationship with his instrument and he says something revealing, not "Ever since I learnt to play the piano", but "Ever since the piano taught me..."

What the piano taught him was how to connect to one of the great joys of his life. "Music gives," he says. And he is a grateful receiver. But, it makes him wonder, "Who is the sender?" ...

joy and sadness are indeed deep in this material, which Bill describes as "alternative gospel". Though it clearly stems from his belief, he doesn't seek to proselytise or convert anybody, but just hopes to share the concerns he puts into the words and the feelings that he receives from the music:

"Goodness, beauty, comfort. If something gives in the world, that's a good thing, isn't it? Maybe that's what music wants to do."'

Bill Fay’s songs on Life is People are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual imagery and insights delivered with gravity and grace. 'Cosmic Concerto (Life Is People)' is a highlight from a collection of stand-out tracks; a celebration of the miracle of ordinary life, the infinite variation in each human face, which stirs his soul.

'Aside from Fay's plaintive cover of Wilco's Jesus Etc, Life Is People also continues with the lyrical themes established back in 1969-70 ... "They need space to convey," he stresses, "but, in a simple way, biblical prophecy. Not in some extreme or fanatical way but fundamentally, that this world - in the hands of different leaders, competing with each other economically - it can't carry on. It's belief in a change. There's comfort in that. I'm not so sure how you could handle the world if you didn't have that. It's God's world, yet we walk around as if it's ours."' (Mojo)

Bill Fay's Life Is People is an album to treasure produced by a man of real humility with a wonderful back story. The story is as follows:

"Bill Fay was born in North London, where he still lives. His debut on the underground Decca Nova label, Bill Fay (1970), included spacious big band jazz arrangements by Mike Gibbs, but it was the follow-up, Time Of The Last Persecution (1971), that cemented his reputation — a harrowing, philosophical and painfully honest diagnosis of an unhealthy society and a messed-up planet, that featured the cream of London's fieriest jazz session players such as guitarist Ray Russell. Unable to make ends meet as a musician, Fay wandered through a succession of jobs for years, writing songs privately. His albums were reissued in 1998 after being deleted for 27 years, and when the likes of Jeff Tweedy and David Tibet (Current 93) began singing his praises in the early 2000s, Bill began to come back into view. A third album, recorded piecemeal in the late 70s, was released in 2005 as Tomorrow Tomorrow And Tomorrow, by The Bill Fay Group. And Wilco even convinced the shy singer to join them onstage in London in 2007.

A CD of Bill's early demos and home recordings has also since emerged, but Life Is People is his first properly crafted studio album since 1971. He was motivated by American producer Joshua Henry, a fan who had grown up listening to the Bill Fay albums in his Dad's record collection. Spooling through Bill's home demos, Joshua discovered an incredible trove of material and decided to do something about it. Guitarist Matt Deighton (Oasis, Paul Weller, Mother Earth) assembled a cast of backup musicians to bring out the songs' full potential, Tim Weller (who's played drums for everyone from Will Young to Noel Gallagher and Goldfrapp), and keyboardist Mikey Rowe (High Flying Birds, Stevie Nicks, etc). In addition, Bill is reunited on several tracks with Ray Russell and drummer Alan Rushton, who played on Time Of The Last Persecution."

Fay's humility seems to run throughout this project - in his low-key, almost hestitant delivery, in lyrics such as "The never ending happening / Of what's to be and what has been / Just to be a part of it / Is astonishing to me" ('The Never Ending Happening')) and "I don't ask much, for myself / But for the one's I love" ('Thank You Lord'), and in liner notes which simply express profound gratitude for the support he has received from others in the making of this album.

His songs are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual imagery and insights delivered with gravity and grace:

"Ranging from intimate to cosmic, epic but never grandiose, Bill's deeply committed music reminds you of important, eternal truths, and the lessons to be drawn from the natural world, when the materiality and greed threaten to engulf everything.

From the Eden-like hope for a better world in the opening "There Is A Valley" to the street sweeper gazing past the neon lights to the heavens in "City Of Dreams"; from the grand historical sweep of "Big Painter" to the compassionate hopefulness of "The Healing Day"; Bill's perceptive songs strike at the heart of the big issues facing us all today. But they're humble and down to earth too, full of striking images: witness the panoramic "Cosmic Concerto (Life Is People)", with its windblown seeds and grandmas blowing kisses into prams: as rapturous and soul-stirring as any music you'll hear this year."

'Cosmic Concerto (Life Is People)' is a highlight from a collection of stand-out tracks; a celebration of the miracle of ordinary life, the infinite variation in each human face, which stirs his soul. This is music to stir the soul, as Jim O'Rourke has stated "Bill Fay has quietly held his head high above the fray of chaos for years with the beauty of his music and the power of his spirit."

Bill Fay's classic Time Of The Last Persecution displays empathy in the face of apocalypse. Fay's songs are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual imagery and insights (both whimsical and surreal bearing comparison with Syd Barrett and Nick Drake) delivered with gravity and grace.

Bill Fay was profoundly influenced by Teilhard de Chardin:

"Shortly after his debut was released, Fay stumbled across an old biblical commentary and quickly developed a fascination with the books of Daniel and Revelation. With the Vietnam War still escalating and the Kent State massacres in the headlines, the dark, apocalyptic tone of the ancient prophetic literature seemed disturbingly relevant. About this same time, Fay also began reading the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a mid-twentieth century Jesuit, scientist, and philosopher, who believed that all of reality, both human and non-human, is rapidly evolving toward an eternal state of unity and peace. The earth’s present travails (war, poverty, injustice), however overwhelming they may seem, are really the birth pangs of the coming paradise—evidence of both the deficiencies of our current existence and the imminence of the world to come.

Armed with these new intellectual resources, Fay fashioned a second recording that was darker and more desperate but ultimately more hopeful than the first. Time of the Last Persecution is dominated by Fay’s vision of the coming apocalypse, vividly described in songs like “’Til the Christ Come Back,” “Plan D,” and the bleak, bombastic title cut. Fay’s eschatology on the recording is a far cry from the Us-vs.-Them cynicism of religious orthodoxy, in which the chosen people are eternally rewarded while the rest of us are cast into a bottomless lake of fire. For Fay, as for Teilhard before him, deliverance is deliverance for all (hippie and soldier, young and old, human and non-human) from the structures and institutions that oppress and alienate us. And the coming of the messiah signifies that all of reality—however senseless it may now seem—ultimately has value and significance. “The album was a commitment,” Fay recently explained, “albeit a reluctant one at first, to the belief that there will be, and has to be at some point, some spiritual intervention in the world.”'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill Fay - Thank You Lord.

Seen and Unseen: Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions

My latest interview for Seen & Unseen is entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence:

'Like artists, perhaps theologians can use emerging (and disruptive) media to not only expand possibilities for their work, but more importantly, to refocus their efforts towards areas that these technologies cannot presently (and will likely never) address.'

For more on Michael Takeo Magruder see here, here, here and here.

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maria McKee - I Should Have Looked Away.

Art review: When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65 (City Art Centre, Edinburgh)

My latest exhibition review for Church Times is on "When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65: A Retrospective” at Edinburgh's City Art Centre:

'This retrospective is evidence that, in Howson’s case, the apple has ripened and that he has created a substantial body of original and challenging work. When I interviewed Howson in 2018, he spoke about his personal journey, saying: “I am an addictive, hedonistic person by nature. That is destructive to me, and it is bad for the people around me, so I force myself to work, and walk and pray. It’s been a long road, with many wrong turnings, but I’ve never felt that it wasn’t worth it. I believe that I am walking towards something incredible.”

He was probably speaking then of heaven, but this exhibition reveals his body of work to also be an incredible achievement — an achievement that we are fortunate to be able to witness.'

To read my interview with Peter Howson for Artlyst click here, a review of an earlier Howson exhibition is here, and my exhibition for the Visual Commentary on Scripture which includes Howson's 'The Third Step' can be found here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richard Shindell and Dar Williams - The Ballad of Mary Magdalene.

Bob Dylan: Springtime in New York

Bob Dylan's Springtime in New York provides an object lesson in the emotive and in the moment nature of much music criticism which nevertheless then shapes responses to the music for decades to come.

Responses to Dylan's Shot of Love were along this lines of Greil Marcus' 'what is this shit?' review of Self Portrait. Shot of Love was seen primarily as a continuation of Dylan's two Gospel albums when in retrospect it is clear that the album is a transition to his next album Infidels. Infidels itself was received as a return to form and as a secular album in contrast to the three earlier Gospel albums. The fact that Infidels is drenched in biblical imagery and allusion means that, while different from Dylan's two Gospel albums, it is lazy, inaccurate and misleading to describe Infidels as a secular album.

There are two main changes to Dylan's work as documented on #16 in the Bootleg Series. One to do with recording techniques, the other to do with the way in which he wrote about faith. 

Dylan has regularly refreshed his work and inspiration by returning to the roots of the music he loves. His first album mapped those roots by including blues, country, folk, and gospel. The Basement Tapes, Self Portrait, the two 1990s acoustic albums, and the series drawing on the Great American Songbook all represent moments of returning to his roots music. While not predominantly covers albums, Dylan's Gospel albums also involve a similar return to a genre which is part of his roots. Gospel is entwined through the blues, country & western and folk music, as well as forming its own genre. Rock and roll emerges out of blues, country and gospel in particular which is why when the Million Dollar Quartet of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash were recorded in an impromptu jam session what they sang was primarily Gospel.

Dylan's Gospel period represents a period of focus on both the genre of Gospel music and the fundamentalist Dispensationalism of many US Evangelicals but biblical imagery and themes are not limited to this period. Instead, the Bible informs much of Dylan's work throughout his career both before and after his Gospel period. In particular, the focus on apocalypse which characterises much of what he writes during the Gospel period and which is, in this period, connected to Dispensationalism similarly extends throughout his career and is generally explored through biblical imagery but without being aligned to Dispensationalism in the same way.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981 prompted a critical re-evaluation of the Gospel period with the recognition that the reaction to his Gospel concerts was on a par to his going electric, his band in this period was one of the best with which he played, and his songwriting, although simpler and more direct than in some other periods, was often exceptional. 

By ending with music from the Shot of Love period Trouble No More leads into Springtime in New York. Tracks left off Shot of Love and Infidels were among the highlights of Biograph and The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, so Springtime in New York returns us to a period when Dylan began to embrace the reality that his best work was often missing from the albums he released following his Gospel period. It is as though the extreme reaction to his Gospel records and concerts unsettled Dylan to the extent that he was trying to judge what would play well with his audience as opposed to simply following his own path regardless.

This showed itself in two ways. First, following Shot of Love, he abandoned his practice of playing live in the recording studio by adopting the practice of recording by working with contemporary producers and then current production techniques and sounds. This approach worked well on Infidels but led to Empire Burlesque being both over-produced and mired in the sounds of the 80's. 

Second, Dylan left classic songs such as Caribbean Wind, The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar, Angelina, Blind Willie McTell, Foot of Pride, and New Danville Girl off these albums. While each album included other classics such as Every Grain of Sand, Jokerman, I and I, and Dark Eyes, had the songs left off these albums been included the reaction to the albums as a whole would have been enhanced. In addition, these dense, wordy yet illuminating songs would have made it clearer that, in this period, Dylan was moving away from the simplistic and direct expression of faith that characterised the Gospel albums to songs where his exploration of faith was both more allusive and open. 

A song like ‘Sweetheart Like You’ from Infidels illustrates this well, as we see here a wonderfully contemporary depiction of Christ's incarnation in a song that was consistently viewed by reviewers as an example of Dylan's misogyny. The song actually expresses the exact reverse of misogyny being written from the perspective of a misogynist male employee in an all-male workplace that is literally a hell of a place in which to work. To be in there requires the doing of some evil deed, having your own harem, playing till your lips bleed. There's only one step down from there and that's the ironically named 'land of permanent bliss.'

Into this perverted and prejudiced environment comes a woman, the sweetheart of the song's title. She is a Christ figure; a sinless figure entering into a world of sin and experiencing abuse and betrayal (is 'that first kiss' a Judas kiss?) from those she encounters and to whom she holds out the possibility of a different kind of existence. Dylan makes his equation of the woman with Christ explicit by quoting directly from Jesus: 'They say in your father's house, there's many mansions' (John 14: 2).

The song's narrator is confused and challenged by her appearance. He wants to dismiss her out of hand and back to his stereotypical role for her - 'You know, a woman like you should be at home / That's where you belong / Watching out for someone who loves you true / Who would never do you wrong' - but he can't simply dismiss her as she is really there in front of him and so he begins to wonder, 'What's a sweetheart like you doin' in a dump like this?' All the time he asks that question there is the possibility that he may respond to her presence without abuse or dismissal.

So, as was the case with Trouble No More, with Springtime in New York, The Bootleg Series represents a significant re-evaluation of a period of Dylan's work which had largely been written off (Shot of Love and Empire Burlesque) or thoroughly misinterpreted (Infidels) by those who wanted back the Dylan that they thought they had possessed rather than the Dylan who was actually evolving in front of them. Springtime reveals the inadequate nature of much initial response to a complex changing artist like Dylan while also showing that such initial misunderstandings of his work by becoming the standard response actively prevented understanding of the work until challenged by unreleased songs the quality and spirituality of which could not be denied.    

Read my posts of Dylan and apocalypse here, Trouble No More here, Dylan as Pilgrim here, and all my posts featuring Dylan here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Lord, Protect My Child.

Ernst Fuchs: Catholicism, Chapels and Bible

'The paintings and writings of Ernst Fuchs, co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, helped inspire the global visionary art movement. Fuchs directly influenced H.R. Giger, Mati Klarwein, Robert Venosa, Brigit Marlin, and dozens of others, but even if they never studied with him, all visionary artists – those who aspire to portray dimensions of visionary inner space - look to him as a superlative master.'

‘He is known mainly for his dazzling draughtsmanship and paintings of psychedelic cherubs or biblical scenes, such as Moses and the Burning Bush, and numerous portraits of Christ. He was also an internationally recognized sculptor, stage designer and print maker, composer and poet. Fuchs was the one of the first contemporary artists able to evoke multidimensional luminous worlds of psychedelics.’ ‘Paintings by Fuchs include bizarre, exquisite, uncanny beings, esoteric religious symbolism and detail comparable to Van Eyck. He revived the traditional mixed (mische) technique, using egg tempera to build forms in grisaille then glaze with oils for luminous depth.’

Fuchs inspired the founding of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art to train artists of the future. The artist’s villa in Vienna, designed by 19th-century Austrian architect Otto Wagner, is now a museum displaying a vast treasury of his masterworks.

‘In 1947, Fuchs attended an exhibition where he was able to examine Surrealist paintings up close for the first time. Among them was The Lugubrious Game by Salvador Dali - and it had the seventeen year old painter enthralled:

"That was the first Dali - one of the best - so small in scale, but we could all see, from the first, how well these people could draw and paint. This precision, I decided, is something I must have. In Dali I found a confirmation of what I wanted to achieve."

This was the opening of the eye: the desire to portray the inner world of dreams and fantasms with a refined technique. But something more had happened: Fuchs had found in Dali's vision something recognizable, something undefineable, yet betokening kinship and affinity - the tacit recognition of shared vision.’

Ramon Kubicek writes that Fuchs and the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism were the principal exponents of ‘a small tradition of “veristic surrealism,” interested in visionary subjects’ that has continued to this day. The artist Johfra described his works as ‘Surrealism based on studies of psychology, religion, the bible, astrology, antiquity, magic, witchcraft, mythology and occultism’; a description that may have relevance to the broader movement. Although this movement today is primarily representative of esoteric, new age or occult spiritualities, in Fuchs’ work it has a significant Catholic wellspring. For Fuchs, this was another point of synergy with his friend Dali who, he said, ‘always was in a Catholic period.’ Dali and Fuchs became close friends with Fuchs stating that when they met they did not discuss painting, but physics and theology.

Fuchs was born in 1930 in Vienna. His father, Maximilian Fuchs, son of an orthodox Jewish family, had turned down a career as a Rabbi, leaving his theological studies uncompleted. He married Leopoldine, a Christian. When the Nazis occupied Austria in March 1938, Maximilian Fuchs emigrated to Shanghai. His son remained in Vienna together with his mother. Nazi legislation made it illegal for Leopoldine to raise her son. He was deported to a transit camp for children of mixed racial origin and Leopoldine Fuchs then agreed to a formal divorce from her husband, thus saving her son from the extermination camp. In 1942 he was baptised, an event of the utmost significance for him that determined his future life and work.

Fuchs began to draw from an early age. In 1945, after the end of the war and aged 15, he enrolled in painting at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts where his first meeting with Arik Brauer, Rudolf Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmden took place in the class of Professor Albert Paris von Gütersloh. In 1948, together with Brauer, Hutter, Hausner and Lehmden, Fuchs founded the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Renaissance painting - especially the Danube school - was to be redefined. Alchemy, Christian and Jewish mysticism, but also deep psychology, such as dealing with the pain and suffering of the world wars, determined the thematic worlds of this young artist group. It was an Apocalyptic art, ‘full of grotesque monsters rendered in bright, bold colours,’ with ‘architecture from different periods, from the Tower of Babel to Renaissance palaces and modern cities.’

Johann Muschik later coined the term Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, under which these artists became known worldwide: ‘These Painters are Realists for their attention to detail, fantastic is the juxtaposition, the scene. One cannot call them Surrealists, though they evolved out of Surrealism, because missing is the absurd, the preference for paranoia, trance and hallucination.’

An early painting, the 1945 'Crucifixion and Self Portrait with Inge beside the Cross,' includes fellow artist Inge Pace, whose strong Christian religious devotion made an impact on Fuchs. In 1946 some of this small group held an exhibition in the foyer of the Vienna Concert Hall. Their works, thought of as a branch of surrealism, were removed after a public outcry. ‘Teaching at the Academy focused on the techniques of the Old Masters. Fuchs revived the old mixed technique of underpainting in tempera then adding glazes of oil paint on top. This produced a luminosity to his paintings and also allowed very detailed imagery.’ The lack of any positive response from the Vienna art world and his inability to earn a living from his art led him to follow his friend Friedensreich Hundertwasser - then Fritz Stowasser - to Paris in 1949. He was to spend twelve of his most important creative years there.

In 1956 he was accepted into the Catholic Dormition Monastery in Jerusalem, where he worked for one year on his largest painting, the ‘Last Supper’, in the refectory. He devoted all his energies in this period to furthering Jewish-Christian understanding and to working as a church painter gaining a commission to paint the Drei Mysterien des heiligen Rosenkranzes (Three Mysteries of the Sacred Rosary) for a newly-built church in Vienna.

This triptych, painted between 1958 and 1960, caused a storm of protest. Some of his most vehement detractors demanded that the pictures be removed from the church. Each of the parts measures three times three metres; they are painted on 12 goatskins that were sewn together but left uncut at the edges, and executed in the artist´s special mixed technique. A kind of large-scale parchment painting hung on light metal rods by means of loops and looking like banners floating in free space, they remind the congregation of the central events in the story of Redemption representing the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of the rosary.

Fuchs returned to Vienna and subsequent international recognition, opening a gallery that became a meeting point for the supporters of Fantastic Realism. Together with Hundertwasser and Arnulf Rainer, in 1959 he founds the "Pintorarium", a universal academy of all creative fields. The Pintorarium was concieved ‘not only a school of painting, but also a school of thought and life.’ It was intended as ‘a home for all creative persons without discrimination regarding the arts, art movements and philosophies, architecture, poetry, film, music, etc.’ The key principle was individual autonomy. Emulation was prohibited and there were no role models.

Fuchs ‘drew inspiration for his extravagant imagery from visionary experiences, which he sought to convey in his iconographic works’ ‘laced with religious symbolism and mystical allusions.’ His work over the course of his career increasingly focused on religious symbolism with biblical works including Psalm 69 (1960) and Adam and Eve in front of the Tree of Knowledge (1984). ‘His paintings from the late 50s to the present day have extraordinary visionary power. Babylonian Cherubs, visions of Christ and other mythological subjects explore the roots of middle-eastern religious experience.’

In 1990 he began work on the Apocalypse Chapel at Klagenfurt in Austria. He created oil paintings covering the entire interior of the chapel of parish church St. Egid creating monumental frescos to the Apocalypse of John which took him about 20 years to complete. The Apocalypse Chapel was originally commissioned by Monseignor Marcus Mairitsch. Although the chapel is no more than 40 sq. metres, its arched ceilings and many walls are covered with visions of 'the last days' from Fuchs’attempt to depict the 12th chapter of John's Book of Revelation. It is his Sistine Chapel.

K. Ziegler notes that, with architect Manfred Fuchsbichler, from 1992 to 1994, Fuchs constructed and decorated an extension to the Parish church of St James in Thal. Fuchs wanted to portray the Paradise, the Heavenly Jerusalem, saying: ‘You have to recognize from a distance: this is a sacred place. Wherever the eyes look, there has to be something to see.’

The design of the entire complex combines impressive lighting effects with a fantastic variety of colours and shapes. The exterior of the church was completely redesigned as the church expanded. A pebble path leads around the church and into the building to the altar. It is designed as a pilgrimage route and commemorates St. James, the patron saint of pilgrims. The building is covered with three different-sized gable roof structures that span a trapezoidal plan. The entire building has the character of a pointed crystal, which has been adapted to the roof shapes of the old building. The facade of the new church building is made of hard fire bricks and patinated copper sheets. The walls of the old building are plastered, painted turquoise and partly decorated with gravel applications. On the facade of the apse of the old church there are monograms made of pebbles of Maria (the heart), Jesus Christ (the tree of life), and Joseph (the house).

A canopy with a red beam structure dominates the entrance area. The thick glass doors at the entrance are opened with handles made from ram's horn, the favourite sacrificial animal of the biblical people of Israel. The symbols Alpha and Omega as well as crossed keys and the Christ monogram are attached to the glass doors. Inside you can see an open roof structure painted in rainbow colours that is reminiscent of the desert tent that the Israelites erected in the wilderness. The rainbow symbolises the covenant that Noah made with God. Daylight comes in through seventeen triangular dormer windows of different sizes and over vertical pilaster strips mirrored with crystal glass elements. The rows of seats are wavy and add to the special atmosphere.

A glass window in the apse shows a picture of Maria Hilf, a copy of the famous painting by Lukas Cranach in Innsbruck Cathedral. Images of the calling of the disciples and the Transfiguration can also be found in the apse; both include St James. The symbol of the apostle James, the scallop, can be found on the walls, the holy water basin is shaped as a scallop shell, the backrests of the plastic benches show the same motif. A fossil of a scallop shell, which was found in a quarry in Retznei, is in a glass stele behind the priest's seat. A crystal cross with Svarovski crystals and Murano glass elements draws attention to the central altar, which is also made of crystal glass.

Finally, published in 1996 in an edition of only 20,000 copies, Fuchs considered his leather-bound and gilded Bible, richly illustrated by over 80 colour plates of his paintings, to be his crowning achievement. With his first illustrations of the Bible, he hoped to surpass the heretofore best-known Bible illustrators of this century: his friend Salvador Dali, and painter Marc Chagall. He wanted to create a gold ingot and, in accordance with this design, the Bible was bound in calfskin and covered with a gold folium. This was to emphasize the value of this ‘most valuable treasure of humanity.’ ‘With this, I am transforming the profane covetousness of men for gold into a yearning for what is holy, into reverence for the great Mystery,’ Fuchs explained.

‘Art is nearness to God received without effort,’ he wrote: ‘This is the concise meaning and basis of a theology of art that is age old and has maintained again and again that jubilation erupts when God is near. Through that jubilation, the artist’s nearness to God was brought through creative service without sweat or torment.’ ‘What is religion,’ he asks, ‘if not the relationship of the now to its beginnings?’ As a result, the work of art ‘has its source in the desire to create a means of transcending time, entering eternity.’ ‘Thus the artist, in contemplation, creates both history and eternity.’ (‘One Source: Sacred Journeys – A celebration of Spirit & Art’)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Larry Norman - Nightmare #71.

Artlyst interview: Peter Howson

A central member of the group of young artists to emerge from the Glasgow School of Art during the 1980s dubbed the New Glasgow Boys, Peter Howson has become one of his generation’s leading figurative painters. In his current exhibition with Flowers Gallery, Howson uses his apocalyptic vision of violence and inhumanity to explore his fears of contemporary radical right-wing politics.

Howson is unusual among mainstream artists in his unashamed use of traditional religious iconography and application of a Trinitarian framework to his artistic practice.

I have interviewed him for Artlyst and have also reviewed Acta Est Fabula, his current exhibition. The interview can be found here and the review here.

Howson says: 'I want my paintings to reveal to the onlooker the folly of believing in some kind of scientific utopia that we are all heading towards. We embraced death in the past, but cannot do it now. We knew the darkness in our hearts in times past, and we feared judgement.'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Charlotte - We Believe.

Artlyst: Peter Howson - Acta Est Fabula

My latest piece for Artlyst is a review of Peter Howson's Acta Est Fabula at Flowers Gallery: 

'With this exhibition, we are immersed in scenes of degradation, imposed and sought out, within which occasional moments of self-realisation and awareness occur. This is common ground for Howson, whether in Glasgow, Bosnia or elsewhere; homo homini lupus (man is wolf to man) is consistently demonstrated throughout the world and throughout history. Howson stands with all those artists, such as Bosch, Goya, Dix and Rouault, who have sought to raise our gaze from the mire by painting the extent to which we are sinking in the mire. There is a strong apocalyptic strand to the images he is currently creating; apocalyptic imagery fuelled by the experience of Brexit and the wave of populism of which Brexit is a symptom and for which it was a catalyst.'

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:

• Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
• Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
• Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
• Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
• The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
• Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
• Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Polish Art In Britain Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields;
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar;
• Refugee Artists Learning from The Lives Of Others;
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg;
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement;
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition;
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation;
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields; and
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes.

Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling

Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling was a conference organised in June by CenSAMM at the Panacea Museum in Bedford.

The word ‘apocalypse’ originally indicated an ‘unveiling’, and the speaker in the Book of Revelation is a ‘seer’. This is perhaps one of the reasons that this ancient text (and others like it) have generated such a ferment of creative responses in the visual arts – as well as those other non-visual strands of the arts which have their own way of engaging our mind’s eye.

The rich variety of types of artistic unveiling (visual, musical, dramatic, literary) makes an engagement with the creative arts a deeply valuable way of understanding and appreciating the idea of apocalypse, alongside more traditionally academic modes of enquiry.

This conference sought to explore our relationship to art, its practice, its study and what the arts unveil to us. As artists or as audiences of art we can be profoundly transformed by our encounters with artistic creativity; indeed, we can find ourselves using the language of revelation to describe such encounters, regardless of our individual faith, religion or beliefs. Mark Rothko is quoted as saying, “the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.”
All presentations, including my own, are now on the CenSAMM website here: https://censamm.org/conferences/apocalypse-in-art/apocalypse-in-art-the-creative-unveiling-june-2018-media-archive or can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLeX_GYWBJdMF_Iydw_0LBg/videos?disable_polymer=1.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Melbourne Mass Choir - When He Returns.

Apocalypse in ART: The Creative Unveiling - Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

On Thursday I was at Apocalypse in ART : The Creative Unveiling, a CenSAMM conference at which I spoke along with Christopher Rowland, Kip Gresham, Elena Unger, Michelle Fletcher, Michael Takeo Magruder, Alfredo Cramerotti, Eleanor Heartney, Rebekah Dyer, Lilla Moore, Natasha O’Hear, Massimo Introvigne, and Matthew Askey.

The word ‘apocalypse’ originally indicated an ‘unveiling’, and the speaker in the Book of Revelation is a ‘seer’. This is perhaps one of the reasons that this ancient text (and others like it) have generated such a ferment of creative responses in the visual arts – as well as those other non-visual strands of the arts which have their own way of engaging our mind’s eye.

The rich variety of types of artistic unveiling (visual, musical, dramatic, literary) makes an engagement with the creative arts a deeply valuable way of understanding and appreciating the idea of apocalypse, alongside more traditionally academic modes of enquiry.

The conference sought to explore our relationship to art, its practice, its study and what the arts unveil to us. As artists or as audiences of art we can be profoundly transformed by our encounters with artistic creativity; indeed, we can find ourselves using the language of revelation to describe such encounters, regardless of our individual faith, religion or beliefs. Mark Rothko is quoted as saying, “the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.”

I spoke about apocalyptic influences and imagery in the work of Bob Dylan:

‘I was born in 1941,’ Bob Dylan reminded his audience at a concert in 2009, ‘that was the year they bombed Pearl Harbour. I’ve been living in a world of darkness ever since.’

What did he mean? After all, he grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota, Which was a ‘perfectly fine, respectable, middle-class, civic-pride sort of place’, ‘conventional, mainstream, solid,’ most of all, quiet (David Kinney, 2014 ).

What he meant was that, in those Cold War days, ‘in addition to the normal fire and tornado drills [you] had from time to time to crawl under your desk in order to shield yourself from the imagined explosion of an atomic bomb.’ (Robert Cantwell in Greil Marcus, 2010)

In Chronicles Dylan writes that, ‘In 1951 I was going to Grade School. One of the things we were trained to do was to hide and take cover under our desks when the air raid sirens blew because the Russians could attack us with bombs. We were also told that the Russians could be parachuting from planes over our town at any time.’ Andrew McCarron notes that, ‘In Dylan's case, the terrifying experience of hearing the air raid sirens as a ten year old and having to take cover under his desk left a lasting mark.’

McCarron goes on to say that, ‘Of his childhood and its anxieties, Dylan writes in Chronicles: “Back then when something was wrong the radio could lay hands on you and you’d be all right.” His most steadfast sense of identity was guided by the imaginative worlds that came to life through the blues, gospel, Appalachian, and country music that he heard and ended up playing himself.’ Howard Sounes notes that, ‘His musical influences included gospel, and much of the American folk and blues music that proved to be so formative was infused with biblical imagery as well.’

Much later Dylan was to state that, ‘Those old songs are my lexicon and prayer book … All my beliefs come out of those old songs, literally, anything from "Let Me Rest on that Peaceful Mountain” to “Keep on the Sunny Side.” You can find all my philosophy in those old songs. I believe in a God of time and space, but if people ask me about that, my impulse is to point them back toward those songs. I believe in Hank Williams singing “I Saw the Light.” I’ve seen the light, too.’

It was religion that also gave the young Robert Zimmerman a language in which to express his sense of living in a world gone wrong. Bert Cartwright argues that he first explores ‘the Bible's apocalyptic imagery from an artistic perspective of potent symbol’ and then, as a result of his Christian conversion, ‘adopted a quite literal understanding of the way God would get even with and, with his chosen few, prevail.’

His knowledge of the Bible came, of course, from his Jewish upbringing, as well as from the music to which he listened. Sounes notes that, ‘While Bob was not brought up in an Orthodox home, he did receive a grounding in the Bible - an important source of imagery for his song lyrics long before his Christian conversion of the 1970s.’ Cartwright expands, writing that his ‘understanding of history wells up from the depths of a Jewish heritage that rehearsed each year within the family the liberating exodus of God's people from bondage.’ It was this ‘understanding of history embedded deep in Dylan's Jewish heritage that haunts him with questions of justice in the face of a growing despair for the human transformation of the world.’

There is one more key influence to explore; again musical, as you would expect. ‘In September 1960, Bob Dylan borrowed a copy of Woody Guthrie's autobiography Bound for Glory from a college classmate and became obsessed.’ ‘Dylan started mimicking his hero's speech patterns and even told the crowd at the Cafe Wha? when he arrived in New York for the first time the following January: "I been travellin' around the country, followin' in Woody Guthrie's footsteps."'

Dylan hunted Guthrie out at ‘Greystone Park Psychiatric hospital in New Jersey, suffering from Huntingdon's disease, which finally led to his death in 1967. Dylan wrote, and played to his idol, a new piece of his own called ‘Song to Woody’ which states that ‘Hibbing, Minnesota’s Bobby Zimmerman had escaped his past to reinvent himself as a lonesome hobo drifter’, like Guthrie, ‘like the best folk singers hopping off and on railroad cars destination anywhere’:

‘I’m out here a thousand miles from my home
Walkin’ a road other men have gone down
I’m seein’ your world of people and things
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings

Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
’Bout a funny ol’ world that’s a-comin’ along
Seems sick an’ it’s hungry, it’s tired an’ it’s torn
It looks like it’s a-dyin’ an’ it’s hardly been born’

Ross Altman notes that, ‘Listening to that first published Dylan song today, written when he was just twenty years old, one is struck by how world-weary the young troubadour already sounds … as he evokes a world that seems sick and it's hungry, tired and torn / it looks like it's a-dyin' and it's hardly been born.'

When you put all those influences together it becomes clear that what we have in the best of Dylan’s work is a contemporary Pilgrim, Dante or Rimbaud on a compassionate journey, undertaken in the eye of the Apocalypse, to stand with the damned at the heart of the darkness that is twentieth century culture. It’s there, at the beginning in ‘Song to Woody’ and it’s still there in ‘Ain’t Talkin’’, the last track on what is to date the penultimate set of original Bob Dylan songs:

‘Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Through this weary world of woe
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
No one on earth would ever know

Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Up the road around the bend
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
In the last outback, at the world's end’

In between these two markers, Dylan’s songs document where his pilgrim journey in the eye of the apocalypse has taken him; often with imagery of storms lighting his way. He has travelled the paths of political protest, urban surrealism, country contentment, gospel conversion and world weary blues. On his journey he: saw seven breezes blowing around the cabin door where victims despair ('Ballad of Hollis Brown'); lightning flashing for those who are confused, accused and misused ('Chimes of Freedom'); surveyed 'Desolation Road'; talked truth with a thief as the wind began to howl ('All Along the Watchtower'); sheltered with an un-named woman from the apocalyptic storm ('Shelter from the Storm'); felt the idiot wind blowing through the buttons on his coat, recognised himself as an idiot and felt sorry ('Idiot Wind'); found a pathway to the stars and couldn't believe he'd survived ('Where Are You Tonight? Journey Through Deep Heat'); rode the slow train up around the bend ('Slow Train'); was driven out of town into the driving rain because of belief ('I Believe in You'); heard the ancient footsteps join him on his path ('Every Grain of Sand'); felt the Caribbean Winds, fanning desire, bringing him nearer to the fire ('Caribbean Wind'); betrayed his commitment, felt the breath of the storm and went searching for his first love ('Tight Connection to My Heart'); then at the final moment, it's not quite dark yet but he’s walking through the middle of nowhere trying to get to heaven before the door is closed ('Tryin' To Get To Heaven'):

‘The air is getting hotter, there's a rumbling in the skies
I've been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes.
Everyday your memory grows dimmer.
It don't haunt me, like it did before.
I been walking through the middle of nowhere
Tryin' to get to heaven before they close the door.’

As Frank Davey writes, ‘Dylan's vision is essentially apocalyptic; again and again he tells of an evil world which is soon to be both punished and replaced tomorrow, perhaps, when the ship comes in.’ Songs like 'When The Ship Comes In' and 'The Times They Are A-Changin' both deal with rapidly approaching change described in apocalyptic terms. When the apocalyptic moment arrives, it is clear that some will be on the positive side of the change and others not. Dylan may well be speaking, as has been suggested by many critics, about young versus old and freedom versus rules but, on the basis of the lyrics themselves, it is not possible to be definitive because the language Dylan uses is deliberately unspecific. In neither song does he identify the specific nature of the change that is to come and it is this generality which gives these songs universality and continuing relevance because they can be applied to different circumstances at different times.

What can definitively be said about both songs however is that they are warnings about a coming apocalyptic change and the warning concerns on which side of that change we will find or place ourselves. Cartwright suggests that, ‘In his early songs of protest [Dylan] optimistically expressed a prophetic view of history in which an old order will fade, giving way to a more just and righteous existence. With the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the disillusionment of good causes becoming easily corrupted, Dylan became markedly more pessimistic.’

From ‘Slow Train Coming’ onwards Dylan equated the apocalypse with the imminent return of Christ (also known as the Second Coming). The return of Christ in judgement is the slow train that is coming around the bend and in the face of this apocalypse he calls on human beings to wake up and strengthen the things that remain. According to Clinton Heylin this reflected the influence of Hal Lindsey, through the Vineyard Fellowship whose Bible classes he attended post-conversion. Heylin writes, ‘Aside from the scriptures, the classes sought to provide a grounding in the works of Hal Lindsey, the man to whom God in his infinite wisdom had revealed the true code of Revelation. . . . His book, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), became Dylan's second Bible and added an apocalyptic edge to his worldview, allowing Christ Come Again precedence over Jesus the Teacher.’

So, with 'The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar', Dylan sees the apocalypse coming as a curtain which is rising on a new age but not yet here, while the Groom (Christ who awaits his bride, the Church) is still waiting at the altar. In the time that remains he calls on human beings to arise from our slumber: 'Dead man, dead man / When will you arise? / Cobwebs in your mind / Dust upon your eyes' ('Dead Man, Dead Man').

In the light of this thread in Dylan's songs throughout this period, it seems consistent to also read 'Jokerman' from Infidels as another song in this vein; as a song depicting the apathy of humanity in the face of the apocalypse and one which is shot through with apocalyptic imagery drawn from the Book of Revelation. There is much in the song that is negative about humanity: we are born with a snake in both our fists; we rush in where angels fear to tread; our future is full of dread; we are doing no more than keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within; we are going to Sodom and Gomorrah only knowing the law of the jungle (the law of revenge from the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy - 'an eye for an eye'). But these negatives are not the whole story as we also experience freedom, dance to the nightingale tune, fly high, walk on the clouds, and are a friend to the martyr. We have an inherent dignity and beauty to which only the greatest of artists such as Michelangelo can do justice. In 'Jokerman', Dylan captures well the Biblical portrait of humanity as made in the image of God but marred by our rejection of God with our potential for beauty and compassion perverted into a selfish search for self-aggrandisement.

The final verse comes straight from the Book of Revelation and describes the birth of the AntiChrist who will deceive humanity into following him rather than Christ. The accusation and challenge that Dylan puts to us in the final lines of this final verse is that we know exactly what is happening (after all, it has all been prophesied in the Book of Revelation) but we make no response; we are apathetic in the face of the apocalypse. Our lack of response is what is fatal to us because it is only through repentance and turning to Christ that we will be saved from the coming judgement. These final lines are both an accusation and a challenge because, in line with the prophecy of Revelation, Dylan clearly believes that humanity as a whole will be apathetic and unresponsive but they must also be a challenge because, if there is no possibility that any of us will respond, why write the song at all!

Yet for much of his career, while consistently writing in the face of a coming apocalypse, Dylan did not specifically equate that apocalypse with the imminent return of Christ. Apocalyptic change in Dylan's work can be understood as generational conflict, Cold War conflicts, nuclear holocaust, Civil Rights struggles, and more. The generic message throughout is that apocalyptic change is coming and we need to think where we stand in relation to it. That message is as relevant today in terms of economic meltdown, climate change or peak oil, as to the Second Coming, whether imminent or not.

Dylan's manifesto for his work is 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall'; a song about walking through a world which is surreal and unjust and singing what he sees:

‘I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.’

John Gibbens states that, ‘By biblical analogy we take the flood to be a judgement upon all the things that have been listed in the verse, ‘and therefore a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.’’’

This is a song which has been interpreted as dealing with events that were contemporary to the time such as the Cuban missile crisis and, more generally, the threat of a nuclear holocaust. That may well be so, but I think a more straightforward interpretation and one that is closer to what the lyrics actually say is to see it as a statement by Dylan of what he is trying to do in and through his work. In the song he walks through a surreal and unjust world, ahead of him he sees a gathering apocalyptic storm (as Gibbens notes, the Biblical storm of judgement that is the flood) and he resolves to walk in the shadow of the storm and sing out what he sees:

‘I’m a-goin’ back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten,
Where black is the colour, where none is the number.
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect from the mountain so that all souls can see it ...’

43 years later, with ‘Ain’t Talkin’’, he was still writing songs where his central character is walking through an apocalyptic landscape. ‘Ain’t Talkin’’ reminds us of films such as ‘The Road’ and ‘The Book of Eli’ where flawed figures seek to protect and enable the survival of goodness – whether a son or a Bible – while travelling in violent licentious post-apocalyptic worlds:

‘Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Through this weary world of woe
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
No one on earth would ever know

They say prayer has the power to help
So pray from the mother
In the human heart an evil spirit can dwell
I'm trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others
But oh, mother, things ain't going well

Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Through the world mysterious and vague
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
Walking through the cities of the plague

All my loyal and much-loved companions
They approve of me and share my code
I practice a faith that's been long abandoned
Ain't no altars on this long and lonesome road’

The suffering in this situation is unending. The fire's gone out but the light is never dying. He challenges us to say that he can't still get heavenly aid. In the last outback, at the world's end, he walks in the mystic garden talking with the woman at the tomb who mistook Christ for the gardener. His heart is still burnin’, still yearnin’ for the coming judgement and the resurrection of the dead.

In the liner notes for Tell Tale Signs Larry Sloman signs off with a paragraph quoting a myriad of Dylan's lyrics:

'He ain't talking, but he's still walking, heart burning, still yearning. He's trampling through the mud, through the blistering sun, getting damp from the misty rain. He's got his top hat on, ambling along with his cane, stopping to watch all the young men and young women in their bright-coloured clothes cavorting in the park. Despite all the grief and devastation he's seen on his odyssey, his heart isn't weary, it's light and free, bursting all over with affection for all those who sailed with him. Deep down he knows that his loyal and much-loved companions approve of him and share his code. And it's dawn now, the sun beginning to shine down on him and his heart is still in the Highlands, over those hills, far away. But there's a way to get there and if anyone can, he'll figure it out. And in the meantime, he's already there in his mind. That mind decidedly out of time. And we're all that much richer for his journey.'

For more on these themes, see 'The Secret Chord', my co-authored book which is an accessible exploration of artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives seeking to draw the reader into a place of appreciation for what makes a moment in a 'performance' timeless and special.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Ain't Talkin'.