March 23, 2022 • 37 mins
On the fifth day of his recovery from a motorcycle accident, Bob Dylan begins to hallucinate. He claims he’s not only seen our Lord and savior, but that he’s had a close encounter with Jesus Christ himself. It’s an encounter that changes him forever. Don’t believe him? That’s fine. But everyone serves somebody. And you just might question what it is you do and don’t believe after hearing his story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis. Bob Dylan was a musical genius
and one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He
didn't follow leaders. He chased that thin, wild mercury sound.
He never looked back. Even as the times changed, and
as the times changed, Bob Dylan changed. He tried on
(00:21):
and discarded identities like they were mass He transformed. He
transfigured in Somewhere along the way, the Bob Dylan that
you thought you knew died. This is his story once again.
This is doctor ed Sailor. Is now day five, August six.
(00:47):
I just finished my review of the patient Robert Zimmerman,
a k a. Bob Dylan here at my home in Middletown,
New York. The laceration to his leg is healing nicely.
It's an injury so minor that I've failed to eat
mentioned it so far. I mentioned it now because everything
else seems to be returning to normal. As for Bob himself,
I'm afraid he's not in the best shape mentally speaking.
(01:10):
He's struggling to process what seems like a minor accident.
He's not sleeping, something I've tried to rectify with more morphine.
I shall, however, review this over the coming days, as
it seems to have brought on more hallucinations. Only this
morning he was claiming he's seen Jesus Christ, our savior.
(01:36):
That's who I'm talking about. Being noticed can be a burden.
Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. That's
why I change a lot when you think about it.
No matter which way you look, Jesus is the answer.
He died for sinners, and through his death he paid
(01:59):
for all us ends. I've been touched by Jesus physically.
Did you know that it happened? I didn't imagine it.
It changed me forever. Sometimes you have to be directed
by a higher power, gotta serve somebody. You make yourself
(02:20):
in this life, but you can be informed by those
who have a broader perspective. Christ entered my life in
the late nineteen seventies. His words and actions gave me comfort, knowledge,
salvation for everyone else. For those who didn't believe me,
they just saw it as fresh blood on the tracks.
(03:00):
Chapter five, Bob Dylan is born again. The prayer of
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise
(03:21):
him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall
be forgiven. I'm sure you've seen by now that transfiguration
can come in many forms. It can be physical, it
can come through song, through lifestyle, but it can also
come through faith. I was born into the Jewish faith,
(03:43):
and it's something that I've taken great wisdom from. I
was bar mitzvahed two, but later in my life I
began to have an interest in Christianity religious transfiguration. If
you will now, let me make this clear. The teachings
of God, the Bible, Jesus were in my work before
(04:03):
in the same way they are in my work after.
They've been one of the few constants in fact, but
for a brief time, those teachings dominated my music completely.
A rock and roll preacher, that's what they called me.
In a way, spreading the good news was the most
rock and roll thing to do. Jesus Christ I preached
(04:27):
for three years, just like Jesus himself. Not that I'm
comparing myself to him, of course. Sure I've sold more
records than him, but he did save us all, so
I think he wins this round point. Being the Bible
and the Lord have always been there in my songs.
I mean, I mentioned the Devil in the first verse
of the first song on my first album, Go and
(04:50):
Look it Up. It's there Christ entered my life. Look
at the John Wesley Harding album too. That one's got
lots of the Good Book in it. But no one
had a problem with that when it came out. They
loved it. In fact, even Elvis himself said, rock and
roll is basically just gospel music or gospel music mixed
(05:11):
with rhythm and blues, so it's a wonder. There was
such a big backlash when I started singing about Jesus
and Christianity overtly. People thought I was preaching at them,
but I was just offering a point of view like
I've been offered when I first started going to church.
Being noticed it could be a burden. The shift in
my work came on the album's Slow Train, Coming Saved
(05:34):
and Shot of Love. Those are albums I still get
behind to this day, but other people, other people couldn't
get behind them. I still can't to this day. Even
John Lennon had an issue with it. I didn't imagine it.
John Lennon, Mr. Peace and Love wrote a song called
(05:55):
Serve Yourself Have you ever heard that, not a lot
of people have. It's only a demo. It's rough, like
a sketch, very punk, very angry. You got to hand
it to John and he could write a song, but
the subject matter that was less appealing to me. He
wrote it as a reply to my song Gotta Serve
(06:16):
Somebody a little glib pardy agitated swipe at my interest
in Jesus. He was rattled and why did he care
so much about what I was singing about. Maybe he
wanted a little revenge for my song fourth time Around,
which was a friendly dig at his Norwegian wood. Who knows.
(06:37):
Despite a lot of reactions like that, I still went
ahead and spread the word of the Lord on those
three albums in the three gospel tours to promote them.
Jesus the Answer. Some shows on those tours reminded me
of that Newport Folk Festivals show, which is funny because
with my message, I was being the complete opposite of
Judas really, but some of the crowd just didn't get
(07:00):
at it. It's not what they came to see, it's
not what they wanted to see. I was singing about
the same things I was singing about before, just in
a different way, but they couldn't see it, and that
wasn't my problem. But it is your problem. It's our problem.
Shut up. Like I was saying, those shows, I wouldn't
(07:24):
change them, same for those albums. What an artist can't
change and adapt? Transfiguration moves in mysterious ways. You can't
always decide how it moves and how you change. T
Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, Stephen souls Bono, all those guys
found salvation like me, differences. No one gave them a
(07:47):
hard time. We're different. You know that. You shut up.
The question I asked all the time is why why
did I start singing about Jesus and the Lord so
intense sleep? Why did I embrace Christianity? I had my reasons,
and we'll get to them in time, but let me
(08:08):
tell you right now, it was not because I was
having a personal crisis. I've seen that written lots of
times before. People think you find religion when you're down
and out, Well, not me. Is that some kind of joke.
Don't listen to him. Our personal life wasn't in crisis.
Our personal life was fine. We had three girlfriends at
(08:30):
once Helen could have been five. Don't use that word.
Hell yeah, that word. Don't talk about private matters either.
Our relationships broke up. So what broke up? We ruined them.
We were on a self DESTRUCTI mission with our private life.
How so February ninety seven, remember Malcolm, our girlfriend at
(08:55):
the time sat around the breakfast table, the family breakfast table.
Then our wife came in. How would you feel if
you came down and saw the person you were married
to sitting with his lover around the breakfast table with
your kids. That was your idea, It was your idea,
and then you screamed at her. All right, our marriage
(09:17):
fell apart. That's not unusual. Every relationship we had at
the time fell apart. Then there's the drugs and drink
here we go. Yeah, you can act like that when
you're twenty one. But might I remind you of our profession.
Oh then there's the film Bobby and Sarah whatever we
call it. My god, that fucking film it was called
(09:40):
Ronaldo and Clara. How much time do we waste on that?
How much money it? It was? We were such a
mess that you wanted to stay on tour because you
couldn't bear to go home. That's the truth, isn't it? Pathetic,
a little boy lost. Okay, you've made your point. Look
(10:01):
it's true it wasn't the best time for me personally
or professionally. But I still dispute that I was lost.
I wasn't so much searching for something more, just stumbling around.
My girlfriend at the time, one of our many girlfriends, Yes,
one of our many girlfriends, Mary Alice Artees she was
(10:22):
born again. Whatever that meant. Sometimes you have to be
directed by a higher power. But a lot of what
she had to say seemed to be true to me.
It resonated with me. I'd come to see, there's no
right and left. There's just truth and untruth. There's honesty
and hypocrisy. It's all in the Bible. It's the only
(10:45):
thing that stays true no matter which way you look.
Mary introduced me to the Vineyard Christian Fellowship and Evangelical
Christian Denomination. I met all those guys and we talked.
I asked them all about the Bible, and they answered
all my questions. They said, if I wanted to know more,
there was a Bible class I could attend. I'd assumed
(11:08):
i'd be going back on tour soon, and when they
told me the class was going to run for three months.
I thought they were crazy. I can't give up that
much time. One day, though, I remember waking up. I
looked at the watch on my nightstand. It was seven am.
I was alone, no family with me, no girlfriend around,
(11:29):
no tour booked, no band. I don't know why, but
I felt compelled to go. It just made sense. There
was something in me that wanted to study, to learn,
to change. That's why I changed a lot. I got
in my car and drove straight to receive it where
the Fellowship's offices were. I stayed for over three months
(11:53):
and learned more than I ever thought possible, comfort, knowledge, salvation.
Towards the end of Mary was baptized in a swimming
pool at the house of a Fellowship pastor. It was
total immersion. I went and witnessed the whole thing. Not
long after, I was baptized in the ocean. I've been
(12:15):
touched by Jesus. I felt renewed. I had become a
different man, this time, transfigured by God. But why, Like
I say, everyone asks, why, what happened to spark all
of this? Well, it had all started a year earlier.
(12:37):
The Lord had given me a sign. If you confess
(13:10):
with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead. You will
be saved. For it is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth
that you confess and are saved. The air was thick
inside the arena that night. I never understood that expression before,
(13:34):
but that night it was thick like smog, hot and close.
Well that's how it felt to me. Anyway. We were
playing in San Diego, one of those giant places. That's
how we did that to all arenas and champagne and
parties no matter which way you look. I kept turning
(13:57):
to Billy Cross, my lead guitar player. I kept asking
him if it was hot. No, Bob, he kept saying, God,
it was so hot. I've never known heat like that.
It was like I was staring at Hell cloaked in fur.
After a while, they moved one of those big fans
next to the stage and pointed it right at us.
(14:18):
The rest of the band were shivering, but me, I
was on fire. Jesus Christ. I had felt unwell for
a while. Touring can do that to you, but this
felt ten times worse than anything I've felt before that night,
I'd slid into some sort of feverish existence. When it
(14:39):
was time to play Maggie's Farm, I remember I couldn't
stop talking. I blurted out some old rubbish like I
was invited to play the Newport Folk festist. They invited
me three times. I played this song the last time
I was there. They never did invite me back. I
don't hold any grudges anyway. Sometimes I told this man
(15:05):
up here who asked me about the song, sometimes the
whole world looks to me like Maggie's Farm. Sometimes I
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more. I
couldn't stop talking. Between the songs, I was rambling. I
felt compelled to talk. Things were just coming to me.
(15:28):
I was getting hotter and hotter as the show went on.
A fever had started to grip my body. I felt
like I was succumbing to it. I didn't imagine it
before the song signor. I stood in front of the
giant fan and didn't feel a thing, nothing. It was
like a bonfire. I started to ramble again. I took
(15:50):
a train once from Monterey, Chihuahua, up to San Diego,
I said crowd cheered. This guy was sitting next to
me on the rain, a man wearing a blanket. He
his eyes were burning up. It was there was smoke
coming out of his nostrils. I thought I'd talked to him.
(16:12):
When I turned around to look at him, he was gone.
The crowd cheered again. Could they not see the state
I was in? Do they not notice? I was making
less sense as the night wore on. Being noticed can
be a burden. We played the song and I felt
even worse. In fact, I wasn't sure i'd be standing
by the end of it. The final notes rang out,
(16:34):
and I felt like something was seriously wrong. I took
a few steps forward, the sweat from my head dripping
onto the stage floor. As I walked, A white mist
appeared in the corner of my vision, and the loud
sounds of the arena slowly disappeared. It all sounded like
I was under water. I felt my body about to
give away, But then something caught my eye high power.
(17:01):
Someone had thrown something onto the stage. Now, people throw
things onto the stage all the time. It's not usually
too bad. Tom Jones got panties. I'm more likely to
get a paperback. But this time it was something small,
something silver. It caught the light as it lay there.
(17:21):
It looked closer and saw that it was a silver cross.
Christ injured my life. Now. Usually I don't pick anything
up that is thrown on the stage. But the way
this cross caught the light, it lured me in and
the feverish heat. This cross looks so cool, It looked calming.
It looked like salvation. Jesus is the answer. I bent down,
(17:46):
picked it up and placed it in my pocket. Twenty
four hours later and I was on another stage and
another arena. This time it was Arizona. I felt even worse.
I was feverish again. I saw dots in front of
my eyes. Made me think of those flashes from the
camera bulbs way back at the Newport Folk Festival. Images
(18:08):
from that day began to flash into my mind. Then
I saw the road in Woodstock where I rode my motorcycle.
It changed me forever. I smelled the Hell's Angels gasoline.
I saw the blood dashed against the wall of the Lafayette.
That's who I'm talking about. Then I remembered the cross.
(18:31):
I reached into my pocket. It was still there. I
grabbed it and held it tightly holding on for dear life.
Touching it was like a shock to my system. When
I touched it, like a needle in my arm. Touched
by Jesus, my fever slowly came down. I began to
(18:53):
see properly in both senses. I was slowly brought to life.
After the show, I put the cross around my neck.
It transfigured me. I ended up wearing it for the
rest of that tour. It even influenced the songs we
played during the shows. I changed the lyrics to some
of those songs straight away, Tangled Up in Blue, for example,
(19:17):
In that song, I mentioned a mysterious lady in a
topless bar, quoting an Italian poet from the century. But
live with that cross around my neck, I changed the
lyrics to her, quoting the Bible, the Gospel according to Matthew,
to be precise, That's who I'm talking about. It felt right.
(19:38):
Even my songs transfigured along with me. I knew something
had changed on that tour, something seismic. But what I
didn't know was the Lord was just getting started with me.
Soon we'd meet. We'll be right back after this. Were
(20:00):
were were? The Lord blesses thee and keeps thee. The
Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be
gracious unto thee, and gives the peace. Tucson, Tucson, Arizona.
(20:23):
That's where it happened. That's where my life changed forever.
If you could have given me a million guesses as
to where my life would alter beyond all recognition, I
never would have said Tucson, Arizona. But it's true. I
didn't imagine it. We were playing another show, another arena.
(20:43):
Although my fever had improved, I still wasn't right. I
was still being eaten up by something. Before we played Seor,
I told the same story on the stage, the one
about the man on the train, that man with the
smoke coming out of his nostrils and whose eyes were
burning up. I couldn't stop thinking about him. The whole
(21:04):
scene kept coming into my mind. That's what I'm talking about.
I saw him in my dreams and in my waking
hours too. I was haunted by him. I didn't even
know who or what he was. On stage, I started
to feel dizzy again. The heat had returned, and I
felt my temperature rocket all Just after thinking about him.
(21:29):
I reached into my pocket and found the cross again
I clutched it tight, but this time it didn't help
like it had before. I knew I needed to up
my dose, so I took it out of my pocket
and put it around my neck for all to see.
You make yourself in this. As soon as I put
it there, the cross leveled me out. This tour had
(21:52):
been draining. Where the motorcycle crash and woodstock back in
sixty six had slowed my life down, my life had
regained its velocity. By this point. I was once again
reaching breakneck speed directed by a higher power. But the cross,
the cross brought calm to me, to my world, to everything.
(22:14):
The rest of the show sailed by, I was feeling
better and better that night. When I was driven back
to the hotel, they let me out at the front entrance.
I didn't go in. I just stood in the parking lot,
breathing the fresh air and gulps, with my new cross
firmly around my neck. The parking lot was large and
(22:35):
dimly litten. As I stared out into it, I could
see something someone an old man with well. He looked
like he had a kind of blanket over him. Right
there on the other side of the lot. He looked
like the thing from that train. I ran to where
I had seen him, but he'd already gone. I searched
(22:56):
the parking lot over and over, but nothing. After looking
for almost an hour, I gave up. Being noticed can
be a burden. I thought it must be lack of
sleep that was making me think this way, so I
called it a night. I made my way to my room,
walking quickly down the long hotel corridor. It was so quiet.
(23:16):
All I could hear were my footsteps. I don't know why,
but I became aware that I was tensing up. Every
door I passed seemed to make me more and more tense.
The faster I walked, the more doors I passed, the
more tense I became. I thought I felt breath on
my neck. I felt like I could feel eyes on
(23:36):
me too. I pulled the cross off my neck and
held it tightly in my hand as I walked faster
and faster down the corridor. By the time I came
to my room, I was out of breath, partly due
to my pace, but also due to my rising anxiety. No,
not anxiety, terror, Jesus Christ. I fumbled with my room key,
(23:58):
but I dropped it. I could feel that breath again.
I spun around, but there was nothing. I clumsily picked
up the key and threw open the door. As it
slammed behind me, I ran to the window on the
other side of the room. I pulled the curtains back
and scanned the view silence. My room was facing the
(24:20):
parking lot. I looked all over for that man, but
again nothing. I ran back to the door and peeked
through the spy hole. Nothing. I cursed that fever again.
I thought maybe I should start cleaning up when I
was on the road, start eating properly, cut the booze
and the drugs, maybe even stop touring. Traveling can do
(24:42):
things to your body and mind a lot. I slumped
down onto the bed, holding the cross closely to my chest.
As I closed my eyes, I'd never been more ready
for sleep. The room began to spin again. I thought
the fever was back, but I was wrong. The bed
(25:05):
rumbled beneath me. I felt a huge movement, like the
world around me was splitting in two. But I can't
explain it. The world itself, the physical world was normal,
but the spiritual world was splitting, moving changing somehow all
around me. Sometimes you have to be directed by a
higher power. I thought it must be that that thing,
(25:31):
that man with the smoke coming out of his nostrils.
But it felt different. This felt comforting. My temperature was
rising again, my heart began to pound. I kept my
eyes closed and held the cross. Instantly I felt a presence.
I knew what it was straightaway. No one had to
(25:53):
spell it out for me. It couldn't have been anybody
but Jesus. I knew it was him, Christ, Lord of Lords,
King of kings. He was in that room with me.
Jesus is the answer. I lay there, stunned. I could
feel him all around me, moving around the room. There
(26:16):
was a silent grace to it all. I placed the
cross on my chest and basked in the glory of it.
I've been touched by Jesus. His presence was confirmed to
me in a physical way when I felt a hand
on me. I actually physically felt it physically. It started
in the center of my body. Then I felt it
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all everywhere, covering me, cleansing me. The room was spinning quickly.
Now my whole body was trembling too. I could feel
the cross starting to rattle between my chest and my hand.
With my eyes shut tight. I let it all pass
over me, and then it stopped. I opened my eyes
(27:04):
and the quiet had returned. The room was empty. There
was nothing around me, no bright light, no apparition, no angels, nothing.
I looked at the hotel bed and it was covered
in sweat, but my body was dry. The fever had
gone down, my temperature and heart rate had returned to normal.
(27:26):
The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked
me up. It changed me forever. I truly had a
born again experience. If you want to call it that,
don't believe me, That's fine. People have told me ever
since that they don't believe the Lord himself was present
(27:46):
with me in that room that night. I can't prove
anything to anyone except to say that I saw the
world differently after that. As for the rest of the evening,
I didn't sleep at all. Sometime in the small hours,
I opened up a drawer on the nightstand. Sliding to
(28:06):
the front of the drawer as I did, was a
small King James Bible. I opened it and read. I
read for so long that the only thing that took
my eyes off those pages was a knock at my
door telling me we had to move on to the
next show, Comfort, Knowledge and Salvation. We were heading to
El Paso, Texas. The show wasn't until the next day,
(28:29):
so I spent the next twenty four hours reading that
little Bible constantly. My life had begun again. I had
experienced rebirth before, but nothing like this. This time it
was from the Lord. It felt like that cross would
never leave my neck. I was the property of Jesus
now A Pastor Ken Gullikson took a deep breath. He
(29:23):
stood in the wings of the stage at the Arrowhead
Pond in Anaheim, California. His brain went into intense focus,
as it always does in this moment, the moment before
he had to address the sea of faces looking back
at him, sixteen thousand faces that hung on his every word,
the word of God. Pastor Gullikson heard his name announced
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and walked confidently to the stage. He was blinded by
the bright house lights. Sixteen thou people cheer him on.
Good evening, friends, he said. He spoke that day at
the Jesus p Bull Reunion. It was his usual rallying sermon.
Pastor Gullikson as a knack for speaking to people at
events like these. It made him feel like a rock star.
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He commands the stage like an illusionist and has the
charisma of a Hollywood a listern. And by the time
he finished, the crowd went wild, like he just performed
a grand opera. Thank you and may God be with you,
he bellowed, and then he left the stage. Pastor Gullikson's
(30:31):
performance was done, but he was already dreading what was
coming next. A journalist from the Assist News service sat
waiting for Pastor Gullikson in a sofa lined backstage area.
His dictaphone was at the ready. The journalists had requested
an interview some weeks ago, and the pastor knew why
these news requests were always for the same reason, the
(30:54):
same person, Pastor Gullikson's most famous of students. Four minutes
into the interview, it happened. Can we talk about Bob Dylan,
the journalists asked, trying to sound off hand. Pastor Gulliksen
looked at his watch. Only took the guy four minutes
to say the D word. The journalists asked how Pastor
Gulliksen came to teach one of the biggest stars in
(31:15):
the world all about the Bible. The pastor responded with
a well rehearsed, carefully crafted story about a short time
with Bob Dylan, like a good joke. The pastor knew
the beats of the story inside out. He paused to
add drama at various points, and through in a couple
of embellished truths to sensationalize. He executed this story perfectly,
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just as he had done for more than two decades now.
The journalists then suggested that Dylan had lost his faith.
God is not through with him yet, smiled the pastor,
maintaining a relaxed exterior, I would ask people to really
intercede for Bob to pray without ceasing, that God will
access his heart so that he would be open responding
again to the truth. Sensing that's poll quotes were about
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to materialize, the journalist moved his dictaphone closer to the
pastor and then asked the next question, do you think
Dylan is still on a spiritual journey? Pastor Glickson's tone
became serious as he responded directly into the dictaphone. I
believe he is on a greater search than ever. He's
getting older and he's struggling with what is the most
(32:22):
real being Bob Dylan having this acclaim or having a
relationship with God. The journalists asked that the pastor had
seen him recently. No, I'm just waiting on the Lord
for the right time to initiate contact. The journalists asked
a final question, was there a particular moment when Bob
Dylan stopped coming to the church? Pastor Gollokson gave a
(32:45):
faint one word reply. No. Nineteen years earlier, Bob Dylan
lay blinking in the sunlight, sweating. In fact, the sweat
poured off of him, but he wasn't running fever. The
hot midday Caribbean sun was the culprit. The sun had
beat down on this particular part of the ocean for
(33:07):
some time, but now it hit behind a large cloud.
Dylan slowly sat up and took in a deep breath.
The salty sea air filled his lungs. He jumped up
onto the deck of his boat, the Water Pearl, and
took stock of his surroundings. He was off the coast
of Martinique, one of the many Caribbean islands he sailed
around that summer. Before the end of that summer, you
(33:30):
get to see them all. He pulled the sail in,
and as he did, he noticed that the wind had
picked up. The knocking of rope on the masts suddenly
confirmed that the wind had changed. Clouds formed quickly, and
the pearls large sails began to rattle, and the waves
started to make the horizon rise and fall while Dylan
listened to the wind whistle. Five minutes later, the whole
(33:52):
scene was transformed. The wind began its attack on the pearl,
so strong that loose items on the deck were picked
up and tossed around. A pan of my hat drifted
a few inches across the polished wood in A book
on the poet Homer lost its page, and the boat's
sails flapped violently. Dylan took a look at the entrance
to the ship's cabin. It looked inviting. He knew he
(34:14):
could ride out this mini storm in there, if you wanted.
He took a few steps toward, but stopped. He suddenly
realized this was the moment. He moved to the boat's bow,
staring straight into the face of the wind. He saw
other vessels on iron waves in the distance. He rose
up to his modest but full height and stretched out
(34:35):
his arms. Every muscle and his torso extended. With one
swift movement, he grabbed the silver cross from around his
neck and yanked it with full force, causing the chain
to snap. He took one last look at the iconic
symbol and launched it into the air. It sailed to
the wind and crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Bob Dylan
stood on the ship as the wind blew through him.
(34:57):
It was peaceful. An hour later, back in the sunshine
on solid Land and Martinique, Dylan made a phone call
from the harbor's booth. His booking agent was on the
other line. Dylan agreed to his next project, a musical
retrospective tour, a run of shows that would combine Dylan's
(35:17):
secular music with his religious songs. Over the next few weeks,
another new composition would be added to the rehearsal set
list too, Caribbean Wind. Bob Dylan's so called born Again
phase had come to an end. Like all his faces,
he had shown another side of himself, another transfiguration, another
(35:37):
creative rebirth. It had added to his artistic integrity, challenged
his fans, and left a whole lot of blood on
the tracks. M Blood on the Tracks produced by Double
(36:03):
Elvis in partnership with I Heart Radio. It's hosted an
executive produced by me Jake Brennan, also executive produced by
Brady sath. Zeth Lundie is lead editor and producer. This
episode was written by Ben Burrow, Story and copy editing
by Pat Healy, Mixing and sound designed by Colin Fleming.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode
(36:26):
featured Chris Anzeloni is Bob Dylan. Sources for this episode
are available at double Elvis dot com on the Blood
on the Tracks series page, follow Double Elvis on Instagram
at double Elvis and on Twitch at Grace and Talks,
and you can talk to me per Usual on Instagram
and Twitter at Disgrace Land Pond Rock a Roll Herding
(37:00):
it
Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Radio and Double Elvis. Bob Dylan was a musical genius
and one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He
didn't follow leaders. He chased that thin, wild mercury sound.
He never looked back. Even as the times changed, and
as the times changed, Bob Dylan changed. He tried on
(00:21):
and discarded identities like they were mass He transformed. He
transfigured in Somewhere along the way, the Bob Dylan that
you thought you knew died. This is his story once again.
This is doctor ed Sailor. Is now day five, August six.
(00:47):
I just finished my review of the patient Robert Zimmerman,
a k a. Bob Dylan here at my home in Middletown,
New York. The laceration to his leg is healing nicely.
It's an injury so minor that I've failed to eat
mentioned it so far. I mentioned it now because everything
else seems to be returning to normal. As for Bob himself,
I'm afraid he's not in the best shape mentally speaking.
(01:10):
He's struggling to process what seems like a minor accident.
He's not sleeping, something I've tried to rectify with more morphine.
I shall, however, review this over the coming days, as
it seems to have brought on more hallucinations. Only this
morning he was claiming he's seen Jesus Christ, our savior.
(01:36):
That's who I'm talking about. Being noticed can be a burden.
Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. That's
why I change a lot when you think about it.
No matter which way you look, Jesus is the answer.
He died for sinners, and through his death he paid
(01:59):
for all us ends. I've been touched by Jesus physically.
Did you know that it happened? I didn't imagine it.
It changed me forever. Sometimes you have to be directed
by a higher power, gotta serve somebody. You make yourself
(02:20):
in this life, but you can be informed by those
who have a broader perspective. Christ entered my life in
the late nineteen seventies. His words and actions gave me comfort, knowledge,
salvation for everyone else. For those who didn't believe me,
they just saw it as fresh blood on the tracks.
(03:00):
Chapter five, Bob Dylan is born again. The prayer of
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise
(03:21):
him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall
be forgiven. I'm sure you've seen by now that transfiguration
can come in many forms. It can be physical, it
can come through song, through lifestyle, but it can also
come through faith. I was born into the Jewish faith,
(03:43):
and it's something that I've taken great wisdom from. I
was bar mitzvahed two, but later in my life I
began to have an interest in Christianity religious transfiguration. If
you will now, let me make this clear. The teachings
of God, the Bible, Jesus were in my work before
(04:03):
in the same way they are in my work after.
They've been one of the few constants in fact, but
for a brief time, those teachings dominated my music completely.
A rock and roll preacher, that's what they called me.
In a way, spreading the good news was the most
rock and roll thing to do. Jesus Christ I preached
(04:27):
for three years, just like Jesus himself. Not that I'm
comparing myself to him, of course. Sure I've sold more
records than him, but he did save us all, so
I think he wins this round point. Being the Bible
and the Lord have always been there in my songs.
I mean, I mentioned the Devil in the first verse
of the first song on my first album, Go and
(04:50):
Look it Up. It's there Christ entered my life. Look
at the John Wesley Harding album too. That one's got
lots of the Good Book in it. But no one
had a problem with that when it came out. They
loved it. In fact, even Elvis himself said, rock and
roll is basically just gospel music or gospel music mixed
(05:11):
with rhythm and blues, so it's a wonder. There was
such a big backlash when I started singing about Jesus
and Christianity overtly. People thought I was preaching at them,
but I was just offering a point of view like
I've been offered when I first started going to church.
Being noticed it could be a burden. The shift in
my work came on the album's Slow Train, Coming Saved
(05:34):
and Shot of Love. Those are albums I still get
behind to this day, but other people, other people couldn't
get behind them. I still can't to this day. Even
John Lennon had an issue with it. I didn't imagine it.
John Lennon, Mr. Peace and Love wrote a song called
(05:55):
Serve Yourself Have you ever heard that, not a lot
of people have. It's only a demo. It's rough, like
a sketch, very punk, very angry. You got to hand
it to John and he could write a song, but
the subject matter that was less appealing to me. He
wrote it as a reply to my song Gotta Serve
(06:16):
Somebody a little glib pardy agitated swipe at my interest
in Jesus. He was rattled and why did he care
so much about what I was singing about. Maybe he
wanted a little revenge for my song fourth time Around,
which was a friendly dig at his Norwegian wood. Who knows.
(06:37):
Despite a lot of reactions like that, I still went
ahead and spread the word of the Lord on those
three albums in the three gospel tours to promote them.
Jesus the Answer. Some shows on those tours reminded me
of that Newport Folk Festivals show, which is funny because
with my message, I was being the complete opposite of
Judas really, but some of the crowd just didn't get
(07:00):
at it. It's not what they came to see, it's
not what they wanted to see. I was singing about
the same things I was singing about before, just in
a different way, but they couldn't see it, and that
wasn't my problem. But it is your problem. It's our problem.
Shut up. Like I was saying, those shows, I wouldn't
(07:24):
change them, same for those albums. What an artist can't
change and adapt? Transfiguration moves in mysterious ways. You can't
always decide how it moves and how you change. T
Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, Stephen souls Bono, all those guys
found salvation like me, differences. No one gave them a
(07:47):
hard time. We're different. You know that. You shut up.
The question I asked all the time is why why
did I start singing about Jesus and the Lord so
intense sleep? Why did I embrace Christianity? I had my reasons,
and we'll get to them in time, but let me
(08:08):
tell you right now, it was not because I was
having a personal crisis. I've seen that written lots of
times before. People think you find religion when you're down
and out, Well, not me. Is that some kind of joke.
Don't listen to him. Our personal life wasn't in crisis.
Our personal life was fine. We had three girlfriends at
(08:30):
once Helen could have been five. Don't use that word.
Hell yeah, that word. Don't talk about private matters either.
Our relationships broke up. So what broke up? We ruined them.
We were on a self DESTRUCTI mission with our private life.
How so February ninety seven, remember Malcolm, our girlfriend at
(08:55):
the time sat around the breakfast table, the family breakfast table.
Then our wife came in. How would you feel if
you came down and saw the person you were married
to sitting with his lover around the breakfast table with
your kids. That was your idea, It was your idea,
and then you screamed at her. All right, our marriage
(09:17):
fell apart. That's not unusual. Every relationship we had at
the time fell apart. Then there's the drugs and drink
here we go. Yeah, you can act like that when
you're twenty one. But might I remind you of our profession.
Oh then there's the film Bobby and Sarah whatever we
call it. My god, that fucking film it was called
(09:40):
Ronaldo and Clara. How much time do we waste on that?
How much money it? It was? We were such a
mess that you wanted to stay on tour because you
couldn't bear to go home. That's the truth, isn't it? Pathetic,
a little boy lost. Okay, you've made your point. Look
(10:01):
it's true it wasn't the best time for me personally
or professionally. But I still dispute that I was lost.
I wasn't so much searching for something more, just stumbling around.
My girlfriend at the time, one of our many girlfriends, Yes,
one of our many girlfriends, Mary Alice Artees she was
(10:22):
born again. Whatever that meant. Sometimes you have to be
directed by a higher power. But a lot of what
she had to say seemed to be true to me.
It resonated with me. I'd come to see, there's no
right and left. There's just truth and untruth. There's honesty
and hypocrisy. It's all in the Bible. It's the only
(10:45):
thing that stays true no matter which way you look.
Mary introduced me to the Vineyard Christian Fellowship and Evangelical
Christian Denomination. I met all those guys and we talked.
I asked them all about the Bible, and they answered
all my questions. They said, if I wanted to know more,
there was a Bible class I could attend. I'd assumed
(11:08):
i'd be going back on tour soon, and when they
told me the class was going to run for three months.
I thought they were crazy. I can't give up that
much time. One day, though, I remember waking up. I
looked at the watch on my nightstand. It was seven am.
I was alone, no family with me, no girlfriend around,
(11:29):
no tour booked, no band. I don't know why, but
I felt compelled to go. It just made sense. There
was something in me that wanted to study, to learn,
to change. That's why I changed a lot. I got
in my car and drove straight to receive it where
the Fellowship's offices were. I stayed for over three months
(11:53):
and learned more than I ever thought possible, comfort, knowledge, salvation.
Towards the end of Mary was baptized in a swimming
pool at the house of a Fellowship pastor. It was
total immersion. I went and witnessed the whole thing. Not
long after, I was baptized in the ocean. I've been
(12:15):
touched by Jesus. I felt renewed. I had become a
different man, this time, transfigured by God. But why, Like
I say, everyone asks, why, what happened to spark all
of this? Well, it had all started a year earlier.
(12:37):
The Lord had given me a sign. If you confess
(13:10):
with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead. You will
be saved. For it is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth
that you confess and are saved. The air was thick
inside the arena that night. I never understood that expression before,
(13:34):
but that night it was thick like smog, hot and close.
Well that's how it felt to me. Anyway. We were
playing in San Diego, one of those giant places. That's
how we did that to all arenas and champagne and
parties no matter which way you look. I kept turning
(13:57):
to Billy Cross, my lead guitar player. I kept asking
him if it was hot. No, Bob, he kept saying, God,
it was so hot. I've never known heat like that.
It was like I was staring at Hell cloaked in fur.
After a while, they moved one of those big fans
next to the stage and pointed it right at us.
(14:18):
The rest of the band were shivering, but me, I
was on fire. Jesus Christ. I had felt unwell for
a while. Touring can do that to you, but this
felt ten times worse than anything I've felt before that night,
I'd slid into some sort of feverish existence. When it
(14:39):
was time to play Maggie's Farm, I remember I couldn't
stop talking. I blurted out some old rubbish like I
was invited to play the Newport Folk festist. They invited
me three times. I played this song the last time
I was there. They never did invite me back. I
don't hold any grudges anyway. Sometimes I told this man
(15:05):
up here who asked me about the song, sometimes the
whole world looks to me like Maggie's Farm. Sometimes I
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more. I
couldn't stop talking. Between the songs, I was rambling. I
felt compelled to talk. Things were just coming to me.
(15:28):
I was getting hotter and hotter as the show went on.
A fever had started to grip my body. I felt
like I was succumbing to it. I didn't imagine it
before the song signor. I stood in front of the
giant fan and didn't feel a thing, nothing. It was
like a bonfire. I started to ramble again. I took
(15:50):
a train once from Monterey, Chihuahua, up to San Diego,
I said crowd cheered. This guy was sitting next to
me on the rain, a man wearing a blanket. He
his eyes were burning up. It was there was smoke
coming out of his nostrils. I thought I'd talked to him.
(16:12):
When I turned around to look at him, he was gone.
The crowd cheered again. Could they not see the state
I was in? Do they not notice? I was making
less sense as the night wore on. Being noticed can
be a burden. We played the song and I felt
even worse. In fact, I wasn't sure i'd be standing
by the end of it. The final notes rang out,
(16:34):
and I felt like something was seriously wrong. I took
a few steps forward, the sweat from my head dripping
onto the stage floor. As I walked, A white mist
appeared in the corner of my vision, and the loud
sounds of the arena slowly disappeared. It all sounded like
I was under water. I felt my body about to
give away, But then something caught my eye high power.
(17:01):
Someone had thrown something onto the stage. Now, people throw
things onto the stage all the time. It's not usually
too bad. Tom Jones got panties. I'm more likely to
get a paperback. But this time it was something small,
something silver. It caught the light as it lay there.
(17:21):
It looked closer and saw that it was a silver cross.
Christ injured my life. Now. Usually I don't pick anything
up that is thrown on the stage. But the way
this cross caught the light, it lured me in and
the feverish heat. This cross looks so cool, It looked calming.
It looked like salvation. Jesus is the answer. I bent down,
(17:46):
picked it up and placed it in my pocket. Twenty
four hours later and I was on another stage and
another arena. This time it was Arizona. I felt even worse.
I was feverish again. I saw dots in front of
my eyes. Made me think of those flashes from the
camera bulbs way back at the Newport Folk Festival. Images
(18:08):
from that day began to flash into my mind. Then
I saw the road in Woodstock where I rode my motorcycle.
It changed me forever. I smelled the Hell's Angels gasoline.
I saw the blood dashed against the wall of the Lafayette.
That's who I'm talking about. Then I remembered the cross.
(18:31):
I reached into my pocket. It was still there. I
grabbed it and held it tightly holding on for dear life.
Touching it was like a shock to my system. When
I touched it, like a needle in my arm. Touched
by Jesus, my fever slowly came down. I began to
(18:53):
see properly in both senses. I was slowly brought to life.
After the show, I put the cross around my neck.
It transfigured me. I ended up wearing it for the
rest of that tour. It even influenced the songs we
played during the shows. I changed the lyrics to some
of those songs straight away, Tangled Up in Blue, for example,
(19:17):
In that song, I mentioned a mysterious lady in a
topless bar, quoting an Italian poet from the century. But
live with that cross around my neck, I changed the
lyrics to her, quoting the Bible, the Gospel according to Matthew,
to be precise, That's who I'm talking about. It felt right.
(19:38):
Even my songs transfigured along with me. I knew something
had changed on that tour, something seismic. But what I
didn't know was the Lord was just getting started with me.
Soon we'd meet. We'll be right back after this. Were
(20:00):
were were? The Lord blesses thee and keeps thee. The
Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be
gracious unto thee, and gives the peace. Tucson, Tucson, Arizona.
(20:23):
That's where it happened. That's where my life changed forever.
If you could have given me a million guesses as
to where my life would alter beyond all recognition, I
never would have said Tucson, Arizona. But it's true. I
didn't imagine it. We were playing another show, another arena.
(20:43):
Although my fever had improved, I still wasn't right. I
was still being eaten up by something. Before we played Seor,
I told the same story on the stage, the one
about the man on the train, that man with the
smoke coming out of his nostrils and whose eyes were
burning up. I couldn't stop thinking about him. The whole
(21:04):
scene kept coming into my mind. That's what I'm talking about.
I saw him in my dreams and in my waking
hours too. I was haunted by him. I didn't even
know who or what he was. On stage, I started
to feel dizzy again. The heat had returned, and I
felt my temperature rocket all Just after thinking about him.
(21:29):
I reached into my pocket and found the cross again
I clutched it tight, but this time it didn't help
like it had before. I knew I needed to up
my dose, so I took it out of my pocket
and put it around my neck for all to see.
You make yourself in this. As soon as I put
it there, the cross leveled me out. This tour had
(21:52):
been draining. Where the motorcycle crash and woodstock back in
sixty six had slowed my life down, my life had
regained its velocity. By this point. I was once again
reaching breakneck speed directed by a higher power. But the cross,
the cross brought calm to me, to my world, to everything.
(22:14):
The rest of the show sailed by, I was feeling
better and better that night. When I was driven back
to the hotel, they let me out at the front entrance.
I didn't go in. I just stood in the parking lot,
breathing the fresh air and gulps, with my new cross
firmly around my neck. The parking lot was large and
(22:35):
dimly litten. As I stared out into it, I could
see something someone an old man with well. He looked
like he had a kind of blanket over him. Right
there on the other side of the lot. He looked
like the thing from that train. I ran to where
I had seen him, but he'd already gone. I searched
(22:56):
the parking lot over and over, but nothing. After looking
for almost an hour, I gave up. Being noticed can
be a burden. I thought it must be lack of
sleep that was making me think this way, so I
called it a night. I made my way to my room,
walking quickly down the long hotel corridor. It was so quiet.
(23:16):
All I could hear were my footsteps. I don't know why,
but I became aware that I was tensing up. Every
door I passed seemed to make me more and more tense.
The faster I walked, the more doors I passed, the
more tense I became. I thought I felt breath on
my neck. I felt like I could feel eyes on
(23:36):
me too. I pulled the cross off my neck and
held it tightly in my hand as I walked faster
and faster down the corridor. By the time I came
to my room, I was out of breath, partly due
to my pace, but also due to my rising anxiety. No,
not anxiety, terror, Jesus Christ. I fumbled with my room key,
(23:58):
but I dropped it. I could feel that breath again.
I spun around, but there was nothing. I clumsily picked
up the key and threw open the door. As it
slammed behind me, I ran to the window on the
other side of the room. I pulled the curtains back
and scanned the view silence. My room was facing the
(24:20):
parking lot. I looked all over for that man, but
again nothing. I ran back to the door and peeked
through the spy hole. Nothing. I cursed that fever again.
I thought maybe I should start cleaning up when I
was on the road, start eating properly, cut the booze
and the drugs, maybe even stop touring. Traveling can do
(24:42):
things to your body and mind a lot. I slumped
down onto the bed, holding the cross closely to my chest.
As I closed my eyes, I'd never been more ready
for sleep. The room began to spin again. I thought
the fever was back, but I was wrong. The bed
(25:05):
rumbled beneath me. I felt a huge movement, like the
world around me was splitting in two. But I can't
explain it. The world itself, the physical world was normal,
but the spiritual world was splitting, moving changing somehow all
around me. Sometimes you have to be directed by a
higher power. I thought it must be that that thing,
(25:31):
that man with the smoke coming out of his nostrils.
But it felt different. This felt comforting. My temperature was
rising again, my heart began to pound. I kept my
eyes closed and held the cross. Instantly I felt a presence.
I knew what it was straightaway. No one had to
(25:53):
spell it out for me. It couldn't have been anybody
but Jesus. I knew it was him, Christ, Lord of Lords,
King of kings. He was in that room with me.
Jesus is the answer. I lay there, stunned. I could
feel him all around me, moving around the room. There
(26:16):
was a silent grace to it all. I placed the
cross on my chest and basked in the glory of it.
I've been touched by Jesus. His presence was confirmed to
me in a physical way when I felt a hand
on me. I actually physically felt it physically. It started
in the center of my body. Then I felt it
(26:38):
all everywhere, covering me, cleansing me. The room was spinning quickly.
Now my whole body was trembling too. I could feel
the cross starting to rattle between my chest and my hand.
With my eyes shut tight. I let it all pass
over me, and then it stopped. I opened my eyes
(27:04):
and the quiet had returned. The room was empty. There
was nothing around me, no bright light, no apparition, no angels, nothing.
I looked at the hotel bed and it was covered
in sweat, but my body was dry. The fever had
gone down, my temperature and heart rate had returned to normal.
(27:26):
The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked
me up. It changed me forever. I truly had a
born again experience. If you want to call it that,
don't believe me, That's fine. People have told me ever
since that they don't believe the Lord himself was present
(27:46):
with me in that room that night. I can't prove
anything to anyone except to say that I saw the
world differently after that. As for the rest of the evening,
I didn't sleep at all. Sometime in the small hours,
I opened up a drawer on the nightstand. Sliding to
(28:06):
the front of the drawer as I did, was a
small King James Bible. I opened it and read. I
read for so long that the only thing that took
my eyes off those pages was a knock at my
door telling me we had to move on to the
next show, Comfort, Knowledge and Salvation. We were heading to
El Paso, Texas. The show wasn't until the next day,
(28:29):
so I spent the next twenty four hours reading that
little Bible constantly. My life had begun again. I had
experienced rebirth before, but nothing like this. This time it
was from the Lord. It felt like that cross would
never leave my neck. I was the property of Jesus
now A Pastor Ken Gullikson took a deep breath. He
(29:23):
stood in the wings of the stage at the Arrowhead
Pond in Anaheim, California. His brain went into intense focus,
as it always does in this moment, the moment before
he had to address the sea of faces looking back
at him, sixteen thousand faces that hung on his every word,
the word of God. Pastor Gullikson heard his name announced
(29:47):
and walked confidently to the stage. He was blinded by
the bright house lights. Sixteen thou people cheer him on.
Good evening, friends, he said. He spoke that day at
the Jesus p Bull Reunion. It was his usual rallying sermon.
Pastor Gullikson as a knack for speaking to people at
events like these. It made him feel like a rock star.
(30:10):
He commands the stage like an illusionist and has the
charisma of a Hollywood a listern. And by the time
he finished, the crowd went wild, like he just performed
a grand opera. Thank you and may God be with you,
he bellowed, and then he left the stage. Pastor Gullikson's
(30:31):
performance was done, but he was already dreading what was
coming next. A journalist from the Assist News service sat
waiting for Pastor Gullikson in a sofa lined backstage area.
His dictaphone was at the ready. The journalists had requested
an interview some weeks ago, and the pastor knew why
these news requests were always for the same reason, the
(30:54):
same person, Pastor Gullikson's most famous of students. Four minutes
into the interview, it happened. Can we talk about Bob Dylan,
the journalists asked, trying to sound off hand. Pastor Gulliksen
looked at his watch. Only took the guy four minutes
to say the D word. The journalists asked how Pastor
Gulliksen came to teach one of the biggest stars in
(31:15):
the world all about the Bible. The pastor responded with
a well rehearsed, carefully crafted story about a short time
with Bob Dylan, like a good joke. The pastor knew
the beats of the story inside out. He paused to
add drama at various points, and through in a couple
of embellished truths to sensationalize. He executed this story perfectly,
(31:38):
just as he had done for more than two decades now.
The journalists then suggested that Dylan had lost his faith.
God is not through with him yet, smiled the pastor,
maintaining a relaxed exterior, I would ask people to really
intercede for Bob to pray without ceasing, that God will
access his heart so that he would be open responding
again to the truth. Sensing that's poll quotes were about
(32:01):
to materialize, the journalist moved his dictaphone closer to the
pastor and then asked the next question, do you think
Dylan is still on a spiritual journey? Pastor Glickson's tone
became serious as he responded directly into the dictaphone. I
believe he is on a greater search than ever. He's
getting older and he's struggling with what is the most
(32:22):
real being Bob Dylan having this acclaim or having a
relationship with God. The journalists asked that the pastor had
seen him recently. No, I'm just waiting on the Lord
for the right time to initiate contact. The journalists asked
a final question, was there a particular moment when Bob
Dylan stopped coming to the church? Pastor Gollokson gave a
(32:45):
faint one word reply. No. Nineteen years earlier, Bob Dylan
lay blinking in the sunlight, sweating. In fact, the sweat
poured off of him, but he wasn't running fever. The
hot midday Caribbean sun was the culprit. The sun had
beat down on this particular part of the ocean for
(33:07):
some time, but now it hit behind a large cloud.
Dylan slowly sat up and took in a deep breath.
The salty sea air filled his lungs. He jumped up
onto the deck of his boat, the Water Pearl, and
took stock of his surroundings. He was off the coast
of Martinique, one of the many Caribbean islands he sailed
around that summer. Before the end of that summer, you
(33:30):
get to see them all. He pulled the sail in,
and as he did, he noticed that the wind had
picked up. The knocking of rope on the masts suddenly
confirmed that the wind had changed. Clouds formed quickly, and
the pearls large sails began to rattle, and the waves
started to make the horizon rise and fall while Dylan
listened to the wind whistle. Five minutes later, the whole
(33:52):
scene was transformed. The wind began its attack on the pearl,
so strong that loose items on the deck were picked
up and tossed around. A pan of my hat drifted
a few inches across the polished wood in A book
on the poet Homer lost its page, and the boat's
sails flapped violently. Dylan took a look at the entrance
to the ship's cabin. It looked inviting. He knew he
(34:14):
could ride out this mini storm in there, if you wanted.
He took a few steps toward, but stopped. He suddenly
realized this was the moment. He moved to the boat's bow,
staring straight into the face of the wind. He saw
other vessels on iron waves in the distance. He rose
up to his modest but full height and stretched out
(34:35):
his arms. Every muscle and his torso extended. With one
swift movement, he grabbed the silver cross from around his
neck and yanked it with full force, causing the chain
to snap. He took one last look at the iconic
symbol and launched it into the air. It sailed to
the wind and crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Bob Dylan
stood on the ship as the wind blew through him.
(34:57):
It was peaceful. An hour later, back in the sunshine
on solid Land and Martinique, Dylan made a phone call
from the harbor's booth. His booking agent was on the
other line. Dylan agreed to his next project, a musical
retrospective tour, a run of shows that would combine Dylan's
(35:17):
secular music with his religious songs. Over the next few weeks,
another new composition would be added to the rehearsal set
list too, Caribbean Wind. Bob Dylan's so called born Again
phase had come to an end. Like all his faces,
he had shown another side of himself, another transfiguration, another
(35:37):
creative rebirth. It had added to his artistic integrity, challenged
his fans, and left a whole lot of blood on
the tracks. M Blood on the Tracks produced by Double
(36:03):
Elvis in partnership with I Heart Radio. It's hosted an
executive produced by me Jake Brennan, also executive produced by
Brady sath. Zeth Lundie is lead editor and producer. This
episode was written by Ben Burrow, Story and copy editing
by Pat Healy, Mixing and sound designed by Colin Fleming.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode
(36:26):
featured Chris Anzeloni is Bob Dylan. Sources for this episode
are available at double Elvis dot com on the Blood
on the Tracks series page, follow Double Elvis on Instagram
at double Elvis and on Twitch at Grace and Talks,
and you can talk to me per Usual on Instagram
and Twitter at Disgrace Land Pond Rock a Roll Herding
(37:00):
it
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