In 1979, Bob Dylan encountered Jesus and ticked off a generation. For this modern-day secular prophet to find his own answers in organized religion—in something so conventional as Christianity—felt to many like betrayal, or the ultimate lunacy. The man didn't even have the decency to acquire his own guru.
"To sell your soul to the Devil is fascinating, to sell it to God is boring," writes Steve Turner in Hungry for Heaven: Rock 'n' Roll and the Search for Redemption. The post-conversion Dylan could, in fact, be tedious. The audiences at his live shows at the time just as often encountered Bob the preacher man as Bob the singer/songwriter. His sermons—and that's what they were—were met with boos and heckling and shouts for "rock 'n' roll!" At a November 1979 show in Tempe, Arizona, Dylan responded to the crowd, "If you want rock and roll, you go down and rock and roll. You can go and see Kiss and you can rock and roll all the way down to the pit!" He never was one to mince words.
During this time, as always, the words poured forth. They landed on two Dylan albums, Slow Train Coming (1979) and Saved (1980). The better songs from this era have been recorded by leading gospel artists and are featured on a new release from Columbia, Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. Suddenly, Dylan's songs sound as if they were crafted for a full-gospel tent revival—the kind of songs that pierce through a muggy summer night and wring every ounce of sweat from the choir singing them and the church folk swaying in their seats and throwing their hands toward God.
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