“Everyone gets hooked in that story.” Before long, an incendiary version of “Isis” became a mainstay of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. “Bob read the lyrics to a bunch of people sitting around the bar, and everybody responded,” said Levy. He was so proud of the lyrics that he presented them to friends at the New York club the Other End. Dylan wrote much of it in an all-night session with theater director Jacques Levy.
Sara Dylan was in the studio the day her husband recorded “Isis.” Her presence was fitting: The song may well be an elaborate allegory of their marriage, separation and brief reunion – reimagined as the epic quest of a narrator who must trek through icy storms, scale pyramids and rob an ancient grave before winning back his runaway bride, the “mystical child” named Isis. “And you never ask questions when God’s on your side.” From shock-and-awe to Abu Ghraib to the morass in Afghanistan, those phrases can very much be applied to our exploits today. “You don’t count the dead when God’s on your side,” he sings. He’s singing about the people who make war, profit by it, and the families that send children to die. Dylan lays bare the hypocrisy of war and unmasks the whitewashing of our military ventures. It is a living exposé of war crimes, past, present and future. But “With God on Our Side” is not some historical relic. He was 22 but sounds like he’s 80, like this wizened guy who’s had a long life as a vigilante, croaking out songs of hard truth. I never knew how politically radical Dylan was until I got The Times They Are A-Changin’.
But he came close with “With God on Our Side.” I think he missed an opportunity to see if there was a ceiling to what music could do to push forward radical politics. The pressure was on to lead a movement, something he didn’t sign up for and wasn’t interested in. Tom Morello: I may be the last person alive who still believes that Dylan sold out at Newport in 1965 when he went electric. What he’s saying is, “Don’t just get into your bed and curl up under the covers.
#You ain t going nowhere the byrds how to#
I quite like that, as a lesson from a master teacher on how to be an artist and also, I suppose, on how to live your life. There was a sexuality, almost, in the sound of the guitar and the other instruments.Īnd the lyrics are brilliant – what he’s saying is that whatever you’re going to do with your life, you’re fucked if you don’t stand for something. For that song to come out in Ireland at that time was life-changing. The song that killed me most was “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Living in a Catholic family in Ireland, the only religious music we had ever heard was just awful – so incredibly boring. It’s a staggering album for anyone to make, but especially him. People say – and I hope it’s not true – that Dylan doesn’t stand by that record. Sinéad O’Connor: I was about 13 when my older brother Joseph brought home Slow Train Coming, and it just completely blew my mind.
I love the lines “The book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy/The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers.” And the chorus, with that “oh-oh-oh” chant out of tune – the only other person who can get away with singing like that is Jay Z, on “D.O.A.” It sounds effortless in the best possible way. I don’t think about who this Jokerman is – whether it’s God, Satan or Dylan himself. The song feels 87 minutes long, like dinner finally came around and they stopped rolling tape. And Sly and Robbie brought that reggae vibe. I’d thought I was a massive Dylan fan, but “Jokerman” was a shock: “How can this guy have a song that comes from this other world, and it’s still so brilliant?” Mark Knopfler and Mick Taylor on guitars. I discovered Infidels after I saw the video for “Jokerman.” It had Italian paintings and religious imagery. About once a year, I’ll spend a month listening to Dylan and nothing else. I’d heard the myth, “Oh, Bob Dylan, he can’t sing.” But at this point, half the CDs I own are Dylan albums. Chris Martin: I got into Bob Dylan when I was 16.
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