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List Price: $16.95 | | Publisher: Continuum
Salesrank: 417619
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
Bob Dylan's earth-shattering performance at Newport in 1965 changed the face of rock and roll and the face of folk music forever. Dylan broke the musical equivalent of the sound barrier. He had to teach his audience how to hear sounds that had never before been heard. Dylan did the same for religion when he converted to Christianity in late 1978. Rock and religion have become intertwined in contemporary culture. Does rock gain its power from the decline of religious authority? Is rock a neutral medium that churches can appropriate with little or no danger to spiritual truths? Do rock and religion have the same ancient roots? Or is rock essentially at odds with Christianity? No contemporary musician presents a better test case than Bob Dylan. He played a key role in the fusion of rock and religion when he converted to Christianity. Dylan was ahead of the contemporary Christian music trend. Although he helped legitimize Christian rock in the late seventies, even his early music had deeply spiritual undertones. From the beginning of his career, Dylan talked about his music in terms of a spiritual calling. He imbued rock with something oracular and otherworldly - a supersonic rendition of the supernatural - which gave popular music enough weight to convey something of the mystery of religious ritual. Webb focuses on Dylan's religious period in this book, but convincingly shows that this religious period cannot be understood apart from a rereading of his entire career. Webb reevaluates Dylan's early career in light of Dylan's Christian period and shows that Dylan's Christian period was a natural development in his musical and spiritual journey.
Dylan Redeemed: From Highway 61 to Saved Reviews:
from Continuum 
2008-02-11 - Bob Dylan has had a profound influence on the shape of modern pop music (folk, rock, blues) and as a modern literary figure. He has also attracted enormous attention from both professional and amateur "interpreters." In this book, the author offers a thorough study of Dylan's reading of scriptures. He explores the ways in which Dylan transforms biblical images and concepts when he incorporates them into his literary world; it is an attempt to listen to the echoes of scripture in his published works. The author closely reads Dylan's poems and songs and provides commentaries on several themes found in Dylan's work: the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus; apocalypse, justice and judgment; oppressive religion, and religious irony. Through these readings, the author calls attention to the various ways Dylan uses scripture both in an explicit and an implicit manner.
Bob's Music and RELIGION 
2007-12-31 - Note the other reviewer as well as the AUTHOR of this book are both BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS.
The Author is a professor of Theology.
They are seeing in Bob what THEY want to see.
I plodded through this book and it was all fluff,..no real facts.
John Lennon said that "Elvis died, the day he went into the army". (He was stationed in Germany, and his Rock 'n Roll era was all but over).
In a silmilar way, Bob's BEST music, (from the protest stuff in the 60's through to HARD Rain after the Rolling Thunder Review), was all made before his religious "conversion". He even stopped singing his old good stuff, he said the songs were sinful. His paster at the Vine church had to convince him that it was okay to sing the old songs. Can you imagine,...a genius of a musician going down so low that he had to be convinced to sing his early gems.
Bob was not religious throughout his life. Nor was he searching. When he picked the crucifix up off the stage floor, he was sick, tired, run down, on tour, cold and his music had hit a plateux. He was down and out big time.
Then he "Found" religion. Jesus "tapped" him on the shoulder.
Bob's wife (Caroline Dennis) said it was the hipocracy that he saw in the Christian Church that made him even more disillusioned than he was before embracing "religion".
Sure some of Bob's early songs mentioned Abraham and the Bible (John Wesley Harding) etc...but Dylan was not the SAINT the Christian crowd are trying to hold on to.
The Pope called Dylan a FALSE PROPHET.
No-one really knows what Bob thinks about this whole Christianity bit, NO-ONE really cares anymore. We just hope Bob's stays with us a long time yet. Who cares what god he does or doesn't pray to....it makes no difference. NO-ONE CARES.
It's the Music that counts,...focus on the music, not on whether Bob believes in some mythical person who may or may-not have lived TWO THOUSAND years ago.
absolutely brilliant 
2007-09-07 - this is a great, great book. every dylan fan should read it, especially people interested in the born-again bob. webb displays an uncanny understanding of dylan's true essence as a seeker and prophet. i have read many dylan books and this was one of the very best. it was easy to read and very spiritually heartening. the in-depth and well-researched analysis of bob's true message will astound you. anyone who has struggled with the gospel bob will be enlightened. in 1979 i immediately opened my heart to bob's spirituality because i needed to hear good news and in my heart i knew that bob understood important things and had a line on truth. bob helped me find a faith that continually strengthens me.if you love bob you will love this book. god bless you stephen. a million thanx. i can't wait to read your other books.
