Dylan’s roots - a big topic. It took me in an unexpected direction.
Like many of us, he has many sources and influences, and chosen paths.
For Amber and myself, some of our background may have to do with our resonance with Dylan's work.
- Amber grew up immersed in a Lutheran world, becoming totally literate in things ceremonial and biblical, but leaving it all at age 19.
- My grandpa was a leading light in Canadian Presbyterian world, but my parents were sick of 'religion', though I as first kid got the requisite Bible-hounouring names .
The traditions we grew up with were stale, may have once held spirit but no longer ; we both grew into being 'seekers', the term our Unitarian wedding minister put on the form for our "religion'.
In the early 60's spirituality was 'in the air' ; in the music we heard, the media we followed, the interests we had.
We had lots of friends who had various spiritual interests, from Astrology, the I-Ching, to several kinds of Jesus freaks, religious communes, new-agers , Paramahansa Yogananda, Ram Dass, Steve Gaskin and The Farm, the "I found It" campus movement. And the Hare Krishna group.
We had a friend - Hymie -
He hung out at 'the girl's' (Amber's friends) apartment, along with me .
He too was a lost seeker - not happy as a med-student/doctor. He may have liked early Dylan , but adored Bertrand Russell.
Later, when Amber and I lived together, he'd come and go from our place; one day he returned in saffron robe, shaved head, painted forehead, and wall-to-wall happy grin - had become a Krishna devotee.( new named Rasananda Das)
He went on to work in Africa, then in India, as a doctor in the Krishna movement, and evidently worked with the Krishna group's leader. Later he became director of the KC movement institute until he passed recently.
He recently wrote a book - 'Proper Kirtan' - that demonstrated the principle that kirtan( storytelling chants) has to be performed as it was performed and taught by the acharya(spiritual guide) of the movement, Srila Prabhupada.
So… links to Bob??
Dylan's visible seeking is well documented. His direct connection to things Hindu not so clear.
There's his Jewishness, from family & devotion to Israel. His love for gospel music, his 'Jesus Period'.
While Google brings up mostly his Christian era works, such as the album trilogy (Shot of love, Slow Train Coming, Saved), there is more.
You also run into those well-informed folk who tell of Dylan's secret pact with the devil in return for his fame.
And the books and articles about which songs, lines, and experiences reflect Bob's actual spirituality are endless. Some groups interpret his favour as a big win for 'their side'.
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From article: Bob Dylan, the Hippies, and the Bhagavad Gita
By Sankirtana Das (ISKCON) | Apr 07, 2024
“ In 1973-74, Dylan visited several Krishna temples. I was there when he visited Chicago ISKCON, located in Evanston at the time. When Dylan was in the temple, I checked out his vehicle, and there were several copies of Srila Prabhupada's books lying about, including “Bhagavad Gita As It Is.” In a February 1974 conversation with his disciples, Prabhupada acknowledged that Dylan was reading his books.”
George's awesome single 'My Sweet Lord' was originally written in praise of the Hindu god Krishna( PLAY). It reached number one on singles charts globally in 1971. After his Christian conversion, George changed the emphasis. He told the evangelist who prayed with him that he was re-dedicating the song to Jesus Christ.
John Lennon had a few comments on all this.
In (a 1980) interview, John was asked if “I Am the Walrus” criticized the Hare Krishnas. “I’d seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked [Bob] Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna,” he said. “It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to.” …
John discussed how “I Am the Walrus” criticized religion. “The words ‘Element’ry penguin’ meant that it’s naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol,” he said.
John compared his songwriting on “I Am the Walrus” and other Beatles songs to Dylan’s. “In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan, never saying what you mean, but giving the impression of something,” he said. “Where more or less can be read into it. It’s a good game. I thought, ‘They get away with this artsy-fartsy crap; there has been more said about Dylan’s wonderful lyrics than was ever in the lyrics at all. Mine, too.'”
John elaborated on the critical reception of his songs. “But it was the intellectuals who read all this into Dylan or The Beatles,” he added. “Dylan got away with murder. I thought, Well, I can write this crap, too. You know, you just stick a few images together, thread them together, and you call it poetry.”
“I was listening to the radio and Dylan’s new single or album or whatever the hell it is came on,” he said, per Rolling Stone. “‘Everybody’s got to be served.’ I mean, what was THAT? ‘You’ve got to serve someone’… ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’ So he wants to be a waiter now? A waiter for Christ.”
Lennon took particular issue with Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody.” According to the former Beatle, the song’s “backing was mediocre … the singing really pathetic and the words were just embarrassing.”
Another New Bob Book – related, interesting
From Amazon review:
“Dylan never claimed to have answers. His contribution was an honest distillation of life’s questions. And that was quite a lot.
It took someone of his unique linguistic and musical skill to synthesize what many of us, beginning in the Sixties, were feeling but could not articulate for ourselves.
From the deluge of Dylanography to have emerged in the past half century, it seems clear that he was reluctant to tie himself to any one lens of observation. He embraced contrasting and often contradictory perspectives.
Author Steven J. Rosen has added to our appreciation of Dylan’s ecumenism by tracing his journey into the world of Krishna devotion, while avoiding the temptation to make of it anything more than what it was:
- one more instance of Dylan’s curiosity over how we humans strive to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. It is an engaging account that adds considerably to our collective portrait of the Bard.”
Joshua M. Greene, author, Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison
Every Grain of Sand
Written by: Bob Dylan
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There’s a dyin’ voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair
Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand
Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay
I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand