tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146215066182995239.post6501130381334319936..comments2024-03-27T22:25:44.006-05:00Comments on Ennyman's Territory: Slow Train ComingEd Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12703797864648081829noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146215066182995239.post-63719327509641460772013-07-26T18:09:14.092-05:002013-07-26T18:09:14.092-05:00to both:
Interesting insights and thoughts. I had...to both: <br />Interesting insights and thoughts. I had not made the connection between Slow Train and Duquense Whistle (which now seems self-evident)... <br />though the spiritual undercurrent in Tempest is very real and, like Oh Mercy, shows how Dylan's spiritual self is more integrated into his art. <br />Thanks for the visit.<br />e.<br />Ed Newmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12703797864648081829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146215066182995239.post-27243157012780020512013-07-26T15:42:09.512-05:002013-07-26T15:42:09.512-05:00"Slow Train" is the reference point for ..."Slow Train" is the reference point for "Duquesne Whistle" on the 'Tempest' CD. The train is no longer "up around the bend." It is here, you can hear the whistle blowing and you can see the lights and its an introduction to a CD of which the theme is the judgment of God on our nation. However, Bob is not going to leave us hopeless. In "Duquesne Whistle", there are the words, "Ï hear a sweet voice calling, it must be the mother of our Lord," This phrase could be referring to John 2:5 in the KJV where Mary states her only "commandment." "Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you." Tempest in the Bible almost always refers to judgment - Job 9:17, Psalms 11:6, 83:15, Isaiah 28:2, 29:6,. "They waited at the landing / And they turned to understand / But there is no understanding / For the judgment of God's hand." - from stanza 43 of the song, "Tempest.tdcaseynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9146215066182995239.post-64811029098315750402013-07-26T09:46:22.728-05:002013-07-26T09:46:22.728-05:00As much as I have to agree that once more Dylan to...As much as I have to agree that once more Dylan took a bold turn here and did it spirited as always on his moments of change, this album never fails to bring me down, where usually I am uplifted. Where's the lyrical prowess? He just showers us with clichés, fingerpointing emblems, abstractions that seldomn get a fac (something he used to be so good in), except maybe in Precious Angel and Slow Train Coming and When He returns, three songs that really grab you, whether you accept his Christian vision or not. And the band is playing a synthetic kind of gospel blues, due partly to the stylized guitar of Mark Knopfler. Gone is the spontainity, the roughness. It presages the soulles rock of the eighties. Street Legal I already recognized as a deeply religious album, circling around a meeting with the Christian God and that of The Old Testament, it spoke for me in a better way about his search for the truth, just as those great records of his late career, with as its crown the deeply moving and poetic Tempest. No I do not turn away from this record because of its so called Christian content (I thought it was a flat and one dimensional fundamentalistic take on the Bible from someone who seemed lost in a new territory he did not yet understand, whereas his allusions in earlier records from the beginning had been so original and moving. Luckily he would return to that, starting with Oh Mercy!)hans altenanoreply@blogger.com