Bob Dylan’s album “Slow Train Coming” turns 45 today

Forty-five years ago today, on August 20, 1979, Bob Dylan released Slow Train Coming (Columbia, 1979), the first of what would turn out to be a trilogy of gospel-influenced albums after Dylan’s conversion to Christianity in 1978. Comprising Dylan’s so-called gospel era, Saved (Columbia, 1980) and Shot of Love (Columbia, 1981) are the other two albums in the trilogy. The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981 (Columbia, 2017) showcases the demos and concert recordings from that period. Slow Train Coming was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama with veteran producer Jerry Wexler, who had worked with Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franlkin, among others. Notably, the album features Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits on guitar. In February 1979, Dylan approached Knopfler after a Dire Straits gig at the Roxy in Los Angeles, asking him to appear on his next album. The result, in spite of nearly a dozen other musicians performing on the record, including three backup singers and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio horn section, still sounds at times like Dire Straights fronted by Bob Dylan. What really distinguishes the album, however, are Dylan’s superb lyrics, which are replete with Biblical images, language, and themes. The title track, “Slow Train,” refers to a “slow train coming up around the bend,” which may be interpreted either as a coming apocalypse or as a promise of salvation. Musically and lyrically, Slow Train Coming is nothing less than a masterpiece of gospel-inflected rock music. In Rolling Stone magazine (September 20, 1979), Jann S. Wenner pronounced it “one of the finest records Dylan has ever made.” The opening track, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, in 1980. For me, the highlight of the album is the second track: a 6 and 1/2 minute ballad titled “Precious Angel.”