Slow Train Coming is
the 19th studio album by Bob Dylan. It
was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, in Sheffield, Alabama, between April 30 – May 11,
1979. Produced by Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexle; and released on August
20, 1979, by Columbia
Records.
The origin of the album,
it is based on a mystical experience that Bob Dylan had at the end of 1978, and
it goes like this.
On November 17.1978 in
San Diego, CaliforniaTowards the end of the show someone out in the crowd ...
knew Dylan wasn't feeling too well, and they threw a silver cross
on the stage.Bob looked down at that cross. He said, 'I gotta pick that up.' So
he picked up the cross and put it in his pocket"
He brought it with me to
the next town, which was out in Arizona ... He was feeling even worse than He'd
felt when was in San Diego.Dylan said, 'Well, I need something tonight.' I
didn't know what it was. And he looked in his pocket and he had this cross
Dylan believed he had
experienced a vision of Christ in his Tucson hotel room.There was a presence in
the room that couldn't have been anybody but Jesus ... Jesus put his hand on
he. It was a physical thing. He I felt it. I felt it all over me. I felt my
whole body tremble. The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked me up.
Jesus
revealed Himself, He quite literally rescued him from an early grave.The
simplest explanation is that he had a very profound experience which answered
certain lifelong issues for him.
He began writing songs that would reflect his new spirituality. During soundchecks on the final two weeks of the tour, he worked on a new song called "Slow Train". At the final show in Hollywood, Florida, he would introduce a new song to his audience: "Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others)". In the early months of 1979, Dylan was writing his most message-driven album in sixteen years.
Bod Dylan said: "The songs that I wrote for the Slow Train album [frightened me] ... I didn't plan to write them ... I didn't like writing them. I didn't want to write them."Precious Angel", "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking", "When You Gonna Wake Up?" and "When He Returns" all drew heavily and directly upon the Book of Revelation,"
Dylan first heard Mark Knopfler when assistant and engineer Arthur Rosato played him the Dire Straits single "Sultans of Swing". Later, on March 29, 1979, Dylan caught the final show of a Dire Straits' residency at the Roxy in Los Angeles, California. Dylan approached Knopfler after the show, asking the guitarist to participate on his next album. Knopfler agreed. When sessions were held in Alabama, Dylan retained only two members from his 1978 touring band: Helena Springs and Carolyn Dennis, both background singers. Veteran bassist Tim Drummond was hired, as was Dire Straits' drummer Pick Withers on Knopfler's recommendation. Keyboardist Barry Beckett and the Muscle Shoals Horns, both key elements of the celebrated Muscle Shoals Sound, were also brought in.” the recording of the album began on April 30 with: "Trouble in mind".
The idea was to make a double concept album inspired by Christianity and God. It was Dylan's first album following his conversion to Christianity, and the songs either express personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings and philosophy. But a double lp that could not be made because the producers considered that it would be too expensive, so it was reduced to a single one, changing the original order of the songs and discarding others.
After rearranging the album and scrapping three of the songs that would
have made it a double album as they were: "Trouble in Mind,"Ain't No
Man Righteous, No Not One" and "Ye Shall Be Changed" The basic
tracks for the remaining ten songs were recorded in just six three-hour
sessions over a period of three days.
On November 1, 1979, Dylan began a tour of fourteen concerts at the Fox
Warfield in San Francisco (California), playing the album live bit.ly/ BdSlC79 as it was in its
original form, which is what I bring you here:
Side One: (16:20)
1.Gotta Serve Somebody. (5:40) – altérnate - / 2.I Believe In You.
(5:10) / 3,When You Gonna Wake Up. (5:29)
Side Two:
(15:21)
4.When He Returns. (4:22) – altérnate - / 5.Man
Gave Names To All The Animals. (4:27) / 6.Precious Angel. (6:31)
Side Three: (15:51)
7.Slow Train. (6:02) / 8.Trouble In Mind. (4:49)
/ 9.Ain´t No Man Righteaus. No Not One. (4:59)
Side Four:
(16:29)
10.Gonna Change
My Way Of Thinking. (5:29) / 11.Do
Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others). (4:11) / 12.Ye Shall Be Changed. (4:08)
/ 13.Help Me Understand, (2:41)
The album was generally well-reviewed by music critics, and the single "Gotta Serve Somebody" became his first hit in three years, winning Dylan the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1980. The album peaked at No. 2 on the charts in the UK and went platinum in the US, where it reached No. 3.
Well, that´s all. See you soon with more and better, I think.