What's great about this song is that it's both religious and secular at the same time, devout and skeptical. I'd caution anyone against tacking their own agenda onto Bob's songs, religious or political. If Bob has been consistent about anything over the last 50 years, it's been that he's not writing to espouse any cause or sending a secret message to some chosen band of followers who think they know what he's "really" trying to say. I remember listening to a radio interview with Bob in about 1985, around when Biograph came out. A fan called in to say he was putting on a show about Bob Dylan's life and music. Bob replied tersely, "I do my own shows. You...I don't know what you're doing."
Anyway, Slow Train has some beautiful turns of phrase and rhythmic lyrics. "I had a woman down in Alabama/ She was a backwoods girl but she sure was realistic." And, "Masters of the bluff, masters of the proposition."
What's great about this song is that it's both religious and secular at the same time, devout and skeptical. I'd caution anyone against tacking their own agenda onto Bob's songs, religious or political. If Bob has been consistent about anything over the last 50 years, it's been that he's not writing to espouse any cause or sending a secret message to some chosen band of followers who think they know what he's "really" trying to say. I remember listening to a radio interview with Bob in about 1985, around when Biograph came out. A fan called in to say he was putting on a show about Bob Dylan's life and music. Bob replied tersely, "I do my own shows. You...I don't know what you're doing."
Anyway, Slow Train has some beautiful turns of phrase and rhythmic lyrics. "I had a woman down in Alabama/ She was a backwoods girl but she sure was realistic." And, "Masters of the bluff, masters of the proposition."