Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming Trades Rock Stardom for Sermons, and Mostly Pulls It Off: 7/10

Bob Dylan spent the late 1970s searching. The result was Slow Train Coming, a 1979 album where he abandoned rock stardom for born-again Christianity. It is a record of ultimatums, not questions. Dylan is not asking you to listen; he is telling you to choose a side. The music is the tightest Dylan had made in years, and the message is what divides everyone.

The Tracks in Order

“Gotta Serve Somebody” opens the record with a threat dressed as a blues. You serve somebody, Dylan warns, whether it is the devil or the Lord. It is the album’s most famous song, and it earns that status through sheer rhythmic drive. “Precious Angel” softens the tone, a love song that is also a conversion pitch. The melody carries the preachiness.

“I Believe in You” is the album’s emotional core. Dylan sings about losing friends and standing alone for his faith. It is vulnerable and genuinely moving. “Slow Train” then shifts to social commentary, a grim portrait of a world heading toward disaster. The title track works because the anger feels real, not manufactured. “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” is lesser Dylan, a sermon set to a funk groove that never quite ignites. It is the first sign of the record’s repetitiveness.

“Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others)” is a simple moral checklist. It is pleasant but forgettable. “When You Gonna Wake Up” returns to the fire-and-brimstone mode, with Dylan demanding his audience open their eyes. The intensity is admirable, even when the lyrics get heavy-handed. “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” is a strange, almost whimsical children’s song about Adam naming creatures. It is a welcome breather, even if it feels out of place. The album closes with “When He Returns,” a slow, piano-driven ballad that serves as a final sermon. It is stark and powerful.

The Verdict

What makes Slow Train Coming work is the tension. Dylan’s new faith is uncompromising, and the music matches that certainty. The production is clean, and the songs mostly hold up. The failure is the sameness. Nine tracks of urgent evangelism start to blur, and the weaker cuts dilute the strong ones.

Still, this is Dylan’s best record in years. It is bold, confrontational, and never boring. You do not have to believe a word of it to feel the force behind it.

KEY FACTS BOX
– Album: Slow Train Coming
– Artist: Bob Dylan
– Released: 1979
– Tracks: 9
– Total runtime: 46 minutes

1979 · album review · Bob Dylan · gospel rock · Slow Train Coming