Scott Marshall - Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life

I saw Bob Dylan in concert shortly after his conversion experience and was amazed by the raw courage it took to sing those new songs to increasing anger from his old fans and refuse to sing his earlier hits. Eventually he came to understand that he could pick and choose and integrate many of his old songs with the new and march forward as a man of faith. Thats the Dylan we meet in Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life.

PAT BOONE

Scott Marshall, in his book Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life, reflects on the spiritual expressions of one of our countrys greatest artists, and there is no shortage of material from which to learn.

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER

Bob Dylan will not be labeled. For five decades now, he has avoided the trappings of every group that has wanted to claim him as their own. Call Dylan whatever you want, but the name wont stick. What does stick is his music, in part because his songs contain a deep, abiding spirituality that moves listeners like me more than the songs of any other artist.

SCOTT DERRICKSON, DIRECTOR OF DOCTOR STRANGE

Bob has always been rock and rolls poet laureate. A lyricist confesses a lot were sort of our own psychotherapists and Gotta Serve Somebody is as close to a modern-day hymn as anything I can think of. Bobs spirit is captured effectively in Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life. If you cant trust Bob Dylan, who can you trust?

ALICE COOPER

Bob Dylan has been an inspiration to me throughout my career and Ive been deeply affected by his spiritual journey. Rock and roll is at its best when it asks the important questions, as Bob has always done in his work, and there is no more important question than the question of God. Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life provides the final answer to those who doubt or minimize Bobs spiritual commitment. His faith remains solid. He is the prophet of our generation and we ignore his warnings about a slow train coming at our own peril.

GARY CHERONE, LEAD SINGER, EXTREME, VAN HALEN

A pointillist rendering of a mans spiritual evolution cross-referencing over five decades of interviews and friendships, distilled from hundreds of artistic, religious and personal sources, Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life succeeds mightily in documenting Bobby Dylan Zimmermans continuing (and often misunderstood) personal reconciliation of two faiths.

NOEL PAUL STOOKEY OF PETER, PAUL AND MARY

I always have a hard time writing anything down about Bob Dylan. Feels like he might want it that way. I saw Bob Dyln on my thirteenth birthday. Flew home for it. Felt like he ushered me into adulthood properly. I grew up with his songs and somehow his songs have grown up with me as well. His words come in and out of my life like apparitions, appearing in mercurial forms ranging from the hipster iconoclast to the suburban prophet. Dylans songs have guided me from young aimless angst to a hope that is busy being born. Whatever he was singing about, I always felt like Dylan made me a believer.

JON FOREMAN, SWITCHFOOT

Scott Marshall has performed the important task of bringing light to the mystery of how the man who warned us not to follow leaders lectured us fifteen years later that we had to serve somebody, since he talked to just about everybody who had insight into Dylans thinking at the time of his famous Slow Train Coming run at San Franciscos Warfield Theatre. Painstaking footnotes manifest the level of dedication to research.

JACK MCDONOUGH, FORMER BILLBOARD CORRESPONDENT AND AUTHOR OF SAN FRANCISCO ROCK: THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, 19651985

Mr. Marshall skillfully weaves his tale with relevant quotes as Dylan travels from seeing the Bible as just literature to believing in the Bible, literally.

ANDREW MUIR, AUTHOR OF ONE MORE NIGHT: BOB DYLANS NEVER ENDING TOUR AND SHAKESPEARE IN CAMBRIDGE: A CELEBRATION OF THE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

With Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life, Scott Marshall takes Dylans idiosyncratic faith walk seriously enough to bear with the obfuscation, jokes, and sleight-of-hand that have always been a non-negotiable part of the journey. By doing so, Marshall patiently (and respectfully) connects the dots left behind by the artist himself over a half-century recording career. The result is the richest, most complete understanding of Dylan the Radical Monotheist to date.

TONY NORMAN, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Wow, oh my, and thank-you are the words that kept coming to mind as I read Scott Marshalls masterly written Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life. Wow for the extent of research, which is top-notch; Oh my for the scores of facts and anecdotes Id never run across before (and Ive been reading Dylan bios for decades!); and thank-you for what is probably the best-argued book on the enduring biblical pulse at the heart of Dylans music. As the author himself says, Why bet against Dylan having a place at that heavenly welcome table? Wow, oh my, and thank-you, Scott Marshall!

ROBERT HUDSON, EDITOR, ZONDERVAN; AUTHOR, THE CHRISTIAN WRITERS MANUAL OF STYLE AND KISS THE EARTH WHEN YOU PRAY

Scott Marshall comes as close as anyone ever will to documenting the complete and complex record of Bob Dylans continuing spiritual journey.

JEFFREY GASKILL, PRODUCER, GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY: THE GOSPEL SONGS OF BOB DYLAN

The concept of examining Bob Dylan and spirituality is an intriguing one. As a devoted student of Dylan, I cant wait ot see where this story leads. All things considered, it seems central to a real understanding of the maestro.

MICHAEL LEVINE, HOLLYWOOD PUBLICIST AND AUTHOR OF GUERILLA PR

A number of Bob Dylans songs Blowin In the Wind, I Shall Be Released, Knockin On Heavens Door, among others have always struck me as modern hymns. Discerning a consistent theme of monotheism in Dylans vast and divergent canon of works reflects the extraordinary passion that his spiritual biographer, Scott Marshall, brings to his subject. For nearly two decades, Marshall has been studying and writing about Dylans religious views and spiritual odyssey; the result is this book, the Bible on Dylans religiosity and a seminal contribution to the literature on this towering cultural and yes, spiritual figure of our time.

JAMES ROSEN, FOX NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT AND EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A TORCH KEPT LIT: GREAT LIVES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (BY WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.)

Well researched and energetically argued, a challenging new view of a complicated man.

ERIC ALTERMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST AT THE NATION

Bob Dylan is a Jew and a Christian and a steadfast contrarian. Scott Marshall provides a balanced, comprehensive account of the Nobel Prize winners spiritual life a mysterious journey of biblical proportions.

DON LATTIN, LONGTIME RELIGION WRITER AT THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AND THE AUTHOR OF CHANGING OUR MINDS

With lucid prose and a compelling narrative, Scott Marshall demonstrates that Bob Dylans religious sensibilities have been constant throughout his remarkable career, not episodic. This book contributes significantly to our understanding of the enigmatic Nobel laureate.

RANDALL BALMER, EMMY AWARD NOMINEE; CHAIR OF RELIGION, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

BOB DYLAN: A SPIRITUAL LIFE

Copyright 2017 by Scott Marshall

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means whether electronic, digital, mechanical, or otherwise without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.