Spiritual Impulses in Rock and Pop Music Lyrics
I used to wonder what constitutes the fascination of Bob Dylan songs. In my early 20s I used to sing and play songs at camp fires from time to time, more or less poorly. A couple of Dylan songs were among my favorites, including It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bringing It All Back Home, 1965). I felt like so many others: while I didn’t really “get” the song, it struck me as something magical.
Listening to Leonard Cohen's Avalanche, I used to feel uneasy, at the mercy of a power beyond my scope. Now I see it as crucial advice on a spiritual path.
Bob Dylan: A look at "Saving Grace" from a spiritual perspective - released in 1980 on "Saved", the second album of the so-called "Christian Trilogy".
It was not long ago that I became aware of the spiritual context of Bob Dylan's Senor - even though I had regarded Love in Vain from the same 1978 Street Legal album as very spiritual for a long time.
Love songs are well suited to relate to several levels of understanding: from erotic references to the longing for a companion, a soul mate, up to inner processes of soul and spirit that use worldly love merely as an analogy.
Many people have stated they love the song, but find it very hard to make sense of the lyrics. We look at them from the perspective of a fallen soul seeking the path of salvation.
A video interpretation of Dylan's Oh Sister: Like many Dylan songs, it can be interpreted on various levels. A relationship of siblings, a love affair, possibly with biographical references? From a spiritual perspective, it may be the spirit aspect addressing the soul aspect in man.
It was only quite recently that I became aware of the spiritual context of Bob Dylan‘s Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) even though it was released on the B side of Changing of the Guards as well as the 1978 album Street Legal, which also contains Love in Vain.
A lyrical masterpiece supporting a variety of interpretations, we look at the song from the perspective of a fallen soul seeking the path of salvation.
This song may be catchy partly because it relates to a deep level of the soul: the initial separation from the field of unity. On the way back we may be confronted with wounds from the past.