New on YouTube is a clip of Dylan from Toronto on April 19th, 1980, singing his original (but unpublished) gospel song I Will Love Him. Fervent doesn’t begin to describe the song and the really galvanizing performance. Click here to view it directly on YouTube or play below. (Thanks to those several who e-mailed me about it.)

A take on the lyric is over at the great Dylan Chords site. Some eschatological musings for you this Sunday:

He said when the fig tree was blooming
He would be at the gate
He was talking ’bout the state of Israel
From nineteen forty-eight
And the time is near, and

I will love Him
I will serve Him
I will glorify His name

Watching or listening to a performance like this can’t help but bring to my mind a couplet I’ve quoted before from Bob’s recent song Thunder on the Mountain:

I did all I could and I did it right there and then
I’ve already confessed — no need to confess again

On a side note, the other day I was re-reading Robert Hilburn’s interview with Dylan from November of 1980. In the prelude to the interview, Hilburn writes:

Even when he returned last spring with another gospel album, the less commercially successful Saved, rumors abounded that he had abandoned his born-again beliefs. But his shows in San Francisco …

Just think about that for a second. Dylan records and releases Slow Train Coming, tours with a no-holds-barred gospel show, follows that up with the even more devout and crystal-clear Saved, while continuing to perform his barn-burning gospel on stage, and therefore, naturally, “rumors abounded that he had abandoned his born-again beliefs.”

That ought to tell you a very great deal indeed.

…

And on another note, also on YouTube is a video supportive of the state of Israel which incorporates Dylan’s similarly-themed 1983 song Neighborhood Bully. The video’s intent is to illustrate instances where Israel has provided humanitarian assistance to others around the globe. Click here to view.

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