From Toronto in April of 1980, Bob Dylan and his band performing Saved: Click here to go to YouTube or play below.

And here is an audio clip of another great performance from Knoxville, Tennessee, on February 5th, 1980.

From a book by that estimable old atheist, Christopher Ricks, called “Dylan’s Visions of Sin” :

The gratitude that I feel for the best of Dylan’s Christian songs arises from my finding them among his supreme acts of gratitude. His songs of faith are continuous with all his other gratitudes, to singers and to songs, to loved ones and respected ones. “I’ve been saved/By the blood of the lamb”:

And I’m so glad
Yes, I’m so glad
I’m so glad
So glad
I want to thank You, Lord
I just want to thank You, Lord
Thank You, Lord

Those last three words don’t just say something yet again, for the third time, because what had been something I want to do has become my doing it: “Thank You, Lord.” Not a curtailment of what had first been said and then slightly expanded ( “I want to thank You, Lord/I just want to thank You, Lord”), but an expansion of it, though (strangely) in fewer words, an expansion into doing it, a consummation of the two lines that lead into it. “Thank You, Lord”: this, which is lovingly performed by Dylan, is a performative utterance, in the sense of the philosopher J.L. Austin. Like “I promise”, the words are not a statement that could be true or false (though the promise might be kept or broken): the words simply do what they say. “I thank you”, or “Thank You, Lord.”

My own thanks come to this: that it is inspiriting to meet a heartfelt expression of faith that would constitute — if, say, you were ever to find yourself converted — so true an example as to become a reason. If I were ever to become a Christian, it would be because of the humane substantiation that is to be heard in many a poem by George Herbert. And in many a song by Dylan.

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