There’s an audio recording hosted on YouTube, augmented by stills and word balloons (and rather odd animations), of Bob Dylan performing In The Garden at Radio City Music Hall in 1988. (Thanks to David for the tip.)

I’ve written before about his performance of that song, on all four nights of a residency at that New York City venue in 1988, and about the very pointed — though also humorous — introduction he gave each time he played it.

It went something like this (from the 10/17/1988 show):

“You know this Amnesty Tour is going on [That was a tour undertaken by various rock and pop luminaries in support of Amnesty International -ed] and I was very honored last year they chose a Bob Dylan song to be their theme song — ‘I Shall Be Released’ that was. This year they surprised me again by doing another Bob Dylan song as their theme song — they used ‘Chimes of Freedom.’ Next year, the Amnesty Tour, I think they’re going to use ‘Jokerman.’

Anyway, I’m trying to get them to change their mind. I’m trying to get them to use this one.”

[Plays In The Garden.]

In the Garden is a song that’s very explicitly about Jesus Christ, of-course. The historical significance, for those of us who care about such things, is that this came well after the purveyors of conventional wisdom had said that Dylan had turned his back on the kinds of beliefs he expressed during his “gospel period.” Infidels had come out in 1983. Empire Burlesque was out in 1985. Some believed that both of those albums contained evidence of Dylan “moving on,” if not rejecting outright things he’d been singing about from ‘79 to ‘81. We’d also had Knocked Out Loaded and Down in the Groove — albums which weren’t commonly seen as being particularly significant, and in any case certainly didn’t make anyone write stories about Dylan finding God again.

So, in late 1988, Dylan gets on stage and makes these remarks before playing his no-holds-barred, back-to-the-wall gospel number. I think the remarks, and his pointed repetition of them night after night, speak for themselves. The odd thing is that although he did this in such a dramatic and public way, it basically doesn’t feature when narratives on the subject are written by those who like to think that Dylan rejected his Bible-based faith sometime after 1981. Also left out is how the 1986 “Hard to Handle” concert video begins with a performance of In the Garden, along with another pointed verbal introduction to it by Bob. It’s all very odd.

The question is: If Dylan didn’t spurn these beliefs in the early or mid-80s after all, then when did he do it? Look at his work. Does the Oh Mercy album contain good evidence of godlessness? Ring Them Bells, anybody? How about Under the Red Sky? Well, I guess only God Knows the answer to that one.

His next proper album of originals wasn’t until 1997’s Time Out of Mind. Some hear it as a meditation on mortality and lost love. It can also be heard — as Ronnie Keohane has eloquently expounded — as an anguished but ultimately faithful dialogue with the Lord.

Does 2001’s “Love and Theft” reject God somehow? I hear some cryin’ to the Lord, but you’d have to show me where the rejection might be.

How about the most recent Modern Times? Let me see:

You come to my eyes like a vision from the skies
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down

One can hear a continuing dialogue in many songs if one listens for it, but surely nothing resembling a rejection.

It is for this and other reasons that I was pretty comfortable remarking to ABC News that I didn’t think anything Dylan had done since his “gospel period” has particularly clashed with the outlook on reality expressed in the songs he wrote during that period.

People will bring up the subject of interviews where Dylan has sometimes side-stepped questions related to religion. I tend to think that the 1988 declarations from the concert-stage count for a lot more, because the stage is, after all, his domain. It’s where he is willingly being public and putting himself out there. An interview, perhaps with a highly skeptical journalist, may not be a context in which Dylan wants to try and express matters of inscrutable faith. And I’m not sure you can blame him.

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