Slow Train (Bob Dylan song)

"Slow Train" has an earlier genesis than most of the songs on Slow Train Coming. It began life as an instrumental Dylan used to warm up with on tour in late 1978. A recording of the song with some lyrics exists from a soundcheck of a December 2, 1978 show in Nashville, Tennessee, although only the chorus and a few lines from that version were retained on the ultimate recording. A studio demo was recorded in April 1979, and the album version was recorded on May 3, 1979, at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. Dylan previously used the symbol of a holy slow train in the liner notes to his 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited: "the subject matter – though meaningless as it is – has something to do with a holy slow train". ==Lyrics and music==

Dylan wrote "Slow Train" as a protest song through a Christian lens. In the second verse, the girl warns Dylan that he needs to straighten out lest he die and become an accident statistic. Other critics found the verse to be racist and jingoistic, although author Seth Rogovoy, writing 30 years later, claims that although "perhaps overly patriotic at the time", the verse has proved prophetic, as reliance on foreign energy had laid the foundation for the "long-term destruction of America's economic engine", with destructive environmental consequences to boot. Other verses contain abundant criticism about America, with lines about how "in the home of the brave, Jefferson's turning over in his grave, fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan." Although Williams considers some of the lyrics "dumb", though not the chorus which he describes as "perfect", he believes the music and vocal performance ennoble them and give them meaning, making the song "essential" and "inexhaustible". According to Williams, the texture of the voice guitar, bass, drums and keyboards "communicate to us the truth about Bob Dylan at this moment of his life, and also the truth...about ourselves as we listen". Williams has particular praise for Barry Beckett's keyboard playing after the fifth verse, which he describes as a "brief incredible keyboard orgasm". Allmusic's Esch also praises the intensity of Dylan's vocal performance, as well as Mark Knopfler's lead guitar playing. Ultimately, Williams finds a joy in the music that is at odds with the disgust Dylan claims to feel in the lyrics: he ascribes this joy to Dylan being able to liberate and unburden himself in the lyrics. ==Reception==

Music critic Robert Shelton describes "Slow Train" as being "among the most powerful music [Dylan had] done since Desire";Allmusic critic Jim Esch also calls it "one of the better tracks" on Slow Train Coming, citing the "pressure cooker musical backing", especially Mark Knopfler on guitar and the Muscle Shoals Horns, the intensity of Dylan's delivery, and the song's "catchy lines". He claims that "because the lyrics are more elliptical in their Christian references, "Slow Train" is more accessible to general audiences than the more overtly evangelical tracks of his Christian period work." Record World said that "Mark Knopfler's distinguished guitar style fits the mood." Nonetheless, according to Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin, the background of Dylan's profession of Christian faith led to much criticism of the song. Despite his reservations about the lyrics in the verse about oil sheiks, Nogowski assesses this "damning assessment of the state of the Union" positively due to its "artistic ambitions". ==Live performances==

"Slow Train" was a staple of the 1979 Gospel Tour in 1979 and 1980. He revived the song for the 1987 tour with the Grateful Dead. In all, he has performed the song 127 times. ==References==