Welcome to the final episode of the show. It's a map and a key to your door, a Last Waltz, and a final salute to Bob Dylan, holiness, and being free with the Band, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and many more. Check out the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan wherever fine books are sold, and learn about related projects at mangodlaw.com. We are proud to be part of the Pantheon Podcasts Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 14, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 14
We are still living on Tulsa time, reflecting back on the World of Bob Dylan conference in Tulsa at the beginning of June. This time we're talking about how Dylan plays inside and outside the lines of authenticity, roots, race, and the never-ending tour of the popular music hustle. Our very special guest is music impresario Mark Montgomery French, whose encyclopedic knowledge of music, framing of cultural questions, humor, and creativity will keep you riveted. This is a conversation that takes o...
Jul 15, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 13
We are still living on Tulsa time, reflecting back on the World of Bob Dylan conference in Oklahoma at the beginning of June in a world gone wrong when Bob Dylan gets it all wrong. The set-up of these four stories of Dylan going off the path actually leads us back to where this podcast began three years ago. The destination for Dylan has always been salvation. Four paths, four windows, four doorways frame Dylan wrestling with salvation, bargaining for salvation, and somehow, walking himself back...
Jul 04, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 12
It's time for the Bob Dylan's Top Ten - Bob Dylan's Ten Commandments, that is. Welcome to Bob Dylan and the Bible, a journey through the values, schemes, hopes and dreams that Bob Dylan holds sacred that might just be rules to consider living by ourselves. Check out the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan wherever fine books are sold, and learn about related projects at mangodlaw.com. We are proud to be part of the Pantheon Podcasts Network. Learn more about your ad...
May 12, 2023•43 min•Season 3Ep. 11
The Philosophy of Modern Song. We're going to take the title of Bob Dylan's recent book seriously and try to read between the lines: What is the philosophy here? What’s modern about it? Is there a code for living the good life embedded within? We’ll be calling on the writing of Father Richard Rohr for help. He’s a man of faith, myth, contemplation, and action whose work gives a parallel lay to Dylan’s philosophy of modern song. He, Dylan, is also a man of faith, myth, contemplation, and action. ...
Apr 14, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Join us for a discussion of Greil Marcus's new book Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs. It reads like an elegy in many ways — for Dylan as a figure both shaped by and shaping his times, and also of Marcus reflecting on his own journey with Dylan and rock 'n' roll as a whole. With his generous, eloquent, signature voice, it is hard to imagine hearing Dylan without Marcus's harmony. Discover the biography underneath the history in which facts are steppingstones for what really matter...
Jan 16, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 29
We’re going bookish as this final season of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law comes to a close. From the bookends of Tarantula to the The Philosophy of Song, we are holding steady in the section marked Chronicles: Volume One. What's the wisdom of Dylan as a reader and author? What can be gleaned between the lines ofTarantula and Chronicles in particular? Find out in the second of a four part series on Bob Dylan and the Book. Check out the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom o...
Dec 24, 2022•38 min•Season 3Ep. 28
We’re going bookish as this final season of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law comes to a close. First up, from the bookends of "Like a Rolling Stone" to Portnoy's Complaint in the 1960's to masterworks in 1997 and prophecies at unexpected peaks of their careers in the 2000's, Bob Dylan and Philip Roth has been laid down the Man, God, and Law as well as any artists of their era. Where do they intersect and what does it mean? Check out the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of...
Oct 26, 2022•38 min•Ep. 27
We are going electric with Bob Dylan and Professor Kathryn Lofton. Few pop culture moments have been analyzed more closely than Bob Dylan "going electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. We ask what is all means for American religion, race, and music with our special guest, Kathryn Lofton. Kathryn is the Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies, Professor of History and Divinity, and FAS Dean of Humanities at Yale University. She has written extensively about capitalism, ...
Aug 07, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 26
What are the greatest friendships in rock and roll? The Boss and the Big Man? Lennon and McCartney? Mick and Keith? Joni Mitchell and Prince? This episode, we’ve got perhaps Dylan’s sweetest friendship, and also a brother – a brother of the Wilbury kind. That’s right. Meet George Harrison and Bob Dylan. Our guest Seth Rogovoy is the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet, published by Scribner in 2009 and Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison, due from Oxford University Press in...
Jun 19, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 25
Welcome to Episode 4 of Season Three in which Scott Warmuth unpacks the secret history of Bob Dylan's art of composition in a mind-blowing conversation. Check out Bob Dylan's bookshelf or a taste of the inventory from which Dylan invents music on the album Love and Theft. This is a fascinating journey into the mind of Dylan as a quirky, cunning, brilliant master of words and music. Find the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan inspired by the podcast wherever books a...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 24
No regrets, Coyote. And we really mean that. What better way to get into the depths of peerless artists Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, how they intersect, and how they work then by speaking with David Yaffe, author of Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown and Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell. David is an esteemed and eminently creative music critic and scholar, a Professor of Humanities at Syracuse University, and his new substack Trouble Man: Musings of David Yaffe is a wonderful, wist...
May 01, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 23
Much of what we know about the gods of rock comes from their music. But it is the rock star interview, pioneered by the rock bible Rolling Stone magazine as named after Dylan’s own song, where testaments of rock and roll were given. Kind of like an oral tradition to the sacred texts of the songs, kind of a new testament to the old, explaining the gaps, coloring the personal details, humanizing the gods. This has been rock journalist Sylvie Simmons' unique role in the rock and roll mythology for ...
Apr 19, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 22
It was a weekend afternoon in March at Florida International University, and there was hardly another person in sight where a collection of Dylan's work — work as important as any painter of his age if not for the paintings themselves but rather because of the artist – offered a frame to begin looking one last time at Bob Dylan in this, the final season of this podcast, Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. We're talking Dylan the artist, the creator, the restless spirit of our time, who never g...
Apr 05, 2022•31 min•Ep. 21
For this final episode of Season 2, we’re going to stick with what it’s really all about, what seeps through nearly all of our best entertainment, novels, movies, and dreams. Meatloaf of anti-vaxxing blessed memory said it too: Two out of three ain’t bad, but without that missing one, well, your goose is cooked. In the words of the great Mike Patton: What is it? It’s love. Welcome to Episode 10 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law: Bob Dylan in Love. Visit www.mangodlaw.com for in...
Feb 11, 2022•33 min•Ep. 20
It was a sad-eyed lady of the lowlands who came and never really stayed. Bob Dylan surely knows how this feels. We're talking those mothers and muses and sad eyed lady blues. Welcome to Episode 9 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law: Mothers and Muses. Visit www.mangodlaw.com for info on the book, show notes, event information, and more. We're proud to be a part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 15, 2022•34 min•Ep. 19
It happened in a coffee shop in Philly. We're talking about the new book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan, which is available for sale now as an ebook wherever books are sold and as a pre-order paperback prior to the May 3, 2022 release date. Picking up on themes from the book, David Billotti and I touch upon Bob Dylan and race, memory, and how he awakened something in midwestern kids like us that he, one Robert Allen Zimmerman, had once upon a time had awakened in hi...
Jan 01, 2022•32 min•Ep. 18
We’re reflecting on light and timelessness and inspired by the holiday season here today, including both a new bit where Bob Dylan and Tom Waits share a sailor’s mouth as well as two oldies and goodies from Holiday Specialettes of seasons past. Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. Lights and Festivals. It has three parts, one right after the other. Now let’s get lit. Visit www.mangodlaw.com for info on the new book, show notes, event information, and more. Or...
Dec 15, 2021•27 min•Ep. 17
Where is America, especially in these trying times? Bob Dylan offers a map to America, but only for those willing to accept its original sin. Special guests Paul Simon and John Lennon join us. Check out the forthcoming book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan and listen to all of our episodes here or wherever podcasts are found. For more info and a chance to receive a free ebook visit www.mangodlaw.com. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad cho...
Dec 02, 2021•42 min•Ep. 3
I mean, you're talking to a person that feels like he's walking around in the ruins of Pompeii all the time. It's always been that way for one reason or another. - Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone Interview (2001) Like all great bards—Homer, the Psalmist, Shakespeare—Bob Dylan's creative superpower is his memory. The power of his art lies not just in what he remembers, but in how he remembers it. And this is the Art of Memory, an ancient technique for making the past become present in the lyric of the a...
Dec 02, 2021•40 min•Ep. 2
I practice a faith that's been long abandoned/Ain't no altars on this long and lonesome road - Bob Dylan, "Ain't Talkin' (2006) Episode One of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law sets the stage for how Bob Dylan recast popular music with the questions of purpose and meaning that had defined religion for millennia. In the words of Bruce Springsteen, Dylan's songs could contain the whole world. We're uncovering Dylan's rock and roll revolution of the spirit in all of its glorious disruption. Join...
Dec 02, 2021•34 min•Ep. 1
Every musician gets their start doing covers. The Beatles did Little Richard. The Stones, Chuck Berry. Aerosmith, the Stones. Pearl Jam, Neil Young. Nirvana, the Mekons. But what is revealed by a cover, and most particularly what is revealed by covering songs by Bob Dylan? We asked Adele, Richie Havens, Van Morrison, Iggy Pop, Nina Simone, and a few more pals. Find out the answer here! This is Episode 6 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. Check out the forthcoming book About Man...
Dec 01, 2021•37 min•Ep. 16
What about Bob Dylan and God for those who cannot stand what religion does to the world? Can Dylan really be empathetic even with that Positively Fourth Street rage? And what do the Sages of Late Antiquity, Bob Dylan, and the Gospels all have in common? We're touching upon these questions and more with writer, thinker, and our expert guide to Bob Dylan in Stansville, Rebecca Slaman, Part Two of a two-part conversation. This is Episode 5 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. Check ...
Nov 14, 2021•25 min•Ep. 15
Are eighty year-old rock stars talking to you directly on Twitter? Is Bob Dylan hot? What makes Dylan relevant to the grandchildren of his first fans? We're talking these questions and more with writer, thinker, and our expert guide to Bob Dylan in Stansville, Rebecca Slaman. This is Part One of a two-part conversation. Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. Check out the forthcoming book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan and stayed t...
Oct 31, 2021•41 min•Ep. 14
Welcome to Bob Dylan's Halloween Hootenanny! One of Bob Dylan’s creative superpowers is to not be afraid of anything. His fearlessness as an artist means constant reinvention, forever changes in repertoire and style, pushing through low ebbs of popularity and ignoring minor blips of success like the Nobel Prize for Literature, responding to his own personal or spiritual concerns in private when celebrity demands constant exposure, and simply staying relevant and outlasting nearly all of his peer...
Oct 15, 2021•31 min•Ep. 13
“This wasn’t a failure of creativity. It was a failure of curation,” said Rolling Stone in its recent review of Bob Dylan's Springtime in New York, Volume 16 of the Bootleg Series. But what we have here is failure to communicate. Rolling Stone should know better. It should know how this music feels. A failure to curate? A failure to communicate? A close listen to one song alone from the collection proves this review wrong. "New Danville Girl," please stand up. We are bootstrapping in Episode Two...
Oct 01, 2021•27 min•Ep. 12
When a rock god dies, all of the music and myth of that shooting star shines a light into our eyes and memories. Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones' recent passing lit up the internet particularly brightly at a time when the darkness of mortality is on the minds of so many. In this episode, the first of season two, we're thinking about how to make sense of our inevitable end, and the power of music to make a finite life matter. Welcome to Episode 1 of Season 2 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God an...
Sep 15, 2021•25 min•Ep. 11
It's been a while, but we're finally getting home. Understanding Bob Dylan as a teller of mythic tales (and something of a mythic figure himself), we're closing out Season One with a lesson in spiritual vision from "Like a Rolling Stone" that demands his fans and Dylan himself take on issues of race, sex, class, and essential purpose that haunt his greatest songs, but for which a resolution still remains in reach. Welcome to Episode 10 of Season 1 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. Check o...
Aug 29, 2021•31 min•Ep. 10
With Bob Dylan's song maps to follow, we're heading straight into the heart of rock and roll mythology, a quest for a return home even when, like a rolling stone, there is no clear direction to get there. James Joyce and John Brown, a girl from Brownsville and Gregory Peck, and the ever prescient Warren Zevon bring us through part one of the final episode of Season One. Welcome to Episode 9 of Season 1 of Bob Dylan: About Man and God and Law. Check out the forthcoming book About Man and God and ...
Feb 02, 2021•59 min•Ep. 9
We are sitting in the front of the classroom again, this time hunkering down with the classical roots, poetic influences, and many odysseys of The Odyssey in the music and vision of Bob Dylan with Richard Thomas of Harvard University. Author of the award-winning book Why Dylan Matters, Thomas finds the deep influence of the poetic geniuses of the ages in Dylan's work, and we're here to find out why and how this matters. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
Jan 07, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 8
