Former President Jimmy Carter (who once described himself as a born-again Christian) is reported to have given up his affection for the music of Bob Dylan when Bob himself became “born-again” (I know Bob disputes the term but that’s a whole other kettle of hair-splitting).
The report is in a new book about Jimmy Carter by Kevin Mattson, and it was written about in the New York Post (thanks to readers who e-mailed me).
Mattson characterizes Dylan’s path of conversion in a gossipy way that I would not personally endorse, but here’s what the NY Post says about what he writes:
“Recently divorced, [Dylan] slept around with groupies and indulged in drugs while touring and recording his live album ‘At Budokan.’ Some labeled him a washed-up relic of the ’60s who recycled old material. Others called Dylan’s 1978 performances ‘The Alimony Tour.’ ”
It was under these conditions that Dylan converted to Christianity and released his controversial LP “Slow Train Coming,” with its signature number “Gotta Serve Somebody,” preaching against “foreign oil controlling American soil” and “sheiks running around like kings.”
Dylan’s born-again recording session “nailed the coffin shut” on his ’60s activist roots, and alienated him from Carter, according to Mattson, a professor of contemporary history at Ohio University. “The hippie rock star had pushed rock ‘n’ roll from celebrating love and drugs to providing apocalyptic warnings about decadence,” he writes. “Jimmy Carter’s favorite rock musician now refused to sing the songs the president most enjoyed . . . [those] written before Dylan found Jesus.”
Calls placed to Dylan’s camp were not returned.
Carter’s reported change of heart about Dylan is believable enough — hey, a whole lot of people rejected Dylan after Slow Train and Saved — but Mattson’s mistakes in his characterization of Dylan’s pre-gospel music (“celebrating love and drugs”), along with his general tone, don’t help his overall credibility level that much. Still, the irony attendant in the idea of Jimmy Carter hating Dylan’s gospel music is hard to resist. Carter has a curious habit of rejecting other peoples’ way of trying to walk with Christ as being illegitimate. He attacked President George W. Bush with his statement: “I worship Christ who was the prince of peace, not pre-emptive war.”
Carter has never gotten over his rejection by the voters in 1980, and I happen to think that his long history of bitterness distinguishes him among all other ex-presidents, regardless of what’s on his iPod.
