Ain't No False Prophet

If Bob Dylan isn’t a false prophet, does it follow that he is indeed a prophet? Jeffrey Edward Green makes a compelling case that he is in Bob Dylan: Prophet Without God. Green makes it clear at the outset of his book that even if you can’t fully subscribe to Dylan as a prophet, he hopes you will at least gain a greater appreciation for the unique contribution Dylan has made to contemporary thought and how it’s influenced our culture. Green is also careful to acknowledge how Dylan is different from the prophetic tradition he believes he’s operating within, which emphasizes just how original of a figure Dylan is, and why it seems possible to continue to attempt to categorize him in so many ways.

Green sees Dylan warning about the the tension between individuality and justice, whereas I see Bob simply as an artist. Bob’s not prophesizing, he’s songwriting. Joan Baez said he provided the songs for the Civil Rights movement. To Green, the performance of “Only a Pawn in Their Game” at the March on Washington is an implicit message about “bourgeois individuals who ultimately prefer themselves to others”, while for me it’s an authentic way to engage in activism. Bob himself has said, “I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music… The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.” Bob’s book The Philosophy of Modern Song has 66 chapters, as The Bible has 66 books. Music encompasses Bob’s multi-faceted worldview. What that is exactly is open to endless interpretation, but ultimately Bob is an archetype of a searcher or seeker. He is constantly in pursuit of freedom, creatively and otherwise. That’s the beauty of Bob. Whatever endeavor you toil in, from corporate to caregiver, in relationship with yourself or others, he’s a touchstone for examining yourself and who you want to be.

Green only briefly mentions the idea that a prophet and poet share a similar space, which prompted me to look into this further, yielding this quote from Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel:

The prophet is a poet. His experience is one known to the poets. What the poets know as poetic inspiration, the prophets call divine revelation. . . The inspiration of the artist is what is meant by “the hand of the Lord which rests upon the prophet.” What makes the difference between the prophet and the ordinary person is the possession of a heightened and unified awareness of certain aspects of life. Like a poet, he is endowed with sensibility, enthusiasm, and tenderness, and above all, with a way of thinking imaginatively. Prophecy is the product of poetic imagination. - The Prophets (Harper & Row: 1962), 367–368

Regardless of whether it’s prophecy or poetry, Bob fits the above description, as he has been inspired and given great gifts. Green’s book is wonderful because it grapples with how to make sense of a charisma and brilliance so special it comes along only every few centuries. If this is all too hyperbolic and you just want to listen to the music, Bob also said, “I think of myself more as a song and dance man.”