Behind the Album: Bob Dylan Finds His Religion on ‘Slow Train Coming’ [Video]

Some albums will never quite be extricated from the circumstances surrounding the artists at the time they were making them. Bob Dylan‘s Slow Train Coming is just such an album. It just might be best-recorded and most expertly played album in Dylan’s illustrious career, but few people talk about that.

Instead, the 1979 album will forever be linked to Bob Dylan’s sudden foray into Christianity, and the surprise that decision engendered in critics and fans around the world. How did it all go down? And how did Dylan choose to express his faith on Slow Train Coming? Let’s look back at one of the most controversial and memorable records of Dylan’s career.

The Faith Train Arrives

That Latin term annus horribilis might as well have been coined to describe Bob Dylan in 1978. His career was reeling, as his album Street-Legaland the worldwide tour to promote it engendered some of his poorest reviews …