Bob Dylan Gospel Tour
| North American tour by Bob Dylan | |
Massey Hall, Toronto, April 18, 1980
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| Location | North America |
|---|---|
| Associated album | Slow Train Coming, Saved |
| Start date | November 1, 1979 |
| End date | May 21, 1980 |
| Legs | 3 |
| No. of shows | 79 |
| Website | www |
| Bob Dylan concert chronology | |
The Bob Dylan Gospel Tour was a concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that consisted of 79 concerts in North America in three legs, lasting from November 1, 1979 to May 21, 1980.
In February 1978, Dylan initiated a ten-month World Tour that consisted of 114 concerts in ten countries. On June 15, Dylan released the album Street-Legal, which received poor reviews from most American critics. Performances on his world tour also received negative reviews. The physical demands of touring were also taking a toll on the artist. During a concert on November 17 in San Diego, someone from the audience threw a small silver cross on stage. Dylan later recalled in a 1979 interview:
Towards the end of the show someone out in the crowd ... knew I wasn't feeling too well. I think they could see that. And they threw a silver cross on the stage. Now usually I don't pick things up in front of the stage ... But I looked down at that cross. I said, 'I gotta pick that up.' So I picked up the cross and I put it in my pocket ... And I brought it backstage and I brought it with me to the next town, which was out in Arizona ... I was feeling even worse than I'd felt when I was in San Diego. I said, 'Well, I need something tonight.' I didn't know what it was. I was used to all kinds of things. I said, 'I need something tonight that I didn't have before.' And I looked in my pocket and I had this cross.
Toward the end of his 1978 World Tour, Dylan began performing a new song during sound checks called "Slow Train Coming"—a song with overtly Christian lyrics. During the final concert of the tour on December 16, 1978 in Hollywood, Florida, he performed another new song called "Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others)", with lyrics centered around a Biblical passage from Matthew 7:12, "All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must likewise do to them; this, in fact, is what the Law and the Prophets mean."
According to Dylan, a turning point came one night in late 1978 when he received a "vision and a feeling" that his born-again Christian girlfriend Mary Alice Artres believed was a "visit from Jesus himself". Dylan later said, "Jesus put his hand on me. It was a physical thing. I felt it. I felt it all over me. I felt my whole body tremble. The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked me up."
Artes was not the only born-again Christian in Dylan's touring band. Steven Soles and David Mansfield were already members of the Vineyard Fellowship, a Christian organization introduced to them by guitarist T-Bone Burnett. According to bassist Rob Stoner, it was Burnette who first began talking to Dylan about Jesus and the Fellowship. Dylan also turned to Helena Springs with "questions that no one could possibly help with", and she encouraged him to pray. Dylan's girlfriend Artes was also a member of Vineyard Fellowship, and it was through her influence that Dylan eventually agreed to attend a three-month Bible study course with Ken Gulliksen.
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