In 1979, Bob Dylan released his 29th studio album, Slow Train Coming. The album was a major departure from Dylan’s previous work, as it was a full-on embrace of Christianity. The album’s title track, “Slow Train Coming,” was a powerful indictment of the moral decay of society, and it warned of a coming judgment day.
In the years since its release, Slow Train Coming has taken on a new meaning. The album’s lyrics now seem to be a prescient warning of the rise of political correctness, identity politics, and cancel culture. In the song “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking,” Dylan sings about the need to repent for our sins and turn to God. He also sings about the dangers of following false prophets.
The song “When You Gonna Wake Up?” is a scathing critique of the hypocrisy of the left. Dylan sings about the way that the left claims to be fighting for social justice, but in reality they are only interested in power. The song says:
Counterfeit philosophies have polluted all of your thoughts
Karl Marx has got ya by the throat, Henry Kissinger’s got you tied up in knots
Adulterers in churches and pornography in the schools
You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
And in the title track, Dylan made this relevant commentary:
All that foreign oil controlling American soil
Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed
Sheiks walkin’ around like kings
Wearing fancy jewels and nose rings
Deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see
Wears a cloak of decency
All nonbelievers and men stealers talkin’ in the name of religion
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend
