Songs For A Healthy Soul - WHAT GOOD AM I? by BOB DYLAN

“What good am I if I say foolish things
And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings
And I just turn my back while you silently die
What good am I?”

    Bob Dylan

 

It is not often that sixties’ Welsh pop hip swinger Tom Jones moves me or touches my spiritual life but on the BBC television show Later With Jules recently he did just that. On his album Praise and Blame he covers Bob Dylan’s What Good Am I? from one of my favourite Dylan albums, the Daniel Lanois produced No Mercy. Yet, it was a version sung by English songwriter and guitarist Dan Wheeler that woke me up to the spiritual power of this song. I was hosting a songwriter’s show at Greenbelt and had asked the singers to sing a song that they had felt changed something. Dan explained that he had been asked to do a gig on the night of Live 8 and that he had sung What Good Am I? as his statement on that day. When Dan had told me which song he was doing before the show I was a little unimpressed, thinking I knew the song, but in this context he opened the song up and I was left reassessing the prophetic power of the song and where it sits on my list of favourite Dylan songs.

On What Good Am I? Dylan cuts deep. This is provocative self critique that touches on the personal as well as the global. His response to the world’s marginalised sits alongside his response to the loved one closest to him. He is asking questions of his own cultural awareness as well as critiquing the reasons for his own inability to act on what he should clearly see needs acted upon. The entire Oh Mercy album is a lovely blend of the objective or political work of Dylan’s earlier years and the more subjective and introspective work he came to later on. In many ways this found its pinnacle in the Christian albums (Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love) where Dylan dealt with his own redemption but prophetically judged the sin of the society around him. It is funny how his older fans who loved his early revolutionary songs for freedom were repelled by his scathing attack on the injustices Dylan now saw in the world; freedom was great as long as it didn’t impinge on their own self indulgences! What Good Am I? is a man questioning his own desire for righteousness within as well as righteousness in all his dealings with the world around him.

This is sign that Dylan’s spiritual journey did not end after his so called Christian phase. Dylan certainly out grew the narrow questions and answers of that particular brand of evangelical Christianity – The Vineyard Fellowship so central to those few years in Dylan’s development has since grown wider in its concerns too – and the Hal Lindsay apocalyptic vision of the end times, so trendy at that time. Being Bob Dylan, and intentionally enigmatic about himself from the very start of his public life, it is hard to read his spiritual creed thirty years after his Christian conversion but God and faith have never been too long absent from his work both in the studio and on the stage. On Oh Mercy we find him name checking the Old Testament Jewish Shema from Deuteronomy 6 – “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one...” on Ring Them Bells. The New Testament’s central manifesto the Sermon On the Mount which take up Matthew chapters 5 to 7 also gets a nod in Shooting Star. Between such crucial Biblical passages What Good Am I? is a prayer that seeks the ultimate goodness that Dylan sees as connected to the spiritual; to again quote Shooting Star, “all good people are praying.”

Though I haven’t bought the Tom Jones album, there seems to be a lot of old Spirituals at its core – hence the Praise side of the title. In the light of that, this might not be the Dylan song that most springs to mind to sit in such company but I believe it to be perfectly placed. It is related to the Spirituals but in the end is like a Confessional of the Blame side of the title. It is a song that could be used to help meditation on that verse at the end of Psalm 139, “Search me God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Then tell me God, What Good Am I?

 

Comments

[Slicer]

Oh! Oh! Oh! Slicer has just returned from holiday (inc one from the Internet) and come across this. Thought it was going to be review of the Tom Jones album but it seems that Oh Mercy eclipses P&B.... Slicer finds himself unable to disagree with anything in his post. Given Slicer's penchant for debate, that is both surprising and possibly a tad disappointing...

[HANSinFRANCE]

Great review about a great song from a great album which Bob surprisingly put back in his live performances this summer when he toured Europe. I heard him sing it live in Nice, France, my only concert this year, which I found way too loud and rock and roll in general, but this one song sent shivers down my spine and made tears roll down my eyes when he performed it and it made the whole evening worthwhile. It surely is life-changing for those who are in tune with their souls and therefore most likely leaves most others untouched and unaware, simply because they are unaware of or completely out of touch with their very soul's existence. What a shame and what a waste for some!....It is such a treat to listen to the man who is, like Tracey and like Emmylou, so aware of the fact that: All That You Have Is Your Soul! Bob's the man, simply because he is willing to continuously question himself and therefore always improves and changes even at age 70!

[Supra Skate]

The man who has made up his mind to win will never say "impossible".You have to believe in yourself. That's the secret of success.

[Coach Outlet Online]

We are extending our life into our surroundings.