Distillation of Sound: Dub and the Creation of Culture

Abstract

to Dylan’s “new sense of self” were picking up a cross a fan threw on stage in Tucson, Arizona, in November 1978 and his involvement with the Vineyard Christian Fellowship (85). Finally, the third major event McCarron notes was Dylan’s 1987 recommitment to his songwriting and touring. After turning away from the Vineyard Christian Fellowship and his gospel-inspired songs, McCarron notes that Dylan expressed the dissatisfaction and alienation he felt with his life and career in interviews for a BBC documentary called Getting to Dylan. Subsequently, Dylan underwent a life-changing experience while in rehearsals with the Grateful Dead in San Rafael, California. When Dylan left the rehearsals frustrated with their direction, he stopped in a bar where he heard live jazz playing. McCarron quotes several interviews and Dylan’s description in Chronicles of the transitional event that restores his vitality and purpose and further establishes the pattern in his destiny script. Reminding him of Billy Eckstine, a bandleader he heard in his youth, the lead singer touched Dylan in a profound, otherworldly way. McCarron explains, “Awakened by the old jazz singer’s example, he returned to the Dead’s rehearsal hall ready to put what he learned to immediate work” (116). Dylan’s renewed sense of himself and destiny allowed him to successfully continue his scheduled tour with Tom Petty. Chapters five and six contextualize McCarron’s argument, explaining how psychobiography demonstrates the fluidity of the redemptive script Dylan returned to throughout his life and career when he felt threatened by mortality, death, and destruction created by the anxieties of his Atomic Age childhood. In each of these moments, McCarron argues, Dylan follows the same script and returns to the music he listened to in his formative years as the source of his redemption and destiny scripts. Thus, though fluid, the script creates a clear pattern and allows observers to predict how Dylan will respond to these anxieties. Ultimately, Light Come Shining: The Transformations of Bob Dylan adds an interesting approach to Dylan’s life, career, and biography. It provides new insight into some of the pivotal events in his life and the continuity of his responses to them. McCarron’s text is comprehensive, well researched, yet accessible, making it a valuable addition to any Dylanologist’s library.