On February 11th, 1980, Bob Dylan’s tour bus pulled up to Muscle Shoal Studios in Sheffield, Alabama to record an album that his record label and the vast majority of his fans hoped he wouldn’t create.
“I was blinded by the devil,” Dylan roars on the fiery title track. “Born already ruined/Stone-cold dead/As I stepped out of the womb/By His grace I have been touched/By His word I have been healed.” Pretty weird stuff for a Jewish guy from Hibbing, Minnesota. But at the dawn of the 1970s, Dylan was still reeling from an extremely painful divorce and, like many artists from his era, he was desperate for a new path after the 1960s peace movement fizzled out. He found his answers in the New Testament.
He’d already confused and enraged his loyal followers with Slow Train Coming, an album of unapologetic gospel tunes that documented his conversion from Jew to Evangelical Christian the previous year. On Saved, Dylan sings of the coming apocalypse and warns mankind to save themselves. He also expresses his gratitude to a woman who shares a mutual love for God, as on the song “Covenant Woman”:
I’ve been broken, shattered like an empty cup.
I’m just waiting on the Lord to rebuild and fill me up
And I know He will do it ’cause He’s faithful and He’s true,
He must have loved me so much to send me someone as fine as you
For fans who were used to getting swooned by “Just Like A Woman” or “Lay Lady Lay,” this was no ordinary Dylan love song.
Helping him spread this gospel message on the road and in the studio for the Saved sessions was one of the most incredible bands that ever backed Dylan, including organist Spooner Oldham, drummer Jim Keltner, guitarist Fred Tackett and a quartet of gifted gospel backup singers. Dylan even began to preach at his concerts. “I said the answer was ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ and it was! And I’m saying to you now, Jesus is coming back, and he is! There is no other way to salvation.”
Sadly, the album tanked. Facing a sea of empty seats night after night and a stalled slot on the charts at #24, Dylan eventually began to perform hits again and return to the faith of his fathers. Though his gospel period is widely regarded as some of his worst work, there’s been turnaround in recent years. Just last year, a box set encapsulating the period (Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love) was released, Trouble No More.
This original copy of Saved sits in its original shrink wrap, with a quote on the inner sleeve that reads “Behold, the days come, sayeth the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah’ (Jeremiah 31:31).”
