Hi!
I have LOVED Bob Dylan's version of his song "Pressing On" since I first heard it WAY back when.
I've been wanting to post it here — but Dylan and his reps have been very good at keeping tight control over what music of his is found on the internet — and while I'm not faulting him for that — it just makes sharing his amazing music from his "Christian" days a little more difficult. (A note on Dylan's faith below the video)
In the last year or so I've seen a 2013 documentary a few times about the Muscle Shoals recording scene — that has produced so much GREAT music — from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett to Candi Staton (who later went on to a Gospel career), from Bob Seger to Etta James — and on and on and on!
(Here's a link to a Top 20 List someone put together — of all the songs recorded there:
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/12/the_20_best_songs_ever_recorde.html )
At the end of that documentary — they include Alicia Keys performing a very beautiful version of Dylan's "Pressing On" which I've embedded below.
It starts just with piano and Keys' singing — and adds in a band backing her — and eventually a full choir helping belt out the message!
It's really is WUNNERFUL!
: )
Check it out and let God speak to your spirit about His love and Grace!
Pressing On - Lyrics
2x Well, I'm pressing on,
Yeah, I'm pressing on,
And I'm pressing on,
To the higher calling of my Lord,
Shake the dust off of your feet,
Don't look back,
Nothing gonna hold you down,
There's nothing that you lack,
Temptation's not an easy thing,
Adam gave the devil reigns,
Because he sinned I got no choice,
It runs in my veins,
And I gotta keep Pressing on (chorus as above)
Probably due to time restraints for the documentary — Keys leaves out one verse which I love:
Many try to stop me,
Shake me up in my mind,
Say, "Prove to me that He is Lord,
Show me a sign."
What kind of sign they need when it all come from within,
When what's lost has been found, what's to come has already been?
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I have searched the internet looking for answers to what Bob Dylan believes — whether or not he is still a Christian after his very public conversion and three Gospel albums in the late 1970's / early 1980's — and I cannot find anything definitive.
For some reason he has gone almost completely silent on revealing what he believes (at least publicly) - and his songs don't have any overt references to a particular faith since Infidels — which he recorded in 1983 and still hinted at matters of faith.
But I can say — after personally pouring over his Gospel music from that time period — it was written by a person who understood fully what it meant to be a Christian.
The lyrics hold up under Biblical scrutiny and remain a deep and personal testimony to someone writing about their faith — and all it's spiritual triumphs and human trials.
While I am saddened by Dylan's silence — I believe that the Spirit in his music will still speak to people — and it will remain a testament to one man's real conversion and faith.
I pray someday we'll see Dylan in heaven — and meet all the people who we touched and inspired by his beautiful Gospel music.
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Thanks so much for stopping by!
May God Richly Bless you!
Jesus is LORD!
Seek Him!
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9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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