- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- The first and best known of Bob Dylan’s Christian trilogy of albums is Slow Train Coming, which produced the hit song “Gotta Serve Somebody”.
Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming (1979): The first and best known of Bob Dylan’s Christian trilogy of albums is Slow Train Coming, which produced the hit song “Gotta Serve Somebody”, the topical song “Slow Train” (relatively rare by this point in Dylan’s career), and the charming children’s song “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” – this one ends abruptly before naming the snake (and Dylan later verified that he meant the one in the Garden of Eden). But several of the songs don’t pull any punches or seek shelter in allegory, such as “Precious Angel”, “When You Gonna Wake Up”, and “When He Returns”. Bob Dylan’s Christian hit song “Gotta Serve Somebody” is a litany of people in various fields and various places in their lives who have to make that choice: The chorus of this song includes the lines, “Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord / But you’re gonna have to serve somebody”.
In this song, Bob Dylan shows that he hasn’t lost his sense of humor: In the final verse, he lists names instead, including two of his own nicknames – “You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy” (taken from his original surname Zimmerman) – and then two from a comedy shtick of the day – “You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray” – that is, the character Ray J. Johnson, Jr. that was created by Bill Saluga.