-Bob Dylan’s “Man of Peace -No sympathy for the Devil in Zion

Satan isn't really a Jewish concept so let me quote from the New Testament to start.....

2 Corinthians 11:13-14 “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

While I do not advocate making Satan a regular focus in the music of the Christian faith, there are proper, notable references to the Adversary in Christian music. Certainly Martin Luther’s reference to the Devil in “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” comes to mind. Keith Green’s “No One Believes In Me Anymore” deserves a frequent listen, how accurately that song explains the Devil’s deceptive work.

Another song that I make time for that references the Devil is “Man of Peace” by Bob Dylan from his “Infidels” album. Man of Peace is not a hymn, the instrumentation of the song if heard on its own would never lead one to think it a song about Satan.

How foolish we are to think of the Devil in a red cape, with horns and pitchfork, that is far too obvious. The Devil is nearer to us than we know for he is subtle and crafty and he loves to be so. The devil is in a thousand things that you and I welcome into our lives telling ourselves that they are harmless and good.

Take a moment to read and ponder the lyrics of Man of Peace, then give it a listen.

Man of Peace

Look out your window, baby, there’s a scene you’d like to catch
The band is playing “Dixie,” a man got his hand outstretched
Could be the Führer
Could be the local priest
You know sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue
He knows every song of love that ever has been sung
Good intentions can be evil
Both hands can be full of grease
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

Well, first he’s in the background, then he’s in the front
Both eyes are looking like they’re on a rabbit hunt
Nobody can see through him
No, not even the Chief of Police
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

Well, he catch you when you’re hoping for a glimpse of the sun
Catch you when your troubles feel like they weigh a ton
He could be standing next to you
The person that you’d notice least
I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

Well, he can be fascinating, he can be dull
He can ride down Niagara Falls in the barrels of your skull
I can smell something cooking
I can tell there’s going to be a feast
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

He’s a great humanitarian, he’s a great philanthropist
He knows just where to touch you, honey, and how you like to be kissed
He’ll put both his arms around you
You can feel the tender touch of the beast
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

Well, the howling wolf will howl tonight, the king snake will crawl
Trees that’ve stood for a thousand years suddenly will fall
Wanna get married? Do it now
Tomorrow all activity will cease
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

Somewhere Mama’s weeping for her blue-eyed boy
She’s holding them little white shoes and that little broken toy
And he’s following a star
The same one them three men followed from the East
I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

Bob Dylan

Infidels is a religious album in tone not at all different from Slow Train Comin', though Slow Train has smooth luxurious character given to it by its production, where as Infidels just sounds dour and humorless to me. 

By virtue of it not sucking the wind out of a room as quickly as the albums that came before it (or would come after it) Infidels has a better reputation that it would had it come before and after good records. 

There was a Village Voice review of Slow Train that suggested that Dylan's turn to Jesus made sense in that where else could he turn to find someone not impressed by the "Bob Dylan" persona he'd crafted to a fine sheen after 20 some years? 

That same enormous discomfort with celebrity (though not with the perks that come with it) gradually created a sort of paranoia the creeps into Dylan's music. "Man Of Peace" is an utterly outrageous slice of religious paranoia of the highest order. 

Look out your window, baby, there's a scene you'd like to catch,

The band is playing "Dixie," a man got his hand outstretched.

Could be the Fuhrer

Could be the local priest.

You know sometimes

Satan comes as a man of peace. 

Priests never come off well in Dylan songs ("The Phantom of the Opera... a perfect image of a priest"), this is most probably one of the strongest attractions I felt when I first discovered him while serving a lengthy sentence in Catholic Schools. 

He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue,

He knows every song of love that ever has been sung.

Good intentions can be evil,

Both hands can be full of grease.

You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.

Well, first he's in the background, then he's in the front,

Both eyes are looking like they're on a rabbit hunt.

Nobody can see through him,

No, not even the Chief of Police.

You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace. 

Nobody can see through him (hmmmmm.... maybe he's way down inside your tee-vee set :shock: ) As I listen to this it seems to me that life has put a bit of a twist on the 20-something guy with the sense of humor who wrote "Talking John Birch Paranoia Blues." That kid has grown into a guy uncomfortably close in character to the guy the kid was laughiong at in that song. 

Well, he catch you when you're hoping for a glimpse of the sun,

Catch you when your troubles feel like they weigh a ton.

He could be standing next to you,

The person that you'd notice least.

I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.

Well, he can be fascinating, he can be dull,

He can ride down Niagara Falls in the barrels of your skull.

I can smell something cooking,

I can tell there's going to be a feast.

You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace. 

Now we're talking! Some of the sort of lines only Bobby writes. The first two lines of those two verses are quintessential Dylan of this era. 

It's as if his brain gets lubricacted after a bit and then the synapses start to firing faster and faster and all he can do is hold on for the ride. This ride however, is a non-stop express train to paranoia town. 

He's a great humanitarian, he's a great philanthropist,

He knows just where to touch you, honey, and how you like to be kissed.

He'll put both his arms around you,

You can feel the tender touch of the beast.

You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace. 

This is one of the ultimate paranoid fantasies, isn't it? That if someone arrives on the scene who can bring peace to the Middle East and stop the African genocide and bring about an end to hunger and suffering in the world... look out... it's probably THE DEVIL!!!! :twisted: 

This seems to me a variation on the Red Scare of the 50s. 

It is a scan of the first appearence of Superman in a comic book in the 1930s. The thing that's fascinating is that in every story the villians that Superman must fight to unmask are rich industrialists who are screwing over working class people to get richer. It doesn't seem like that much of a stretch to imagine that the "S" on his chest stands for "Socialism!" :P 

Same for Hollywood movies of the era. Look at "Holiday" a 1938 George Cukor film with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Grant is a young man from a working class background engaged to a wealthy heiress and who has managed to make a deal in the market that makes him enough money to live modestly and spend his energies trying to find himself. The villians are the rich people who think his rejection of wealth is a horrible evil. 

Fast forward a few years and suddenly "In God We Trust" appears on the folding money and the villains are now the Godless Commies! Whew! The rich must have breathed a collective sigh of relief heard like a roar of thunder across the land. 

Well, the howling wolf will howl tonight, the king snake will crawl,

Trees that've stood for a thousand years suddenly will fall.

Wanna get married? Do it now,

Tomorrow all activity will cease.

You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace. 

Yikes!!! If the world should find itself at peace and all the people fed, you better get your affairs in order, bub, because "THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!" 

Somewhere Mama's weeping for her blue-eyed boy,

She's holding them little white shoes and that little broken toy

And he's following a star,

The same one them three men followed from the East.

I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace. 

And I hear that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. :roll: