"Go Down Moses", London, 1987.
Tonight marks the start of Passover, where Jews commemorate their escape from the enslavement of the Egyptian Pharaoh. It is celebrated with a meal known as a "Seder". Bob Dylan has referred to the holiday both directly and indirectly in his career.
In 1987, Dylan performed "Go Down Moses" at two concerts - during the first encore in Tel-Aviv (his first ever show in Israel), and as the final song of the tour, in London.
Dylan's childhood friend, Louis Kemp, wrote about Dylan at a Passover Seder, where he performed "Blowin' In The Wind" on acoustic guitar. He has also been sighted at other Seders in the mid-1980s.
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(Scribner)
I asked Seth Rogovoy, author of Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet, to comment:
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"When The Ship Comes In", from "The March On Washington", 1963.
While the iconic tale of Jewish liberation from slavery, the Passover story has taken on universal meaning throughout history as an example of national or group redemption from oppression. You see elements of the story used throughout the iconography of the American Civil Rights movement -- in Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech (where a young Bob Dylan was in attendance), as well as in African-American spirituals including “Let My People Go.”
Bob Dylan identifies with this story, and its central figure, Moses, throughout his career. He draws heavily on it for the imagery in his 1963 song, “When the Ship Comes In,” which portrays a vision of a messianic end of days, when “the seas will split,” just as they did for Moses and the Israelites. Dylan portrays the “foes” of redemption as destined to “like Pharaoh’s tribe ... be drownded in the tide.”
Dylan’s identification with Moses, the spiritual father of the Jewish people, even extended to his gospel period. The opening line of his song, “When He Returns,” references the original Jewish prophet when he sings, “The iron hand it ain’t no match for the iron rod.” The “iron hand” is an oft-used metaphor for the brute force of the Hebrews’ taskmasters, whether they be Egyptians, Romans, or Germans; they prove no match, however, for the “iron rod” - a literal reference to Moses’ miraculous staff, which parts the waters of the Red Sea, turns into a snake, and gets water out of a rock, or, metaphorically, a reference to the word of G-d, the Torah, as given to Moses and handed over to the Jewish people.
And when Dylan sings, “I’ve been saved by the blood of the lamb” on the title track to the album, Saved, the reference is obvious to anyone attending a Passover seder, which recounts the story of how the Israelites were spared the ten plagues cast upon the people of Egypt by sprinkling lamb’s blood on their doorposts.
The yearly Passover seder commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian captivity, and the name of the holiday refers to the passing over of Jewish houses by the angel of death, who killed all Egyptian firstborn sons. In Hebrew, the holiday is called Pesach, which is the name of the lamb offering (hence, the Paschal lamb). Thus, being saved by the blood of the lamb is a cornerstone of the Passover story and the symbol of Jewish liberation.
Dylan opens his 2006 album, Modern Times, with the song “Thunder on the Mountain,” which portrays another scene from the story of Moses, when “there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was very powerful, and all the people in the camp trembled... All of Mount Sinai was smoking because G-d had descended upon it in fire.... The sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder; Moses would speak and G-d would respond to him in thunder.” (Exodus 19:16-19).
Or, as Dylan puts it,
Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon.
There’s a ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon
Today’s the day gonna grab my trombone and blow
Well there’s hot stuff here and it’s everywhere I go.
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Comments
Jesus Christ is often referred to as "The Lamb of God." And the blood he shed when he was crucified was to save us from our sins. I'm sure that's what Bob was referring to with the line "I have been saved by the blood of the lamb."
Of course, Maddy, but it's still obvious that the whole "idea" or concept came from the Passover story.
The doorpostblood-sprinkling, btw, was only good for the tenth plague, not all ten. Seth undoubtly knows this, but prob. forgot to re-read before posting....
This passage from the song "What Good Am I?" also seems to have a connection :
What good am I if I know and don’t do,
If I see and don’t say, if I look right through you,
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin’ sky,
What good am I?
I feel you are overlooking the possibilty that it refers to the story of Isaac where Abraham was tested but ultimately a sheep was sacrificed.
When Jesus instituted his own Passover as the Lamb of God, the Apostles saw it as the one night to remember for ever the sacrifice of Jesus. When Jesus gave them unleavend bread, the cup of new wine (the fruit of the vine), he said it was his flesh and his blood. These emblems of his flesh and blood speaks to his 33 and 1/2 years of holy life. They speak of his righteousness. They testify of him being without sin. The Passover of Jesus speaks where none of this can be said of the animal lamb. Jesus was crucified on Passover, the 15th of Nisan according to the Scriptures.
It most certainly was, Maddy. The Lamb is also the King that Bob sings of standing beside some sweet day, too, on Thunder On The Mountain. He would not betray that love for anything, like he sings in that song. God bless you.
www.DylanCode.com
Didn't Bob sing "Mary had a little Lamb" ....I think that one puts the whole Old Testament, Torah, New Testament, Moses, Abraham, Isaac and the Passover Lamb into a direct link with Jesus, the Lion of Judah, the holy Lamb of God....for all those who have eyes and for all those who have ears, it is only He who can reduce me to tears...
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