For the most part, the 1970s was almost as good for Bob Dylan fans as the 1960’s had been – Blood On The Tracks, Rolling Thunder, The Basement Tapes, Desire and Street Legal had all delighted the cognoscenti and most were looking forward to what would come next. But by the end of the decade Dylan’s adherence to fundamental Christian beliefs split his fan-base in a manner as dramatic as his ‘going electric’ had done 15 years before – but this time God took the place of electronic amplification.
The following 10 years would prove to be Bob’s most controversial decade, during which he lost and gained fans in equal measures, but which also, upon reflection, contained numerous moments of glory and even his least popular records contained songs that have subsequently been judged among his finest.
This film looks again the period between 1978 and the dawn of his ‘born again’ period’ and takes the Dylan saga up to 1989 and the release of Oh Mercy, thought by most to be a complete return to form.