Reviewed by Philip Croft

I guess there are many reading this who can remember vividly the shock of hearing that Bob Dylan had become a born again Christian. At the time his career was on the slide as the music world changed around him. During the last night of his world tour of 1979 Dylan announced to the audience that he had become a Christian. Later that year came 'Slow Train Coming' which went to number three in the charts as people clamoured to find out if his Christianity was a gimmick. From the passionate lyrics of the album it was quite clear that it was not. In 1980 this album, the second of his Christian trilogy, was released. 'Saved' has a "live" sound to it with Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett at the helm as they were on 'Slow Train Coming', but this time they keep the production grittily organic. Both "Saved" and "Solid Rock" are remarkably energetic with Beckett's superlative boogie piano impossible to resist while "Covenant Woman" and "What Can I Do For You" are excellent ballads. Like its predecessor it was panned by critics but the truth was that it was the lyrical content that they hated because musically this is up there with anything else and even now more than 25 years later this still sounds like the classic that it truly is. Whether you can remember it first time round on crackly vinyl or whether you weren't born at the time this is one CD that you really should have in your collection.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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