i L I G H T C O M E S H I N I N G ii Inner Lives SERIES EDITOR William Todd Schultz Dan P. Mcadams George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream: A Psychological Portrait William Todd Schultz Tiny Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers Tim Kasser Lucy in the Mind of Lennon Kyle Arnold The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick Andrew McCarron Light Come Shining: The Transformations of Bob Dylan iii LIGHT COME SHINING Te Transformations of Bob Dylan Andrew McCarron 1 iv 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data Names: McCarron, Andrew, author. Title: Light come shining : the transformations of Bob Dylan / Andrew McCarron. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifers: LCCN 2016006379 | ISBN 9780199313471 (hardback: alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Dylan, Bob, 1941–| Singers—United States—Biography. | Dylan, Bob, 1941—Psychology. | Singers—United States—Psychology. Classifcation: LCC ML420.D98 M176 2017 | DDC 782.42164092—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016006379 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America v C O N T E N T S Credits  vii Prologue: A Case for Tis Psychobiography  ix 1. Masked and Anonymous  1 2. Te Motorcycle Crack Up  45 3. Saved  73 4. Te Recommitment  105 5. World Gone Wrong  137 6. Te American Proteus  161 Notes on Sources  195 Index  205 v vi vii C R E D I T S A Hard Rain’s A-G onna Fall Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music Ain’t Talkin’ Copyright © 2006 by Special Rider Music Ballad Of A Tin Man Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music Dark Eyes Copyright © 1985 by Special Rider Music Desolation Row Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music Every Grain Of Sand Copyright © 1981 by Special Rider Music I Shall Be Released Copyright ©1967, 1970 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1995 by Dwarf Music vii viii viii Credits In Te Garden Copyright © 1980 by Special Rider Music Lonesome Day Blues Copyright © 2001 by Special Rider Music Nettie Moore Copyright © 2006 by Special Rider Music Red River Shore Copyright © 2008 by Special Rider Music Where Teardrops Fall Copyright © 1989 by Special Rider Music With God On Our Side Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music ix P R O L O G U E A C A S E F O R T H I S P S Y C H O B I O G R A P H Y And not the lifetime of one man only But of old stones that cannot be deciphered —T. S. Eliot Why a psychobiography on Bob Dylan, especially considering the staggering number of Dylan books out in the world? Is there more to be known? Hasn’t everything been said already? To be sure, several outstanding biographies exist. Robert Shelton’s pio- neering No Direction Home (1986, 2010), Howard Sounes’s scru- pulously researched Down the Highway (2001, 2011), and, easily the best of all, Clinton Heylin’s ever-e xpanding Behind the Shades (1991, 2001, 2011) ofer excellent portraits of the enigmatic rock star. Tere is also a sizable library of Dylan books with a topical focus. Whether it’s the folkies of Greenwich Village, the student movement of the Sixties and Seventies, Born Again Christians, the Chabad Lubavitch community, or English Department post- modernists, specifc intellectual and sociopolitical groups have re- peatedly claimed Bob Dylan as their spokesperson or guru. It’s not uncommon to encounter books that make a case for a philosophi- cal center to Dylan’s oeuvre, or a Jewish one, or an Anglo poetic foundation. Tere are also unpublished manuscripts decrying him ix