1978-1989: Both Ends of the Rainbow
BOB DYLAN
(Chrome Dreams)
Dylan had his last Top 40 pop hit with the 1979 jeremiad "Gotta Serve Somebody," a song that signaled the counterculture icon's conversion to fundamentalist Christianity. The single marked a falling out between Dylan and his core audience from which the artist wouldn't fully recover until his 1997 Grammy-winning album, Time Out of Mind. Both Ends of the Rainbow scrutinizes Dylan from his Vegas-style 1978 phase through his late-1980s "comeback" album, Oh Mercy. The most interesting segments focus on Dylan's highly controversial Jesus phase. Though mostly talking-head stuff, there's also an illuminating audiotape of Dylan angrily espousing his faith during a radio interview from '79. Release date: June 10. 2.5 stars
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2008.