Growing up in the 1970s, Seth Rogovoy was something more than another teenage fan of Bob Dylan. As early as 14 years-old he began “studying,” as he puts it, the lyrics of a singer who was on his way to becoming an American icon.
Over the years “I…continued to study with a regularity bordering on obsession,” he writes in the introduction to his recently published book, Bob Dylan: Prophet. Mystic, Poet. In his work, Rogovoy vividly demonstrates that the richest and most prevalent source of Dylan’s music is the Jewish Bible. (Exhibit One: “Blowin in the Wind,” writes Rogovoy, “borrows imagery from two biblical prophets, Ezekiel and Isaiah, to which Dylan would often return for inspiration.” And for lyrics.
Rogovoy will appear at the Synagogue Sunday, April 18, at 2:00 pm to talk about his book. A multimedia presentation that will include digital video as well as music, both recorded and live will accompany his presentation.
In an interview with The Chatham Synagogue Newsletter, Rogovoy pinpointed, almost to the moment, when he began thinking of writing a book about Dylan and his music. “When I was 17, my high school friend Harold told me he was saving his own Dylan archives for when I would write my book on Bob Dylan, so apparently as early as then there was a sense that I would do this some day. I think I always wanted to write a book on Dylan, and I just had to wait for the time when it became clear just what that book would be.
It took awhile before that time came -- some three decades. In the intervening years teenager Rogovoy had morphed into a professional writer, had moved from Long Island to New York City, to the Berkshires -- and, in his mid-thirties, began a serious exploration of Jewish scripture. It was during this process that he came to identify the connection between Judaism and the lyrics of Bob Dylan.
“I had long been taking note of the various strains of Jewish themes, thoughts and scriptures running through Dylan’s work and how much it was patterened after the Prophetic tradition both in form and content,” he recalls. “It all crystallized in my head a little over three years ago, and that’s when I seriously began the work of writing the book.”
Early in his book Rogovoy tackles head-on the question people asked when told of a Jewish biography of Bob Dylan: “Isn’t he still a born-again Christian.” To which Rogovoy replies, “Who knows? ... There are enough on-the-record comments by Dylan to support any viewpoint -- he’s Jewish, he’s Christian, he’s Rastafarian, he doesn’t believe in any religion, or he finds G-d in music, religion in the songs.”
Notwithstanding the confusion, two facts about Dylan are irrefutable: One, he was born and raised Jewish (in the northern Minnesota mining town of Hibbing) and two, his music is infused with the words and spirit of Hebrew prophets.
Rogovoy was born and raised in Long Island, but has spent almost his entire adulthood in the region; he lives and works in Great Barrington. He is the editor-in-chief of Berkshire Living magazine, is a regular columnist for the Berkshire Jewish Voice, and contributes to various publications and broadcast media on a wide range of subjects. In addition to Dylan, he is the author of The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover’s Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music.
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