Every Grain of Sand
| "Every Grain of Sand" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Bob Dylan | |
| from the album Shot of Love | |
| Released | August 1981 |
| Recorded | May 4, 1981 |
| Genre | Rock, gospel, pop |
| Length | 6:15 |
| Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
| Producer(s) | Chuck Plotkin, Bob Dylan |
| Audio sample | |
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"Every Grain of Sand" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded in Los Angeles in the spring of 1981 and released in August of that year on Dylan's album Shot of Love. It was subsequently included on the compilation Biograph. An early version of the song, recorded in September 1980 and featuring Jennifer Warnes on backing vocal, was released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991.
The song appeared on the soundtrack for the 1997 film Another Day In Paradise.
Dylan had, according to his biographer Ian Bell, become a born-again Christian in November 1978. "Every Grain of Sand" contains powerful allusions to Jesus, faith, and spirituality (‘In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand / In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand’). Rolling Stone described it as a "mature update" of Dylan's 1964 song "Chimes of Freedom".
The song was well known for its haunting imagery, which has been compared to that of William Blake. Although it is filled with numerous Biblical references, it may also have been partly inspired by the following lines from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence:
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
Although many critics commented on this song's different aspect at different points of time, they generally agree about its greatness in lyrics, melody and haunting imagery and consider it as one of Dylan's finest works.
It is "perhaps his most sublime work to date", writes Clinton Heylin, "the summation of a number of attempts to express what the promise of redemption meant to him personally. One of his most intensely personal songs, it also remains one of his most universal. Detailing 'the time of my confession/the hour of my deepest need,' the song marks the conclusion of his evangelical period as a songwriter, something its position at the conclusion of Shot of Love tacitly acknowledges."
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Wikipedia