*** Welcome to piglix ***

Precious Angel

"Precious Angel"
Precious Angel cover.jpg
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album Slow Train Coming
B-side "Trouble in Mind"
Released 1979
Recorded May 1, 1979
Muscle Shoals Sound Studios
Genre Rock, gospel
Length 6:31
Label Columbia Records
Writer(s) Bob Dylan
Producer(s) Jerry Wexler
Barry Beckett
Bob Dylan singles chronology
"Gotta Serve Somebody"
(1979)
"Precious Angel"
(1979)
"Slow Train"
(1979)

"Precious Angel" is a song written by Bob Dylan that first appeared on his 1979 album Slow Train Coming. It was also released as a single in the Netherlands. It was covered by World Wide Message Tribe on the 1998 album Heatseeker.

"Precious Angel'" is a religious love song and is amongst the stronger songs he released during his "born-again Christian" period. At a concert in Seattle on January 14, 1980, Dylan claimed that the song is addressed to the woman who brought him to Christianity. This is consistent with the lyrics, particularly in the final verse where Dylan refers to his delivering angel as the torch that led him to the greater light of Jesus. The chorus might be addressed to either the precious angel or to Jesus:

The lyrics contain many biblical references. The theme of the song seems to be taken from 2 Corinthians 4:4 to 4:6, in which the light of Christ is contrasted with the darkness faced by those deluded by the devil. The line "Now there's spiritual warfare, flesh and blood breaking down" appears to be a reflection of another verse from 2 Corinthians (10:3) which states "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." The line in the chorus about blindness appears to be influenced by a passage from the Gospel of John in which the blind man healed by Jesus proclaims that "Whereas I was blind, now I can see." The opening line of the chorus may be taken from the Book of Isaiah 9:1, which states "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelled in the land of the shadow of death, light has dawned." It also recalls the chorus from Dylan's earlier song "I Shall Be Released." in which Dylan sang about redemption through a "light come shining from the west down to the east."

A line from the song continues the theme of the previous song on Slow Train Coming, "Gotta Serve Somebody," stating that "You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain't no neutral ground." In an echo of earlier songs such as "Positively 4th Street," Dylan later addresses his "so-called friends" who have "fallen under a spell" while thinking "all is well." their cluelessness further echoing Mr. Jones from 1965's "Ballad of a Thin Man." Dylan asks:


...
Wikipedia

...