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Few figures have had as literally and figuratively an electrifying impact on American culture as Bob Dylan,

who released his first album in 1962.

What a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 and continues to perform about 100 concerts a year at the ripe old age of 83.

His life is chronicled in the new movie A Complete Unknown, starring Timothy Shalame.

But what's the meaning or meanings of Bob Dylan, who sang at Martin Luther King Jr's March on Washington,

became a born-again Christian, and wrote a book called The Philosophy of Modern Song.

Today's guest is Jeffrey Green, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania,

and the author of the new book, Bob Dylan, Prophet Without God.

Green argues that Dylan's work embodies a uniquely American tension among commitments to individual self-expression,

the pursuit of political and social justice, and being right with your version of God.

Dylan's willingness to openly struggle with these conflicting demands and his abiding

interest in recovering and adapting past musical forms helps to explain why he remains so important

to understanding where we've been as a country and where we might be headed. Lincoln County

Road or Armageddon. Here is the Reason interview with Jeffrey Green.

Jeffrey Green, author of Bob Dylan, Prophet Without God. Thanks for talking to reason.

Happy to be here.

So I guess, you know, one of the reasons we're talking with you is because you wrote one of the most interesting and original books of analysis about Bob Dylan's, you know, kind of

cultural meaning, certainly that I've read in forever.

Another reason is because the book or the movie,

a complete unknown is coming out,

which is about Bob Dylan kind of going electric.

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