Bob Dylan’s Christianity-inspired album Slow Train Coming contains a slew of quotes from and allusions to the Bible, of course, but the most blatant declaration of Dylan’s then-newfound faith was perhaps in his riffing on Genesis 2:20’s line about Adam “naming livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field” in the song “Man Gave Names To All The Animals.” Sounds like a kids book title to me, and Dylan, as well as Sterling Children’s Books, apparently agrees…
In a press release emailed to us, Sterling and artist Jim Arnosky announced the upcoming release of Man Gave Names to All the Animals, a children’s picture book inspired by Dylan’s lyrics and accompanied by a recording of the original song on CD.
“From the first time I heard it, the lyrics created pictures in my mind of a land of primeval beauty,” Arnosky said. “I thought this vision would make a dream of a book, and I asked for Bob Dylan’s permission to make this dream come true. Happily, he said yes.”
Yeah, it almost seems like Dylan always intended the song to be turned into a kids book with these lyrics (e.g. “He saw an animal leavin’ a muddy trail / Real dirty face and a curly tail. / He wasn’t too small and he wasn’t too big. / Ah, think I’ll call it a pig).