Dylan Performs For 300,000 At "Catholic Woodstock"

In papal news -- that's right, papal news -- Pope John Paul II may well earn himself the distinction of being the first-ever rock 'n' roll pontiff. Proving that truth is often stranger than fiction, the Pope himself presided over what some were calling a "Catholic Woodstock" as folk demigod Bob Dylan performed a three-song set for more than 300,000 onlookers.

As the Pope looked on, hands clasped in his lap, Dylan launched into "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," followed by "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall." After these songs, Dylan, clad in a black suit and wearing a tan cowboy hat, approached the Pope's podium and exchanged a few words with the leader of the world's 960 million Catholics.

The Pope, once a poet himself, spoke a few words to the crowd then called it a night, leaving Dylan to close his set with "Forever Young."

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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