“False Prophet” by Bob Dylan

"False Prophet" came out on May 8, 2020, through Columbia, the third and last single from Rough and Rowdy Ways, Bob Dylan's 39th studio album, where it's track two. He makes no secret of the borrowing: the music is built on "If Lovin' Is Believin'", a 1954 Sun Records single by Billy "The Kid" Emerson, while the credits name Dylan alone for the words and music.

The title is the real hook. Dylan has been hailed as a prophet and written off as a false one since the 1960s, and he has grumbled about the tag for years, once from a stage in Omaha, Nebraska in 1980, deep in his gospel period. Here the old argument becomes a refrain, and plenty of listeners hear him talking about himself. Chris Shaw engineered and mixed it, with Joseph Lorge assisting.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.