Bob Dylan Saves Christmas

by Editor

Three great things have happened in American music: the blues, jazz and Bob Dylan.  I just spent my morning listening to Dylan’s new album of Christmas songs, Christmas in the Heart. Christmas is here now. Mr. Dylan has given the world a present. He and his band play these songs like they mean something. They sound like they are having so much fun, like Christmas came early for them this year. Dylan is not afraid to throw choruses in that sound just the way they might have sounded in the forties or fifties. His music is blending folk, blues, rock, pop, big band and country all in a great happy jumping celebration of Christmas and all its familiar symbols. Dylan’s voice is more expressive than any other in music today. Not a word slips by without getting his twist, his little humor, his wry idea about why the word is even there in the first place. This is my very favorite Christmas album of all time. I will play this thing in August when it’s 106 degrees under my pear tree. Simply magnificent. Mr. Dylan has brought Christmas in, shining and dancing in the snow.

Dylan is giving all his royalties from the album to Feeding America, an organization that supports food banks across the U.S.

Now you’ve got to look at this wonderful video for Dylan’s version of Must be Santa. I’d go to his party any night of any week. Look at Dylan popping up all over the house like a slightly bad Santa. And if you look carefully, you will notice that about two-thirds of the way through, the party-goers chase out a Wall Street guy in a suit. Santa and his people kick the crap out of a Wall Street suit. Looks like fun, doesn’t it?

5 thoughts on “Bob Dylan Saves Christmas”

  2. Thank you for writing the best review of Bob Dylan’s Christmas album yet. I have read probably hundreds of reviews since the album became available. So many of them were absolutely nasty and uninformed – people not understanding how the album was based on how songs sounded back in the days of when Bob Dylan was a kid. Although I am a few years younger than he is, I could identify with all the arrangements and get the feel that they were trying to portray. Even if a listener was not from the same generation, a little common sense should have prevailed and people would not have thought that the album was a joke. I am giving the album to my two granddaughters (ages 5 and 9) and since they already know that their grandmother is a forever Dylan fan, they will understand completely and we will all dance around on Christmas to “Must Be Santa” and have a jolly good time. Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year too!

    • Thank you for your comment, NLB. It’s odd that people would think Mr. Dylan’s Christmas album was a joke. I don’t think he ever jokes. I think he has humor, but I don’t think he’s a comedian. The album has a quality that I have never heard in a Christmas album before. I think that might be what is throwing people. They are simply confused by a very direct and heartfelt statement from an artist.

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