I can handle Christmas songs for approximately one week, that being the week of Christmas itself. There are some nice, comforting songs that evoke the holiday spirit, even if one lives in an environment lacking snow or much change of season--like Davis, Sac or LA. These songs are part of an annual tradition and therefore can give one a Proustian link to Christmases and times past. I'm down with that.Give me Bing doing "White Christmas", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" or "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (with David Bowie);Nat doing "The Christmas Song";Elvis doing "Blue Christmas" or Charles Brown crooning "Please Come Home For Christmas" once or twice during that week and I'm a happy guy. Hey, I can even handle a version or two of "Silent Night", or if I have dipped into the eggnog, even a little "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".
The rock era has given us some gems like Chuck Berry's "Run Run Rudolph", John & Yoko's "Happy Xmas (War is Over) ( which usually gets me,except when Yoko starts her warbling), The Pretenders "2000 Miles", and of course what might be my favorite Xmas song of all, The Pogues "Fairytale of New York"--best opening line ever: "It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank...".
Unfortunately, the Christmas season also means I have to endure the sheer torture of such yuletide classics as "Frosty the Snowman", "The Chipmunk Song", "Feliz Navidad","Jingle Bell Rock", "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Winter Wonderland". The modern rock era is responsible for The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping", which can irritate the hell out of me,too. I know this makes me sound Scrooge-like, but no amount of yearly repetition or the spirit of the season can make me appreciate this treacly crap. Let us not forget that most of these beloved classics are forms of 20th century pop music--tin pan alley stuff written to cash in on the holiday market.
The Christmas market being so potentially lucrative, and frankly, so easy to try and capitalize on--sing 10 or 12 trad Christmas tunes and you got yourself an album--that seemingly everyone has tried their hand at a Christmas album. Even being Jewish does not necessarily exclude one from the rush for Xmas bucks: Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Mel Torme, Barry Manilow. Even more interesting is that every one of the following Christmas songs have Jewish authors:
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Baby
Holly Jolly Christmas
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Silver Bells
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Sleigh Ride
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
White Christmas
Some great stuff here, as well as some of the songs I can't stand. Point being, professional songwriters such as Sammy Cahn, Irving Berlin and Johnny Marks knew an opportunity when they saw it. Not to say they couldn't genuinely get into the holiday spirit themselves, but bottom line is that they were composing songs for a Christian holiday.
Which I suppose brings us finally to Bob. Bob's faith is of no relevance to me. His Bobness (or anyone else for that matter) can record an album of Koranic chants for all I care. It is, after all, allegedly a free country. I don't buy into the theory that it is a sly joke on Bob's part either. There is a segment of Bob obsessives who are always trying to second-guess their hero. They are of the belief that Bob is always just putting us on, that his god-like powers would naturally prevent him from unintentional blundering and that all of these bizarre moves he has made over the years are just Bob's way of amusing himself. I disagree, I believe that the he really does sing like sh*t these days, has made bad albums,chosen dreadful movies to be involved with,done Victoria's Secret ads for the money and not the irony and generally does things because he wants to do them (or maybe goes along with something his management cooked up) with total disregard for his so-called mystique or what his fans might think.
Now he puts out this Christmas record. What can you say? It is being done for charity and will most certainly generate a lot of cash and awareness for the Feeding America organization, which I'm sure is a worthy cause.The music? Almost beside the point. In recent years Bob has become increasingly fascinated with music of the first half of the 20th century; you heard this on his radio show every week. Growing up in Minnesota in the 40s and 50s he would have heard most of the songs he covers here with regularity.Yes, this also includes some traditional songs which may be a couple hundred years old and not artifacts of the 20th century. Maybe as an act of nostalgia he has elected to record some of these and I can only see it as an act of genuine affection for songs that remind him of his youth. He is not suited to sing these songs, that's for sure. The arrangements are pretty standard, which when you consider this is a Bob Dylan record, make it sound totally incongruous. Anything with those female backing vocalists sounds ridiculous and laughable to my ears. Other selections, like "The Christmas Blues" work better--Bob being more in his element and his band lending sympathetic backing.
I like a lot of unconventional vocalists: Bob, Tom Waits, Marianne Faithful, Edwyn Collins, Shane MacGowan, etc. I don't need technical perfection, I will take feel and passion over it most of the time. However, I generally don't expect these and other oddball vocalists to tackle holiday classics as earnestly as Bob does. I tend to think of those kind of singers being a little too cool to tackle that kind of material anyway. The "Very Special Christmas" compilation series (also for charity) has spotlighted all manner of pop, rock, R&B and even rap artists tackling Christmas standards and no one is the worse off for it. They are also albums I would never dream of owning or playing. Why on earth would I ever want to hear Michael Bolton sing "White Christmas" or Sheryl Crow do "Blue Christmas"?
All I can say is that if there was ever a superfluous addition to the Dylan catalogue, this is it. And I'm even taking "Dylan and the Dead", "Dylan" (1973 revenge-exploitation release by Columbia for Bob's defection to Asylum for two albums), "MTV Unplugged" and "Under the Red Sky" into account here. But who cares what I think. Bob freaks own everything else anyway and will certainly pick this up to be completists. I have to wonder how much this disc will ever actually be played,though.
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