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Nov
01
From Daily Gleaner
by Wilfred Langmaid
There will surely be people who hear the news that Bob Dylan's 47th and latest album is a Christmas offering and be filled with amusement and disbelief.
These people will then listen to Christmas In the Heart - a blend of 15 secular and sacred pieces done up in a pre-rock-era style and featuring Dylan's gnarly bleat of a voice front and centre in the mix - and be even more turned off.
These people just don't get it.
At its core, Christmas In the Heart is simply the latest of Bob Dylan's albums of the last dozen years which strip off all the veneer of being current and timely, harkening back instead to the very roots of music of the pre-war era. That his lived-in voice really is a perfect fit for the loose, limber, spare, and ably executed spin on roots music, which is Dylan of the last many years, is a bonus.
In the process, Christmas In the Heart is a perfect time capsule for the Christmas album/holiday season song phenomenon of the last 60 years - at least for my time capsule.
The central premise is that Dylan is the single-most significant musical figure of his lifetime. He revolutionized and popularized two musical idioms - first folk and then rock - in the first decade of his career.
If anything, this last decade of a 50-year career has been his most consistent decade since those halcyon days.
By its very nature, lacking the self-penned lyrics which are the diamonds among Dylan's jewelry, this album must be seen for what it is. It is certainly not the masterwork of his trilogy of comeback albums - 1997's Time Out Of Mind, 2001's Love And Theft, and 2006's Modern Times - or even the great collaboration with lyricist Robert Hunter, Together Through Life, from earlier this year.
At its very core, this album displays Dylan's sense of whimsy. However, it is anything but a contrived kick at the commercial can for a late-in-his-career nostalgia act. In fact, royalties from the sales of Christmas In The Heart will be donated to Feeding America in perpetuity.
So, yes, Christmas In The Heart is in substance and structure one of many yuletide albums by a veteran artist that will be coming out in these next few weeks. However, it is most accurately and tellingly understood as a cover album in the same seminal vein of fusing the roots of pop, rock, folk, blues, and related idioms of North American popular music of Dylan since Time Out Of Mind.
Granted, some of the moments work better than others; the actual carols are the most wobbly entries.
However, the best moments - rollicking treatments of songs like Here Comes Santa Claus and Must Be Santa, spare crooners like Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and I'll Be Home For Christmas, and the cover most akin to his originals of the last dozen years The Christmas Blues - are wonderful.
All in all, this is a fun experiment that always charms and often dazzles.
Fredericton-based freelance writer Wilfred Langmaid has reviewed albums in The Daily Gleaner since 1981, and is a past judge for both the Junos and the East Coast Music Awards. His column appears each Saturday.
Comments
getting it
glad i am not the only one that sees it this way wrote a similar blog but not quite so elegantly put
the camera angles
i think the reason i like this clip the best is the great camera work on this song from the pit 2 the stage. i know its a dumb question, but why isnt baron or somebody shooting dylan at every show from that angle? at least one song, how about the same song, every night. and if u look closely u can see the clever editing, from one practice session 2 another, in different clothes, same song. i think thats sharp.
oh and thank u jesus, we got 2 see the dance steps up close and personal. it was a most special parting gift from M.J.
maybe a good idea is a mild film project on the never ending tour 2 try 2 capture bob dylan the performer on the silver screen.
anyway i have the images and the movie rolling in my head from that angle.
i am sure it does
but i am not there yet. the day after thanksgiving is when we bring out the christmas box and most definately i will treat my family 2 a bob dylan christmas in the heart.
however i am here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNv663gyMsE
and i cant stop crying. i did the stupid thing and went 2 see THIS IS IT and it is hitting me hard.
an amazing film, the kind of thing that is made 2 be captured on film and has been. it seems as if he were saying goodbye, as if he knew. the only words he spoke were love.
L O V E he spelled it out, broke it down,
confession: i knew and loved michael jackson music b4 i knew and loved bob dylan. the jackson 5 were IT 4 ME and after i saw the supremes in atlantic city in 1968 that was IT 4 me. the clothes!, the dancing! the music! i was so hooooooked.
we really should take better care of our artists and those that have special gifts 2 offer the world. instead of eating them up and spitting them out like bubble gum.
i often wonder how bob dylan can survive. 2 remain so tender in world that just wants 2 grab from him, how he can remain equally tough.
the time with these great artists is very precious. so make sure u treat it as such, my only regret is that i did not get 2 see michael jackson live and i guess i never will. i would have LOVED 2 dance with him, but dancing with him in my mind is forever what i will be doing.
bob dylan is a very special gift from god and people who cant appreciate him maybe dont need 2. i am so glad he is around and i am here with him. the christmas album will be around til the end of time 4 me 2 listen 2. and listen and sing and dance i shall.