Written by Ian Peter Hall
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 00:00
He’s the musical legend that rose to fame with his folk infused political protest songs in the 60s. He’s been on a never-ending tour for some two decades. And importantly, he’s the master of re-invention. When people loved him for his acoustic folk, he went electric. When they loved him for his electric, he became Christian and sung about being saved.
Now Bob Dylan has released an album that, even for him, is extremely unexpected. Out now on Columbia Records; Christmas in the Heart is an album of the gruff-voiced folk king covering classic Christmas tunes such as "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Winter Wonderland" and "Little Drummer Boy".
Coming from a big Dylan fan, even I can admit that an album of Christmas cover songs is a weird choice. Why would he do this? The answer is almost certainly, simply because he can. The proceeds of the album are all being donated to charity towards worldwide hunger relief. So it’s really a gimmick for the big man to give something back, and that’s about it, right? Well actually… no.
Somehow, Christmas in the Heart manages to breathe fresh new life into these tired old yuletide anthems. Dylan’s voice is, as ever, deep and croaky. He sings like a lifetime of whiskey and cigarettes have taken their toll. But truth be told, he always sang this way; even in his 20s. Delivering "Winter Wonderland", you can hear the humour in his voice; almost breaking into laughter as he lays down the track. With a big fat smile on his face, he’s obviously singing songs that he actually likes, adding to them his own, unique Dylan-esq style. His voice is also neatly blended in with layers of harmonic, softly toned female vocals. The arrangement of his band mixes up the style of the songs, resulting in a repertoire of Christmas songs that genuinely sound like modern material, while avoiding ever being cliché.
A particular highlight is the intriguing up-tempo version of "Must Be Santa". It’s a country and western style, barn-dance extravaganza that will have you tapping along all the way. On this track, like with many of the songs, there’s this brilliant play-off between Dylan and the other vocalists on the track. Dylan will sing a line, then the group will come in with a follow-up line; “Whose got a big red Cherry nose,” cries Dylan. “Santa’s got a big red cherry nose,” echo the chorus group.
Dylan’s appeal has always been that the songs on his albums achieve some kind of timeless sound. On his recent albums, Modern Times and Together Through Life, upon hearing a track for the first time, and knowing that the material is brand new, he offers through the music an uncanny sense that the song has been around forever.
Other artists have of course covered Christmas songs before. Cliff Richard springs to mind. Yet, Cliff never made it particularly cool (well, he is a bit naff - Ed), nor were the covers made for the fun of it. Cliff’s covers were spurred on by his Christian faith. Dylan famously converted to Christianity back in the late '70s, but is widely rumoured to have reverted back to Judaism the years that followed. So, Christmas in the Heart is defiantly not Dylan’s religious promo LP.
Christmas in the Heart is proof that the Dylan enigma will continue to surprise and excite audiences as he has for nearly six decades. I tip my Santa hat to you Bob. This one is too good to miss. There’s plenty of life in the old dog yet.
Christmas in the Heart is available from Amazon: amazon.co.uk/Christmas-In-The-Heart
Friday 30 July 2010
