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Ho ho ho! It's... Bob Dylan?

Posted at 10:32 AM on October 14, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (9 Comments)

After nearly 50 years of music, knowledgeable fans of Bob Dylan should be used the occasional odd album. But a Dylan Christmas album? That sounds like a gigantic internet hoax.

Click play in the widgetbox below to get a sample.

Will ~~Dylan Does Christmas~~ Christmas in the Heart be on your Victrola this holiday season?

Folks listening to Morning Edition chimed in over our text message short code (677677) were, for the most part, not impressed.

Shaun from Moorhead: "I was just telling a friend i love anything he does, but WOW i've changed my mind. He sounded drunk!"

Matt in Woodbury: "Dylan sounds like a dying walrus that got kicked out of his boys' choir. This album is worse than snow in October."

Micah from Minneapolis: "The new Dylan record is weird. But when an artist with Dylan's prowess releases something like this I assume it is a genuine artistic statement from the heart."

Gerard in Minneapolis: "I just turned on the radio and you were playing snippets of some holiday songs. I wondered to myself why Harvey Fierstein had made a Christmas recording."

Unknown: "Well, it's not Frank or Ella, but Bob shows heart. This album is a homage to Bob's childhood memories of late night, faraway radio broadcasts."

Greg from Duluth: "Dylan's Xmas album is like listening to something your sweet, but tone deaf, child does in elementary school. You love it because you love him, but c'mon, it's TERRIBLE!"

Comments (9)

Uh...uh oh. People are starting to hear BD for the awful performer he is!

Good songwriter. Horrible singer.

Posted by Tyler | October 14, 2009 11:10 AM

Wow. just... wow.

Posted by Richie | October 14, 2009 11:32 AM

I listened to Dylan's Christmas CD after buying it at Target yesterday. The high speed polka version of "Must Be Santa" is oddly compelling.

Posted by James Ball | October 14, 2009 12:14 PM

Bob sings with great passion, but no one ever called it pretty. That works for rock/folk stuff, but not on traditional Christmas songs.

Posted by John P. | October 14, 2009 12:26 PM

Imagine hearing "Must Be Santa" after a few flasks of peppermint shnapps! Just think of the fun we could have with that one! You can keep the rest of the CD (much as I love Bob), it's too painful.

Posted by Kathy | October 14, 2009 1:19 PM

I agree with John P. above, his voice is not fit for traditional Christmas songs. That said, I enjoy the band and the arrangements, and the more upbeat songs are decent. Dylan will never sing like Elvis, but I'm such a fan that I would probably buy a standup comedy album if he releases one...

Posted by Adam D | October 14, 2009 1:21 PM

Holy smokes, this is just downright turgid.
I dig what Matt of Woodbury said, although the lumpy and brown thing that comes to my mind when I hear the song samples is definitely not a walrus.

Dylan doing Christmas is reminiscent to me of William Shatner's infamous, woefully awful pop music interpretations of a few decades ago.

Good gag gift, though.

Posted by bob | October 15, 2009 8:37 AM

I'm looking forward to Mavis and Marvin Smiley's covers of Bob's latest X-mas tunes!

Posted by David W. | October 15, 2009 3:40 PM

Say it ain't so, Bob. Who made you do it? Was it a dare? Was it an arrangement with the IRS? Or the IRA? Or the mob?

Posted by Deb of Brainerd | October 20, 2009 10:25 AM