Bob Dylan has built an entire career on subverting public expectations, and his 34th and first-of-its-kind album, which he released on October 13, 2009, did just that. At face value, late-era Dylan releasing a Christmas album sounds more like the punchline of a seasonal joke than reality. Nevertheless, Columbia Records released Christmas in the Heart, defying Dylan’s reputation as a straight-laced, no-fluff kind of artist with traditional songs like “Silver Bells”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Winter Wonderland”, “Little Drummer Boy”, and other recognizable carols.
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Unsurprisingly, Dylan’s holiday album confused many critics. (And we have to admit there is something a bit off-putting about Dylan’s gruff-voiced cover of “Here Comes Santa Claus”.) The record didn’t seem like something Dylan would do without an air of irony or flippancy. Still, he insisted there was no trace of either in his first and only holiday album. Some publications suggested the album needed more irreverence, which Dylan said was “an irresponsible statement anyway. Isn’t there enough irreverence in the world? Who would need more? Especially at Christmas.”
“Critics like that are on the outside looking in,” he explained. “They are definitely not fans or the audience that I play to. They would have no gut-level understanding of me and my work, what I can and can’t do. The scope of it all. Even at this point in time, they still don’t know what to make of me.”
Bob Dylan Released His 34th Studio Album to Combat Global Hunger
Bob Dylan released his 34th studio album, Christmas in the Heart, as a fundraiser for three organizations that help combat global hunger in the U.S., U.K., and around the world: Feeding America, Crisis, and the World Food Programme, respectively. The singer-songwriter said he chose these charities “because they get food straight to the people. No military organization, no bureaucracy, no governments to deal with.” The funds from this record will be donated to the non-profit organizations in perpetuity. This falls in line with Dylan’s push to find sustainable solutions to global starvation.
“The problem of hunger is ultimately solvable,” Dylan told U.K. Fundraising in 2009. “[That] means we must each do what we can to help feed those who are suffering and support efforts to find long-term solutions.”
As strange as a Bob Dylan holiday album might sound to some, the album performed incredibly well, perhaps in part due to its novelty. Christmas in the Heart topped the Billboard Holiday Album chart and peaked at No. 23 on the overall album chart. (The latter accolade is even more impressive, considering Dylan’s album is one of countless Christmas albums that have been released over the last 80 years or so, and arguably not one of the more universally palatable.)
Despite Bob Dylan’s Jewish upbringing, the songwriter said that the Christmas songs he included on his 34th album were “part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight, too.” On his decision to sing them straight, as opposed to his typical, rubato style, Dylan said he chose not to mess with the melodies and arrangements because “if you want to get to the heart of them, they can’t be [changed].”
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for AFI
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