Seriously?
Can't we limit that dreck to the period between Black Friday and a week before New Year's Eve?
It's October. We haven't even gotten to Columbus Day or Halloween yet.
On Tuesday, Bob Dylan drops his 34th record, Christmas in the Heart, a collection of holiday songs.
Really?
Dylan? A Christmas album? What's next — Cradle of Filth's collection of Jessica Simpson covers?
Hey, wait a second. Isn't Dylan Jewish?
Or was raised Jewish and then recorded a few records about being a born-again Christian and then ... uh, well ... who knows what he is now? The dude's a chameleon in just about every way one can mean it.
Call me Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch all you want, but holiday albums and Christmas songs are the bottom of the artistic barrel.
I'd say it's as bad as novelty music, but, actually, I find novelty songs at least have their kitsch originality. "Barbie Girl," "Because I Got High" and "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" are silly and relatively pointless, but they serve a purpose and have their kitsch originality.
Dylan doesn't need to resort to novelty schlock. He's Bob Dylan. The dude is a living musical legend. He is doing it for charity, which makes me seem like a Scrooge for deriding it.
But Christmas in the Heart could be Christmas in July for all I care.
I love Dylan. I like his distinct voice, which at this age sounds like a rusty piece of sheet metal that was backed over repeatedly by an 18-wheeler then left out in the rain, but I can think of other singers I'd rather hear croak out "Winter Wonderland."
I'm trying really hard to reserve judgment until I hear it, and, as you can read, I'm failing mightily.
At least he's doing it for charity. The proceeds benefit Feeding America and a few other international charities which help feed people in need.
So I guess I shouldn't care what religion he is or was, cos that's a mitzvah either way.
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