Oddly, the preview clips of Christmas In The Heart that were on Amazon UK have been removed. Naturally they had already been copied and someone has posted them on YouTube. It’s hard to imagine how having the clips out there can do anything but stimulate interest in the album that’s going to be released just over three weeks from now, but maybe they were intended to be unveiled with another big press release.

I received a few e-mails from readers with their reactions on hearing the clips. Thanks to Dana for this:

Decided to read the fan comments [on Expecting Rain] first. Blah! Humbug!! Then went to Amazon for a listen. Two seconds in my eyes were dancing in my head and my heart was leaping for joy. The woman in my office heard my carrying on and couldn’t tell if I was laughing or crying. I was laughing so hard I was crying. As the tracks rolled by I was flat out on my desk then thrown back in my chair. Track 5 about put me under the desk. My God, what a gift!! This is going to be the best Christmas ever Mr Cratchit! Needless to say I then rushed right over to see if you’d had anything to say about the album. What a sweet treat to see I wasn’t alone. Can Oct 13 get here fast enough? I feel like a kid again.

And thanks to Josh for this:

I think you’re exactly correct to point out the schmaltz and overall humor at work in this album, so I appreciate your comments in this regard.

I’d add one thing about schmaltz. Recently (on the retreat I just completed, in preparation for the diaconate), our Jesuit retreat master had us watch Going My Way and Bells of St. Mary’s, neither of which I’d seen previously. Talk about schmaltz.

But at the same time, these movies were delightfully warm to watch precisely because of the schmaltzy simplicity. In spite of the things that had me rolling my eyes, I ended up feeling great for having seen a movie where everyone is mostly innocent, the world is a much simpler place, and a man’s man can solve everyone’s problems in a couple of hours.

These clips leave me with the same feeling. It’s more than mere nostalgia, because the world was never as simple as that, and I can’t long for something I didn’t truly know. What’s important, though, is that at one time, perhaps as children, we perceived the world as being that simple. Bing Crosby took me there for a few moments, and so do these clips.

Dylan has always been outside of time, so none of us should be surprised that he made an album that would’ve been considered mainstream 50-60 years ago. What ultimately causes me to raise an eyebrow is how some fans are completely shocked by this album, when Dylan is simply backing up the declaration that he’s “younger than that now.”

On the flip-side, a couple of readers sent me a link to a popular baseball blogger named Craig Calcaterra (ShysterBall), and his remarks on Christmas In The Heart:

I’m a bigger Bob Dylan fan than anyone you know. I own everything. I enjoy just about all of it. I have long since forgiven Dylan for any of his many musical trespasses over the years, and have even embraced most of them like the big Bob Dylan whore that I am. In the past week I was even listening to “Under the Red Sky” in my car and I’m not ashamed to admit it. If he was revealed to be a serial killer tomorrow, I’d by the guy outside of the courthouse holding the “free Bob Dylan” signs and giving teary, unhinged interviews to television reporters. My Zimmerman love has heretofore known no bounds.

But I think I’ve found when my fanaticism stops. It’s here, and yes kids, there are audio samples. I’ll be in the fetal position for the rest of the day.

Well, that kind of tone doesn’t bother me a bit. Of-course some people just won’t like the album, as a matter of taste — nothing wrong with that as such. And some people (obviously) don’t celebrate Christmas, and may therefore have no interest at all in listening to this kind of material. The reactions that bug me are the really vitriolic ones that have been seen on messageboards, ripping it in a needlessly nasty way and ripping Bob likewise. And it also bugs me to see people commenting on it who clearly have no idea where Bob is coming from musically. They hear the backing singers and think, “Ugh, how embarrassing.” Haven’t they ever heard the hippest version of Jingle Bells ever recorded, by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters?

And there’s plenty more where that came from: all those smart, eminently musical and classic Christmas recordings made by great popular artists who brought their adult jazz sensibilities to the task. Since “Love and Theft” (not to mention before that album too), Bob Dylan has been busy making all kinds of references back through the treasury of great American music — especially that made in the first half of the twentieth century. (Not to mention how he has celebrated the same stuff on “Theme Time Radio Hour.”) Christmas In The Heart fits perfectly with all of this. After listening to those clips a few times over, it’s pretty clear to me that this album has been produced, arranged and performed with a great deal of both panache and wit. A fuller appreciation can wait till we hear the whole thing, but one thing’s for certain: This sure ain’t no Christmas turkey.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Christmas in the charts
• Bob Dylan: Ritorna a Me
• Christmas In The Heart by Bob Dylan