Audio By Carbonatix
Bob Dylan, popular music’s ultimate shape-shifter, will release the strangest album of his five-decade career next Tuesday, October 13. Christmas in the Heart, as the title suggests, is a collection of 15 holiday classics. Commenters at RollingStone.com and numerous other sites are — or at least were — convinced the record would be some kind of cynical joke. But judging by snippets leaked here, Dylan’s performances are stirringly sincere. (And, no, he’s not trying to make a buck crooning carols. “All artist royalties” benefit the World Food Programme.) Although the iconic singer-songwriter doesn’t officially release the often-peculiar covers he’s played over the years, there are plenty circulating on the bootleg scene. Here are this Dylan geek’s faves — in no particular order. 1. “This Old Man”
Dylan does a delightfully charming rendition of this children’s standard on Disney’s 1991 benefit album for pediatric AIDS For Our Children, which also features performances by Paul McCartney, Little Richard Barbra Streisand and a host of other heavyweights.
