Great show! For the record, I listen to the album incessantly from the day after Thanksgiving (after filling up on The Last Waltz and Alice's Restaurant) until Christmas Day. Then it goes away for the next year. I'd like to add to the bit about "I'll Be Home For Christmas" that NPR (maybe on Wait, Wait?) said that he makes it sound like a threat. But in a serious vein, I believe that Christmas in the Heart really is the first of his Songbook albums. And though it's true he hasn't done any live, the care and attention, right down to the Andrew Sisters sound-alikes, shows that he was trying to replicate that sound. Maybe not in a nostalgic way, but more in a way of paying homage. Keith and I wrote about it, and the more I listen, the more hear it as a test pressing before the bigger, heavier-stakes version.
Dec 28, 2023Liked by Dr. Jim Salvucci, Court Carney, Graley Herren, Erin C. Callahan
This roudtable on Christmas in the Heart was delightful from beginning to end. Jim, Rob, Erin, Graley, Court, and Nina are great commentators on Dylan--this conversation is more proof that English majors are much needed in our world (though I think Court is a historian, so maybe it is a proof that the humanities are critical more generally).
A Dean Martin CD Christmas compilation, Making Spirits Bright, has four of the songs on Christmas In The Heart: I'll Be Home For Christmas, Silver Bells, Winter Wonderland, and The Christmas Blues.
Thanks!
Jim, in developing the background page for Erin and Court's book, I devoted some words to you, Dylantantes, and the Million $ Bash:
https://www.bobdylanbookclub.com/callahancarney
Great show! For the record, I listen to the album incessantly from the day after Thanksgiving (after filling up on The Last Waltz and Alice's Restaurant) until Christmas Day. Then it goes away for the next year. I'd like to add to the bit about "I'll Be Home For Christmas" that NPR (maybe on Wait, Wait?) said that he makes it sound like a threat. But in a serious vein, I believe that Christmas in the Heart really is the first of his Songbook albums. And though it's true he hasn't done any live, the care and attention, right down to the Andrew Sisters sound-alikes, shows that he was trying to replicate that sound. Maybe not in a nostalgic way, but more in a way of paying homage. Keith and I wrote about it, and the more I listen, the more hear it as a test pressing before the bigger, heavier-stakes version.
This roudtable on Christmas in the Heart was delightful from beginning to end. Jim, Rob, Erin, Graley, Court, and Nina are great commentators on Dylan--this conversation is more proof that English majors are much needed in our world (though I think Court is a historian, so maybe it is a proof that the humanities are critical more generally).
A Dean Martin CD Christmas compilation, Making Spirits Bright, has four of the songs on Christmas In The Heart: I'll Be Home For Christmas, Silver Bells, Winter Wonderland, and The Christmas Blues.