Bob Dylan: Whatta guy!

He puts out a simple Christmas album and everybody goes nuts, wondering just what kind of a joke he’s playing this time around.

Just the idea of such a project sent Dylanologists’ minds reeling. After all, his voice isn’t what it used to be. (Frankly, even back then, it wasn’t what it used to be.)

Sure enough, Christmas in the Heart (not to be confused with Christmas From the Heart, by that Dylan sound-alike, David Archuleta) displays Dylan at his craggiest. He sings as if through gritted teeth, surrenders to high notes without bothering to lower keys to accommodate his limited range.

This is the voice of Bob Dylan at 68. He makes no apologies and doesn’t need to. But it is weird to hear it applied to Christmas chestnuts like “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “The Christmas Song” and “Little Drummer Boy.” On top of that, you’ve got a mixed vocal group straight out of an Andy Williams special from the early Sixties. And then there’s the cover art: A Victorian drawing of a fierce-looking, whip-cracking Russian, maybe, on a horse-drawn sleigh. On the back of the CD booklet is the Fifties pinup Bettie Page, toying with a Santa doll.  And each package includes a set of five Christmas in the Heart greeting cards.

So, are we being punked?

Not at all. For one thing, the CD benefits Feeding America, which provides food to the homeless. Dylan told a British magazine, The Big Issue, that he grew up with songs like “Winter Wonderland” and “Here Comes Santa Claus” as Bobby Zimmerman in Minnesota. “They’re part of my life, just like folk songs,” he said.

And why not? Born in 1941, Dylan, as a teenager in the late Fifties, bridged pop, rock and roll and folk music. As he noted in his book (Chronicles, Vol. 1), he dug the Kingston Trio as well as Woody Guthrie. He said nice things about Bobby Vee, Ricky Nelson and Johnny Rivers. And he said he liked “Moon River” and polka music, “which always got my heart pumping.”

Then again, in writing his memoirs, he may have been putting us on.