Bob Dylan Talks Christmas LP, Reacts to Critics

As with most Bob Dylan interviews, you could spin any minor exchange into an essay, sensationalized headline, or treatise on the socio-political transformation of the modern state, but screw all that because now Bob’s here to talk about Christmas, he claims to be “a true believer,” and I’ll never pass up a chance to hear the reigning poet laureate of rock respond to critics.

In an interview (via SNS) with the man behind the Together Through Life pre-release hype interviews, Bill Flanagan, Dylan spoke about the genuine motivations behind his new holiday LP Christmas in the Heart, how he doesn’t really listen to rap music, and what he thinks of a few critics’ takes on his first foray into Christmas music.

Here’s what Dylan has to say about Bloomberg’s Mark Beech’s assertion that “[s]ome of the songs sound ironic”:

Critics like that are on the outside looking in. They are definitely not fans or the audience that I play to. They would have no gut level understanding of me and my work, what I can and can’t do – the scope of it all. Even at this point in time they still don’t know what to make of me.

And on Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune’s claim that Christmas in the Heart “could have benefited from a little more of that irreverence,” Flanagan suggests it “miss[es] the point.”

Well sure it does, that’s an irresponsible statement anyway. Isn’t there enough irreverence in the world? Who would need more? Especially at Christmas time.

Damn… Dylan saw Kot’s “irreveren[t]” and raised him one “irresponsible.” As much as I enjoyed your Jim DeRogatis voicemail, Ryan Adams, you have to admit that Dylan has  way with dealing with critics. Be sure to check out the full interview here.