ASSIST News Service (ANS)
www.assistnews.net --assistnews@aol.com Monday, August 24, 2009
Bob Dylan Recording Christmas Album
LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- The enigmatic Bob Dylan is recording his first Christmas album, www.bullypulpit.com has exclusively learned and has been quietly compiling a collection that includes both Christmas carols and modern songs.
At least four songs have reportedly been recorded for the album including, "Must Be Santa," "Here Comes Santa Claus," "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
Bob Dylan
According to a world exclusive story written by Ryan McDuff for Bully! Pulpit News, the recording sessions have been taking place at fellow recording artist Jackson Browne's Groove Master's Studios in Santa Monica, California, where Browne produced his album, "I'm Alive."
According to the McDuff story, prominent media expert and best-selling author Michael Levine said the move by Dylan was "completely consistent with his longstanding tradition of doing the unexpected. Concerning Bob Dylan literally nothing would surprise me which of course is part of his lasting appeal. He confounds like no other pop artist ever."
Levine went on to say that the inclusion of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," written by an Episcopal priest named Phillips Brooks in 1867 after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, is likely to fuel speculation about Dylan's religious beliefs that have swirled ever since he publicly converted to Christianity in 1979, recorded explicitly religious material on three subsequent albums and for a time refused to play his old songs. Religious references on subsequent recordings became less overt after 1981's "Shot of Love."
The other three songs, "Must Be Santa" by Hal Moore and Bill Fredricks, "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Buck Ram, Kim Gannon and Walter Kent were all written between 1943 and 1960.
"A Christmas album by Bob Dylan in the pipeline doesn't really shock me," said Scott Marshall, author of a forthcoming book on the singer, 'God and Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life'. "At first glance it may sound bizarre, but I don't think Dylan cares much about what his detractors might make of it. Dylan still sings songs from 'Slow Train Coming' to this day and he's both never renounced being Jewish or renounced his experience with Jesus some three decades ago. He remains enigmatic and this will probably be talked bout for years to come."
Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on UCB UK and Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to danjuma1@aol.com. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released "God's Ambassadors in Japan" which is available at http://www.amazon.com/Gods- Ambassadors-Japan-Kenny- Joseph/dp/0982486901/ref=sr_1_ 22?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid= 1250907756&sr=8-22
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Prayers for Mr. Dylan are in order that the Holy Spirit in which he has apparently been so filled with and inspired by will once again move through him to use his gifts for God's kingdom. Thanks for the info...looking forward to the CD.
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