Wednesday, August 26, 2009

 

Bob Dylan to Cover Standards

Bob Dylan is releasing a Christmas album. There will be no original poetry from the voice of a generation. Instead, Bob Dylan will be covering such tunes as "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Winter Wonderland" and "Little Drummer Boy."

Dylan will be donating all of the proceeds of the album to charities that deal with hunger. The U.S. album sales will be donated to Feeding America, in perpetuity. Overseas sales proceeds will be donated to overseas charities, also who deal with hunger and famine.

I find this to be among the most honorable of projects that I have ever encountered. In my senior year of high school, I was on the organizing committee of the second annual hunger hike. This was a nationwide effort, and I'm very proud to say that the hike that I helped organize was one of the most successful in the country. On May 9, 1971 in Skokie, IL, we had a turnout that police estimated between 90,000 to 100,000 participants, raising well over a million dollars, 42.5% going to Chicago area coops and food pantries and 42.5% going to projects outside of Illinois, some in Appalachia, some in Africa. Fifteen percent went to administrative costs. Everyone on our committee was a volunteer, and it took months of work to achieve these results.

That said, I'm confident in stating that I will not buy this Dylan album. I have absolutely no desire to hear Bob Dylan sing "Little Drummer Boy" or any other Christmas song, for that matter. I cringe at the thought of a Bob Dylan arrangement of "Sleigh Ride," "Oh Holy Night" or "Carole of the Bells," fearing it will sound like "Hurricane" or "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts." Not buying the CD will hardly be a guarantee that this won't be inflicted upon me. I will probably not be able to avoid hearing this. The holidays are not too far off, and Americans everywhere will shortly be bombarded with a wide variety of hideous versions of songs that I tired of years ago.

A CD that has a retail list price of eighteen bucks would have the artist's royalty of about fifteen percent ($2.70) for a new artist, maybe as much as twenty five percent ($4.50) for someone of Dylan's stature. The rest of the money is split between the record label, the distributor and the retailer.

If you think that Dylan's cause is a good one, and it is, send your eighteen bucks directly to the charity and spare your ears.
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