Dylan may have spirit of Christmas

I've been listening to Bob Dylan's new Christmas album.

It's odd writing those two words in the same sentence — Dylan and Christmas.

But then Bob Dylan's life has always been a long, strange journey toward Christmas. The angry young folksinger who blared "Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command" is now singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Maybe, in the end, Bethlehem is where we're all meant to end up.

Some see Dylan as the great trendsetter. My take is he's spent his life looking for someone to follow. As a young man, he idolized Woody Guthrie. He wrote the same kind of protest songs that Guthrie wrote, he grew his hair full and tousled like Guthrie's. He even visited Guthrie in the hospital just days before the man died.

Later, in his drug-addled years, Dylan turned "Mr. Tambourine Man" into his mentor ("In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you").

When he found Jesus at the little Vineyard Church in Los Angeles he wrote, "You Gotta Serve Somebody."

People think of Dylan as a cutting-edge poet leading the way for everyone else.

I see him as a devoted pilgrim looking for the right saint to follow.

Now, in the "jingle jangle evening" of his life, he has slowly eased into the Christmas spirit.

Some critics say Dylan did the album on a lark. That it's just Dylan tossing off something different to startle people.

But as I listen to the songs, too much care and craft have gone into their making, too much feeling shows up in the man's gruff old guttural voice to be a mere "prank."

I think he's really there.

At least I hope he is.

I think of myself at age 17, buying the latest Bob Dylan album and singing along with him about rebellion and justice.

Then I think of myself now, slowly coasting into the Christmas spirit again — looking forward to the simple joys and subtle peace of the season.

This is where I belong now. This is who I am.

Welcome to my world, Bob.

As a kid singer you looked back at a gentle evening around a stove with your friends and sang "Ten Thousand dollars at the drop of a hat. I'd give it all gladly, if our lives could be like that."

Maybe now, after decades of blowing in the wind, you've come to realize your life can be.

I hope so.

e-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com