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Bob Dylan sells out again – this time to Citigroup
Folk icon Bob Dylan has been accused once more of selling out by offering his new album to Citigroup customers a week before general release
After committing what many of his fans would see as a cardinal sin by recording a Christmas album, Bob Dylan is set to alienate his anti-establishment followers even more - by offering customers of corporate banking giant Citigroup an exclusive internet download of his latest album.
The former protest singer has announced that his latest offering, a collection of festive covers called Christmas in the Heart, would be available to customers enrolled in the bank's rewards programme for a week before it hits stores on October 13.
It's not the first time Dylan has arranged a tie-in with a major brand in the US. In 2005 he outraged fans and many of his peers in the record industry by agreeing to sell his album Live at the Gaslight 1962 exclusively through the coffee chain Starbucks.
Dylan, now 68, was the reluctant hero of 1960s folk music counter-culture thanks to songs like Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changing. Such was his status that many accused him of selling-out when, in 1965, he began using electric instruments.
Although his recent career decisions make that decision look tame, Dylan may have warded off some criticism by announcing that the royalties from the Christmas album will be donated to the UN's World Food Program and other charities fighting hunger.
Dylan, whose real name is Robert Zimmerman, was born into the Jewish faith, but has dabbled with Christianity. His album features interpretations of songs such as Here Comes Santa Claus and the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem. ·
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Oh dear. Dylan didn't lose me when he went electric, I was thrilled, it was when he really started to shine. The hand on ear 'trad' idiots were left behind as they should be. But when he refound judaism and then got born again christianity [and made some dire albums], I decided that the writer of so many outstanding, scathing, sharply observed songs had lost it; probably did his brain in with too many drugs. Sad really, but he did get awfully rich, and that alone is enough to pervert talent. Releasing a christmas album suggests senility has come early for Bob. I'll replay Blood on the Tracks and remember how he used to be - me, I'm just on the road, heading for another joint, we always were the same, just solid from a different point, of view...