Dylan Confounds Expectations Again With "Must Be Santa"

Bob Dylan has always confounded expectations, starting when he outraged folk purists by performing with a rock band at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965. Still, I couldn't help but wonder exactly what he was doing when I heard on the radio his rendition of "Must Be Santa" from his new "Christmas in the Heart" album.

Dylan, after all, is one of the three greatest songwriters since the 1960s, the other two being Lennon and McCartney. He wrote "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are a-Changin'," "Like A Rolling Stone," "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Masters of War," among many other classics. Now he's singing "Must Be Santa"?

Dylan's rendition became all the more bizarre with the song's Fellini-like video. He's wearing a stringy wig and taking part in a rollicking party that turns into a brawl. View the festivities and see what you think: