Was Dylan Touring The Boss' Backstreets?

Bob Dylan's Christmas album is just the latest in a long line

(NEWSER) - Bob Dylan’s decision to record a Christmas album is certainly ill-advised—“fans may have stuck by him throughout the musically self-destructive late '60s, the God-bothering late '70s, and the Grateful Dead-collaborating-Madonna-imitating mid '80s, but surely even Bob's fans have a limit,” writes John Matthew Hall for the Independent. But Dylan’s not alone; Hall offers up the worst disasters in rock and roll careers, from John Lennon to Michael Jackson: More»

Officers pick up rock legend out on walk

(NEWSER) - A New Jersey police officer in her 20s didn't recognize Bob Dylan when she responded to a call about a suspicious, shabbily dressed man staring into a vacant house, the Asbury Park Press reports. "What is your name, sir?" she asked. "Bob Dylan," he replied. "OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked. "I'm on tour," the singer said, explaining that he was looking at houses to pass the time. More»

(NEWSER) - In honor of Woodstock—which happened 40 years ago this weekend—and the “seminal documentary” that captured it, John Farr shares his list of the 10 best rock concert/performance films—all of which are “meant to be played loud,” he writes on the Huffington Post. “So crank it!”

• A Hard Day's Night (1964): “The disarming charisma and spontaneous energy of the Beatles made no traditional plot necessary. It was sufficient to portray a day in the life of the world's most talked about rock band.”

Traffic gridlocked after plunge into Hudson

(NEWSER) - A man being pursued by police drove his red Pontiac onto the eastbound George Washington Bridge, abandoned the car, and jumped into the Hudson River this morning. It's not clear why the cops were after the driver, and a search of the water beneath the span is under way, reports the Record of Bergen County. A plunge from the bridge is not necessarily a death sentence—a man who attempted suicide 2 weeks ago survived and managed to swim to shore, the New York Post reports. More»

Even so, the 'beloved iconoclast' puts together an interesting collection

(NEWSER) - With the announcement of Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart, “smirkers got smirkier”—you try picturing Dylan singing the lyric, “How’d ya like to hang a stocking on a great big coconut tree?” without smirking—but in the end, the collection is interesting, if a bit silly; “a surreal and occasionally rousing collection of gooey holiday ballads,” writes Amanda Petrusich for Pitchfork. More»