Christmas Songs
Nov. 29th, 2006 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloUgh- Christmas music!
I'm not talking about carols or even Christmas hymns- I like a lot of those. I'm talking about Christmas pop songs. Aren't they horrible?
And inescapable at this time of year: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Slade, Wizard, Cliff Richard.
The chingly sleigh bells, the fake bonhomie. Like being backed into a corner by a sentimental drunk with mincepie breath.
There are only two Christmas songs I can stand. The first is White Christmas. Well, it's Irving Berlin and Irving Berlin was a mensch. And the second is the Pogues' Fairytale of New York.
"You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy faggot"- ah now, there's the true spirit of Christmas!
I'm not talking about carols or even Christmas hymns- I like a lot of those. I'm talking about Christmas pop songs. Aren't they horrible?
And inescapable at this time of year: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Slade, Wizard, Cliff Richard.
The chingly sleigh bells, the fake bonhomie. Like being backed into a corner by a sentimental drunk with mincepie breath.
There are only two Christmas songs I can stand. The first is White Christmas. Well, it's Irving Berlin and Irving Berlin was a mensch. And the second is the Pogues' Fairytale of New York.
"You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy faggot"- ah now, there's the true spirit of Christmas!
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Date: 2006-11-29 10:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 12:33 pm (UTC)The Watersons have just brought out a Yuletide CD called Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man- I couldn't get my order in fast enough.
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Date: 2006-11-29 10:59 am (UTC)Adam Faith doing 'Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop)' has been known to make me run out of the shop in tears.
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Date: 2006-11-29 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 12:41 pm (UTC)Most Christmas songs feel like they were written to make a quick buck. The very few good ones are the ones that come from the heart.
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Date: 2006-11-29 11:07 am (UTC)There was a very interesting "Making Of" programme about it on TV last Xmas. There is in fact no such thing as the NYPD Choir, and the people in the video were actually firemen, who got incredibly drunk during the filming.
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Date: 2006-11-29 12:26 pm (UTC)Kirtsy McColl was a great talent. Do you know her version of Cole Porter's Miss Otis Regrets? Sublime.
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Date: 2006-11-29 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 12:39 pm (UTC)Traditional carols and hymns are lovely and I am fortunate to know many in three languages: English, of course, Spanish and my grandparent´s Polish which I learned from my grandmother as soon as I could talk. She would sing me the Polish hymns as lullabys during the Christmas season.
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Date: 2006-11-29 12:45 pm (UTC)Mel Smith and Kim Wilde (I think it was them) did a comedy version of Rockin Around the Christmas Tree which was quite good fun- at least the video was.
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Date: 2006-11-29 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 01:28 pm (UTC)Either that or (even more heartening) that the majority of the population of Britain, including whoever programmes the music for shopping malls in December is cynical enough to play it day in, day out, in the festive season.
Either way I'm happy. Whenever I hear it in the shops, I smile.
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Date: 2006-11-29 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 01:29 pm (UTC)B. bought me the Sufjan Stevens Christmas box set this year, in attempt to update my musical sweet tooth...
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Date: 2006-11-29 02:03 pm (UTC)I used to work as a cleaner in an old folk's home. It was wall to wall Max in there.
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Date: 2006-11-29 02:42 pm (UTC)I'll agree with others here, the best carols/Christmas music is when it incorporates a pagan element, some degree of darkness, or a decidedly non-commercial spirituality. O Holy Night, God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, The Holly and the Ivy, and Carol of the Bells come to mind.
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Date: 2006-11-29 08:44 pm (UTC)You missed...
Date: 2006-11-29 02:45 pm (UTC)Re: You missed...
Date: 2006-11-29 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 03:42 pm (UTC)No. No. No. No. Trance is trance. Bing is Bing. The two should not ever mix.
:still getting the nastybad taste out of my hears and brain...:
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Date: 2006-11-29 08:48 pm (UTC)Poor old Bing. Do you remember when he sang little Drummer Boy (yuk) as a duet with the young David Bowie?
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Date: 2006-11-29 04:07 pm (UTC)You can't escape it by putting on the television, either. All of those advertising jingles! How can something be sacred when it is so commercialized? I am not opposed to christmas music, I find some if it rather nice, actually. But gimme a break!
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Date: 2006-11-29 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 05:21 pm (UTC)also, nobody's mentioned All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. two years ago, my brother actually got his two front teeth knocked out about two days before christmas. maybe it's mean, but i had a field day with that.
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Date: 2006-11-29 06:08 pm (UTC)A popular urban legend was that they were named after a little girl named Carol Poles who disappeared in 1888 in the Whitechapel district of London. According to the legend, the little girl was reported missing around Christmas and many people went searching for her at night. Due to fears concerning Jack the Ripper, the group would sing Christmas carols upon knocking in order to declare their good intentions
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Date: 2006-11-29 08:40 pm (UTC)Since writing the above I've checked with Wikipedia and, yeah, it backs me up.
I don't know what the modern definition of carol would be. I don't suppose there is one.
All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth- I'd forgotten that one. What a classic!
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Date: 2006-12-01 03:48 am (UTC)but i do agree with you-- when i think about it, the only christmas songs i like are the religious ones (o holy night, what child is this, etc), although i do really like "have yourself a merry little christmas". there's something very melancholy about it: "though the years we all will be together if the fates allow" always gets me; there are few christmas songs that acknowledge that 1) bad stuff happens and 2) there's nothing you can do about it
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Date: 2006-11-29 06:01 pm (UTC)You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk"
do they really play that in the malls and shops over there?
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Date: 2006-11-29 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-29 08:21 pm (UTC)But, yeah, I know what you mean.
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Date: 2006-11-29 08:29 pm (UTC)Beyond that, Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters did the definitive "White Christmas" (not hard, since the other versions are mostly unbearable), and Otis Redding turned in good versions of that song and "Merry Christmas Baby." Elvis also took a nicely sleazy crack at the latter, and his "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" is gloriously dirty. (You'll never again hear "Santa Claus is comin' down your chimney tonight!" without having unclean thoughts.) For pop versions of older Christmas songs, I recommend Jackie Wilson's stunning version of "O Holy Night." Lastly, the best recent Christmas pop song I can think of is The Band's "Christmas Must Be Tonight," which manages to express a good deal of piety and wonder. I'm also fond of John Lennon's "Happy X-Mas (War is Over)", but you're probably familiar with that one.
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Date: 2006-11-29 09:06 pm (UTC)I'd forgotten Lennon's effort. I might have added it to the list if I'd remembered. But it's a long way from my favourite John-song. For one thing he stole the tune from the larky 19th century folksong, Skewball.
Skewball was a racehorse
I wish he was mine.
He'd never drink water
He'd only drink wine....
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Date: 2006-11-30 01:57 am (UTC)You are the 3rd person to mention that song to me this month.
Off to download...
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Date: 2006-11-30 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-30 04:47 am (UTC)Christmas time is here, by golly
Disapproval would be folly
Deck the hall with hunks of holly
Fill the cup and don't say "When".
But they never play that one in the shops.
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Date: 2006-11-30 11:14 am (UTC)It's having the same old, not very good songs played over and over again that is so debilitating
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Date: 2006-12-02 01:17 pm (UTC)that is.
From the Vatican Rag.
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Date: 2006-12-02 01:15 pm (UTC)Time to transubstantiate.
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Date: 2006-12-02 01:15 pm (UTC)Haha! Wonderful!
I like best: In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan.
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Date: 2006-12-02 01:56 pm (UTC)