My Favourite Christmas songs - from my favourite time of year.
It’s the 9th January now. But whilst the revelry of the festive season may already seem like the distant past to people in the UK, for many, Christmas is still going on. The people who think Christmas is over are the ones who, every year, are conned by business into starting Christmas too early, in order to get them into the shops and spending. And then, as soon as Christmas actually arrives, the great god of commerce declares it all over, and said same people allow themselves to get bullied and browbeaten by business into joining the New Year Sales, followed by some heavy ‘persuasion’ into undertaking all manner of health and fitness regimes as penance for the sales and shopping indulgence. If people could just come to understand Advent for what it is - a period of peace, calm and preparation - then they wouldn’t be all spent up and tired out, jaded and cynical, and in need of recovery come Christmas and its aftermath. The renewal would happen as it ought and would flower in joyful celebration. Do Christmas right! Avoid the shopping fest!
Most countries follow the new Gregorian calendar and celebrate Christmas Day on 25th December. The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII ruled that the Catholic Church should follow the new calendar since it was closer to the solar calendar. Some countries, however, still follow the old Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 35BC, celebrating Christmas Day on 7th January. That means that, for many, Christmas is now only just beginning. The Orthodox Church, for one, recognizes 7 January as the day that Jesus was born. There are 16 countries around the world that mark Christmas Day in January. They include: Russia, Ethiopia, Greece, Serbia, Eritrea, Egypt, Israel, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Bulgaria.
As for how these countries celebrate, read on Israel.
‘Christmas is celebrated three times in Israel. The Catholic, Protestant and Russian Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on December 25. The Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and Romanian Orthodox churches, among others, celebrate Christmas on January 6 and the. The Armenian Orthodox church celebrates Christmas on January 18. On each of these days, you’ll find a host of colorful processions winding their way through the alleys of the Old City.’
'Merry Christmas!
by Peter Ormerod
And again: Merry Christmas! And again: Merry Christmas! I’m going to keep this up until everyone realizes these days in which we now find ourselves are not the dead and dreary affairs they seem but are still actually Christmas.
Merry Christmas! Got the message yet? No? In that case: Merry Christmas!' I'll add one myself, Merry Christmas!
'One of the greatest and most toxic tricks capitalism has played is to convince us that Christmas begins around October and finishes on 25 December. It means that singing carols and pulling crackers can seem odd things to do in January, a month which, in the corporate calendar, is all about joining a gym, embarking on spurious detox regimes and returning to workplace drudgery. But it’s high time we fought back by remembering that these days remain ripe for revelry.'
And to that I say: Merry Christmas!
We sang The First Noel and We Three Kings at church yesterday, the tree and the crib and lights are still up, and at home my angel still soars high on top of the tree. And long may she carry on soaring! It's a celebration, and something you internalize and keep. Forget the behavioural regimes and technologies of the self, they're for cog-workers within the Megamachine.
‘Corporations are keen for us to forget this and move on to the next thing, all the better to flog us stuff. I thought the line about Easter eggs in the shops at Christmas was a joke until I visited my local M&S the other day. Making the Christmas spirit last as late as possible therefore feels like a response of gentle rebellion.’
And when it does all end, and the tree and decorations and crib come down, it’s not killing Christmas, so long as it is done in the spirit of keeping Christmas and Christmas has been done right in the first place. Those who grumble need to identify their targets accurately. Both religious and anti-religious bigots will complain anyway. That's a problem not of religion but of bigotry. But if Christmas is done right, then it is a time of reflection and celebration and joy. The problem is that the forces of commerce have expropriated that spirit, as it has done with all good things. Direct your criticisms to the new idols, should you have the nerve and the nous. I’m tired of a fake and surrogate radicalism, something that deliberately misses the target to save tangling with the forces of money and power.
‘There will be some to whom all this will sound irksome in the extreme. They will have had their senses filled with forced jollity since the hazy days of autumn. They will be desperate for the icy bath, the austere decor, the dour, the monochrome, the no-nonsense, the shearing of frills, the shredding and chipping of the domestic evergreen. I sympathise with them to quite a degree. Yet their quarrel should be not with Christmas, but with the forces of commerce, for they have done their best to obliterate another special time of year: Advent.
What has traditionally been a season of quiet and reflection has become a month of gaudy, chintzy, Mammon-worshipping mayhem. Get Advent right and Christmas finds its proper place; we’d have been celebrating it for a little over a week, which would hardly be overkill.
Somewhere out there, the miseries of public discourse are still exchanging pleasantries on apples and pears. I think they call it a ‘debate’ over theism and atheism. I call it a complete waste of time. It resolves nothing and quickly degenerates into an exercise in abuse. People should keep their convulsive, and utterly joyless, self-importance to themselves. You don’t have to be Christian and believe in Christmas to enjoy this time of year, I heard people repeat time and time again. Well go and enjoy it then! The only pleasure such people seem to get lies in objecting to those who celebrate Christmas in a religious mode! The main enjoyment of many, it seems, consists in abuse of religion and Christmas. Away with your nonsense! As my granny used to say.
The photograph is of my Christmas Tree, with a very special card, and a CD by Linda Perhacs, signed by the admirable Linda herself! My dear friend Hélène Domon, knowing me to be a big fan of Linda's music, visited her CD release and asked for an autograph. I'm told that Linda is so fragile that it took her a whole five minutes to write this little note to me. She could barely hold the pen. But she didn't quit trying to write the message. That's a very moving story. And I was very much moved when told the story . It's very humbling, and I very much appreciate the thought and the love that went into sending me these words and music from both Hélène and Linda. I've loved Linda's songs for years. They're not loud, and could easily be drowned out in the tuneless noise mugging for attention in the world today. She was ignored back in 1970. But the music and the message endures. Deceptively simple, there's a robust truth within the fragility. Linda Perhacs, a music and a spirit that is strongly recommended!
In the meantime, I’m still having a holly, jolly Christmas! Here are my favourite Christmas songs, in no obvious order at all. But if you are feeling a little mean and miserable, or a lot, I'll start with a tune that sorts the men and women from the boys and girls (rekindling the inner child, renewing hope and innocence in the Christmas dream).
Angela Lansbury was the grand-daughter of Labour Party leader and anti-war activist George Lansbury. The world would have been in a much better shape had it gone the way of George Lansbury in the 1920s and 1930s. We carry on in hope.
For I've grown a little leaner
Grown a little colder
Grown a little sadder
Grown a little older
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder
NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS RIGHT NOW!
Haul out the holly.
Haven't I taught you well.
To live each living day?
Angela Lansbury also played Elvis' mother in the movie "Blue Hawaii." I may mention Elvis once or twice as I go. It has been known.
‘The Christmas time when I was young, the magic and the wonder …’ recalled. Jesus, as young as ever, dreams recalled, hopes renewed. Forever young.
John Denver wrote this song for his young son.
‘That brotherhood surrounds you
That you may know the warmth of love
And wrap it all around you
It's just a wish, a dream I'm told
From days when I was young
Merry Christmas little Zachary
Merry Christmas everyone.’
This has the Christmas feel, the bells and communal singing, that kind of thing. Shepherds singing in the meadows, brightening up the mountain.
These refrains so light
That charm their friends
Tra la la, tra la la la la la
We all remember Harry. Another Christmas dreamer.
A place from long ago, filled with everything you know.
‘Remember, life is just a memory
Remember, close your eyes and you can see
Remember, think of all that life can be.’
Born to save our souls, offering peace and goodwill, the message lives on.
‘Why,’ as Paddy MacAloon asks in Earth, The Story So Far, ‘if it's no more than a fable, Should it strike so deep a chord?’
‘O come desire of nations bind in one the hearts of all mankind.
O bid our sad divisions cease , and be yourself our King of Peace.’
My favourite Advent and Christmas hymn. I look forward to this one every year.
I love this next one. I'll present it in two versions.
This seems like a new song, with its ecological theme. Which is a strange thing to say, given how closely past societies lived to nature and how remote ours is from nature. We rediscover an ecological sensibility and expect to be praised for our high intelligence! There's nothing new, just a lot of things that have been forgotten. It's the new societies that have been so alienated from animals and nature that need to rediscover the pronounced ecological theme of living. This song is in fact very old and very true. It goes all the way back to the 12th century at least, and reflects a liturgical practice all we creatures on Earth can acknowledge.
‘Jesus our brother, kind and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude
And the friendly beasts around Him stood,
Jesus our brother, kind and good.
"I," said the donkey, shaggy and brown,
"I carried His mother up hill and down;…
"I," said the cow all white and red
"I gave Him my manger for His bed; ..
"I," said the sheep with curly horn,
"I gave Him my wool for His blanket warm; …
"I," said the dove from the rafters high,
"I cooed Him to sleep so He would not cry; …
Thus every beast by some good spell,
In the stable dark was glad to tell
Of the gift he gave Immanuel,
The gift he gave Immanuel.
"I," was glad to tell
Of the gift he gave Immanuel,
The gift he gave Immanuel.
Jesus our brother, kind and good.’
All the creatures as one, time for fraternity, kindness and goodness.
This song has a rich and interesting history:
‘This song originally hails from a 12th century Latin song "Orientis Partibus" which first appeared in France and is usually attributed to Pierre de Corbeil, Bishop of Sens (d 1222) ("Office de la circoncision," "Lew manuscrit de l’office de la Circoncision de Notre-Dame-du-Puy," or "L’Office de Pierre de Corbeil," circa 1210). The Feast of the Circumcision is celebrated on January 1. The song is associated with the Feast of Fools.
The tune is said to have been part of the Fete de l’Ane (The Donkey’s Festival), which celebrated the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt and was a regular Christmas observance in Beauvais and Sens, France in the 13th century. During the mass, it was common for a donkey to be led or ridden into the church.
The words and tune were designed to give thanks for the ass on which Mary rode, and began: Orientis partibus Adventavit asinus (‘From the East the ass has come’). Each verse was sung, and finished with the chorus ‘Hail, Sir donkey, hail’. It was a solemn affair, but the tune became very popular in 17th and 18th century Germany.
The Feast of the Ass (Latin: Festum Asinorum or asinaria festa, French: Fête de l'âne) was a medieval, Christian feast observed on January 14. celebrating the Flight into Egypt. It was celebrated primarily in France, as a by-product of the Feast of Fools celebrating the donkey-related stories in the Bible, in particular the donkey bearing the Holy Family into Egypt after Jesus's birth.
Orientis Partibus reflects the original first line which said, “From the East the donkey came.” The original chorus was then, “Hail, Sir Donkey, Hail!” This strange custom reflects the medieval Feast of the Ass, a mostly French celebration where the donkey who carried the Holy Family to Egypt was praised.
I love setting out the nativity. On this theme …
Billy Eckstine is one of the great voices in music, a voice that transcends hate, bigotry, and division. It is fitting to have a Christmas contribution from him. He was a gentle and modest soul, apparently, who you could see going around his everyday business in Pittsburgh. One of us, then. He was blessed with immense talent. Setting out the nativity, a simple highlight. ‘We’d be doing right if we made each night more like Christmas Eve.’
This may be the only commonly sung Christmas carol in our hymnals that does not mention the birth of Christ. The focus is rather on the song of the angels, “Peace on the Earth, good will to men,” taken from Luke 2:14.
"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" (1849) – sometimes rendered as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" – is a poem and Christmas carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts. Writing during a period of personal melancholy, with news of revolution in Europe and the United States' war with Mexico fresh in his mind, Sears portrayed the world as dark, full of "sin and strife," and not hearing the Christmas message.
According to Ken Sawyer, Sears' song is remarkable for its focus not on Bethlehem, but on his own time, and on the contemporary issue of war and peace.
Sears’ context was the social strife that plagued the US as the Civil War approached. This hymn comes from a Boston publication, Christian Register, published on Dec. 29, 1849. The original stanza three, missing from our hymnals, sheds light on the poet’s concerns about the social situation in the U.S. in the mid-19th century:
“But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song, which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!”
‘When peace shall over all the earth, Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world give back the song, Which now the angels sing.’
Modified renderings:
Peace on the earth, goodwill to all
Beneath the heavenly hymn have rolled
And warring humankind hears not
The tidings which they bring
hush the noise and cease your strife
And you, beneath life's crushing load
By prophets seen of old
Shall come the time foretold
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The prince of Peace their King
And all the world give back the song
‘It is right that we should joyfully sing “Hark! the herald angels sing” and “Joy to the world” each Christmas season. But always there are moments when we realize the message of peace has not yet been fully realized on earth. Then we sing “It came upon the midnight clear,” and the power of the Incarnation and the message of the gospel touch us even more deeply.’
Dr. C. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.
Also from Ella Fitzgerald
"Children, Go Where I Send Thee" is a traditional African-American spiritual song. It’s one that helps an old dyscalculic like me. Lots of numbers to memorize and work out here.
A green and bright Christmas to you too! The lyrics say ‘Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii’s way to say Merry Christmas.’ I always heard it as ‘Mele Kalikimaka is a wise way to say Merry Christmas.’ It never struck me as very wise, not least because I couldn't say it. But it very probably is the ‘thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day.’
"Bah! Humbug!" a friend on FB said to Christmas. I sent him this to persuade him to see the error of his ways. He didn’t comment. You just can’t help some people. Boogie you miserable so and so!
As for Christmas, I think I’ve nailed my colours well and truly to the mast. Merry Christmas to all those who have a taste and a talent for it.
It takes the genius of those contrarians from Tranmere to tell it like it is:
It’s Clichéd to be Cynical at Christmas
Now how did I guess
You were going to express
Your disdain at the crane
With the bright fairy lights
And you’d moan at the snow
‘Cos your car wouldn’t go
You don’t have a tree
And your smile has a fee
All the same, here’s a card
For your boring facade
Jingle Bells, piney smells
All the boys and the girls
Say it’s cliched
To be cynical
At Christmas
See how we yawn
At your bile and your scorn
It’s a beautiful day
Peace on Earth has been played
Make a noise with your toys
And ignore the killjoys
‘Cos it’s cliched
To be cynical
At Christmas
I saw three ships
Come sailing in
Come sailing in
Come sailing in
I saw three ships
Come sailing in
On Christmas Day
In the morning
All the girls and boys, make a noise with your toys, and ignore the kiljoys. You just have to admire a band that turned down a spot on the esteemed The Tube on channel 4 because Tranmere Rovers had a home game that night. 'The Four lads who shook up The Wirral.'
This is so good that it is worth another video. If this doesn't get you in the Christmas spirit, then .. something else will
I like it traditional in the main. But this is so good it may even get the toes of the most indurated sceptic tapping.
There's a Christmas concert by this band on You Tube, if you look, where the compare turns to the audience and declares to one and all: 'barenaked ladies, aren't they great!' I think she meant the band. Reason enough for another one from them.
I love the opening line to this one:
‘Ring them bells you heathens from the city that dreams/Ring them bells from the sanctuaries/Cross the valleys and streams.’
Ring them bells! I'm not sure about the references and meanings in this song. Bob's rarely obvious. The words sound good and meaningful, but what exactly do they mean? That breaking down of the difference between right and wrong sounds meaningful. This is what His Bobness Himself says on this:
“This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else. Songs like “Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain” or “I Saw the Light”—that’s my religion. I don’t adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I’ve learned more from the songs than I’ve learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.” (Bob Dylan, interview for The New York Times, 1997).
That's quite a statement, and I'd need to check what else Dylan says about his religious beliefs before placing any great weight upon them. It depends on what we mean by music, I suppose. The internal music of all things. “Word, return to Music,” from Silentium by Osip Mandelstam.
References to ‘The Chosen Few’ seem exclusive, but Bob’s ringing them bells for all those who are left. He includes himself in that number:
‘Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Ring them bells for all of us who are left.’
The bells ring for everyone, making this a song of inclusiveness.
Which sounds like …
‘Come gather round people where ever you roam.’
Whole and Wholesome
‘Follow that star.’
I've never once heard this on the radio. Which I find strange.
‘I should be at the table, with all my kith and kin.’
This reminds me of my return from the US to the UK in 2015, and being invited to Christmas dinner with certain family folk, only to find that by way of the usual botch up I missed out. So I spent Christmas Day on my own. When I’m with people, I enjoy myself. When I’m alone, I enjoy myself. I know how to enjoy myself.
Mike Oldfield - In Dulce Jubilo
There's a version of this on You Tube which has Pans People dancing like Christmas sprites and pixies if you care for that sort of thing. My cousin Denice is a professional dancer, and really did not approve of Pans People. She didn't think much of their dancing. I don't know, it all looks rather tricky to me. Mike Oldfield dedicated this single to his mother, who had died in 1974. Either way, it is all very joyous. 'In Dulci Jubilo' (Latin for 'In sweet rejoicing) is a traditional Christmas carol, known in England as 'Good Christian Men Rejoice.' In Quiet Joy. The song is credited to J.S. Bach and R.L. Pearsall. As a single, the song was backed by On Horseback, which I like very much.
It’s not Christmas without Elvis. I've never heard this one on the radio either. This is another classic waiting to be discovered. (See the favours I do for my fellow man and woman). We are all looking to go home for Christmas.
This is one sad, sad Christmas song, which reminds me a lot of 'Keep the Homefires Burning.' I do and I will. For those at a loss at Christmas.
In this vein, there is this irresistibly sad song of Elvis reminiscing about happy Christmases long gone as he walks down a lonely street in the present.
That's the way it's always been, the circle never really ends. But there are times when things get broken up, people get parted in time and place, and the warm memories of how things used to be haunt the rather bleak and barren present. And all the enforced jollity in the world really does not help.
On the other hand ...
At the 400th play, I start to find this one mildly irritating. But taken in moderation, a 100 plays or so a week, it is utterly infectious and always has me bouncing around in joy to be alive. I even love Michael Bublé’s version too. I'm nothing if not immoderate in my enthusiasms.
The song is big, bright, and punchy; it's so warm it could melt away all the snow in the whitest Christmas Bing Crosby could ever have dreamt of. Just 20 words in English and Spanish make up its lyrics—forget the mental and verbal athleticism required to pull off “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” And when Feliciano sings it, he sounds nothing short of effusive in his desire to spread holiday joy: “From the bottom of my heeaaartt!!!” And you can feel that all that joy and earnestness, even if you don’t know quite know what “Prospero año y felicidad” means.
A new Christmas song that reaffirms all the old themes – ‘tis a season to be jolly, after all. I haven’t seen carol singers round ours for years now, mind. But it is indeed ‘like the world is joining in.’
The declared aim of writer and singer Leigh Haggerwood was to create a song with strong melodies that would match the classics, and bring back the Christmas magic that he felt had been missing from the UK charts for decades. A great big "Yeah!" for that. There must be an award or something in the post for that man. He claims that when writing the song, he recalled his own childhood … the dreams we had and the songs we sung, all those years ago, when we - and the world - were young. Christmas is Hope renewed. I'm forever young.
Not bad (he says, posing as the master of understatement and restraint).
The Piano Guys. With a cello. And the world becomes as it is. Beautiful.
It's a beautiful old hymn. Time to put the surf boards away and get the sleds out.
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I'd wait for it to freeze first, though.
From a story from Tolstoy.
It's an old theme: What you do for the least of these you do for me.
The song “The Christmas Guest” is a musical adaptation of the poem “The Story of the Christmas Guest” by American poet Helen Steiner Rice, who wrote religious and inspirational poetry. Rice, in turn, was inspired by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) and his short story, “Where Love Is, God Is” (also translated as “Where Love Is, There God Is Also” or “Martin the Cobbler”) written in 1885. Tolstoy took the title of his story from the Catholic hymn Ubi Caritas. This hymn contains the antiphonal response “Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibis est,” which translates as “Where true charity is, there is God.” In Tolstoy’s story, Conrad the humble shopkeeper is a simple cobbler named Martin (or Martuin) Avdeitch. Tolstoy's story was inspired by the French folk tale “Le Pere Martin," written by Evangelical Protestant Ruben Saillens (1855-1942), included in a collection of fables and allegories, titled Rectis et Allegories, published in 1888. The story goes back further was spread via oral tradition. Which is how Tolstoy may well have heard it. Tolstoy makes a few changes in the story to make it even more poetic and compelling.
In fact, the origins go back to the Bible and the New Testament, to the gospel of Matthew’, specifically Chapter 25 (Matthew 25: 31-46):
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
So it's a universal theme. The story of the Christmas Guest conveys the true message of Christmas; let us hope it serves to inspire a compassion and generosity that lasts all the year round. And God bless us, every one!
‘Be it Heaven or Hell, the Christmas we get, we deserve.’
OK... But is this true? Often, too often in fact, the things that afflict people are the result of the actions and choices of others. A good Christmas or otherwise was always our responsibility, to the extent that we are God's partners in Creation (read Rabbi Sacks’ book The Great Partnership on this). But who, exactly, is this 'we'? In a political world, deserts are not always just, and are usually unjust, certainly when ill-distributed as a result of the divorce between actions and consequences. The consequences of the actions of some are often visited on others. There is often, usually, a disparity between those who do and inflict most harm and those who are on the receiving end. If that is a question for God, then most of all it is a question for human beings, humanism, and politics. That's the humanist message of this song. Of course, there may be no such thing as justice, just power and survival. What if justice, in the political world, really is merely the interests of the strongest, as the Sophists have said all along. If that delivers Hell on Earth, are we not entitled to cry? To whom, then, do we cry? Caesar? If there is no God, and reality and its injustice just 'is,' then are we even entitled to raise questions?
This is a nice, question-begging, song. To answer those questions in any humanly satisfying way requires a reinstatement of Christmas and the personal God of Love. Because the pagan gods couldn't give a damn for us mere mortals: they never did, never will, and never could - which is why people in time came to look elsewhere. Urban men and women, in decadent times, are romanticizing past nature gods. It's a delusion. You can look to other people, instead. I wish you well. Some will respond, some won't.
Bringing the people so much joy.
‘In a dream I heard a voice say, "Fear not, come rejoice
It's the end of the beginning, praise the new born King"
This must be one of coolest Christmas songs ever. And yet I’ve never heard it once on the radio. Why is that? Do Christmas songs have to be either po-faced and earnest or dumb and bland? I heard a lot of new Christmas songs this year. Drivel, in the main, delivered with all the sincerity of a cash register. Even the ones that had a go lacked the true spirit and sentiment.
I rate this song very highly indeed as a scandalously overlooked Christmas gem.
‘Composed in the style of scripture, the Band’s “Christmas Must Be Tonight” — Robbie Robertson’s ambitious Yuletide gift to his new son Sebastian during the sessions for Northern Lights-Southern Cross — never became the seasonal favorite it should have been. Tucked away inside the 1977 odds-and-ends package Islands, the song remains a too-often-neglected gem. It’s not corny, boozy or jokey enough, I suppose.’
Like John Denver and his new son, so with Robbie Robertson – Jesus will always be young and always deliver hope.
‘This comes to pass, when a child is born.’
‘And all of this happens because the world is waiting,
Waiting for one child
Black, white, yellow, no-one knows
But a child that will grow up and turn tears to laughter,
Hate to love, war to peace and everyone to everyone's neighbour
And misery and suffering will be words to be forgotten, forever.’
I remember this one well. I remember my mother constantly trying to tape it on her new Grundig cassette recorder when it came on the radio. And I could never manage to keep quiet long enough for her to obtain a perfect recording. I think its message sunk in, though. Those old tapes still exist somewhere. The Christmas memories certainly do.
"Some Children See Him" was composed by Alfred Burt (April 22, 1920 – February 7, 1954) an American jazz musician who wrote between 1942 and 1954 an annual Christmas carol with an old family friend, Wilha Hutson. He would send the festive song out each year as an annual holiday gift. This was the one he wrote in 1951.
Some children see Him lily white, the baby Jesus born this night. Some children see Him lily white, with tresses soft and fair. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, The Lord of heav'n to earth come down. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, with dark and heavy hair. Some children see Him almond-eyed, this Savior whom we kneel beside. some children see Him almond-eyed, with skin of yellow hue. Some children see Him dark as they, sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray. Some children see him dark as they, and, ah! they love Him, too! The children in each different place will see the baby Jesus' face like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace, and filled with holy light. O lay aside each earthly thing and with thy heart as offering, come worship now the infant King. 'Tis love that's born tonight!
This text points out the purity of the way children embrace the baby Jesus, seeing Him as being just like them. 'This innocent acceptance of a fellow child actually is full of meaning for the rest of us, as children seem to know that God came to be like them so that they could be like Him. As our world has become more global and our experiences more diverse, this carol has truly come into its own. As is often the case, insights of children hold profound truths that are eclipsed by our adult sophistication. 'And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."' (Matthew 18:3). “Some Children See Him” has become the carol that speaks to us in this complicated world of the purity of faith and the immensity of God-with-us.'
'So tell me pretty baby, when your birthday shall be.
On the sixth day of January my birthday will be
When the elements shall tremble and the stars will dance with glee.'
Listen carefully to this song. It’s a beautiful carol beautifully sung, of course. I've always been a huge fan of Mary Hopkin. I love her voice, as clear as a bell and very pure. A wonderful singer from Wales, I first heard her about the same time the family started to go to wonderful Wales for holidays. I’ve been attached to Wales ever since. But listen closely to the song and note the reference to the 6th of January. This is not insignificant. The switch from the Gregorian Calendar to the Julian Calendar was not universal, not even in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom was not united at all. Many among the Welsh did not recognize the English aggrandizement involved in an enforced union, rejected the right of the English Crown to change the calendar, and continued to celebrate Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar. Peace on Earth! A beautiful carol sung by a beautiful Welsh voice – with a little undertone of Welsh independence, albeit affirming a greater Love that unifies us beyond the political divisions that separate us. As protest songs go, this is very gentle. And in keeping with the very interesting history of this carol.
How a Christmas carol links medieval England to the modern Middle East
Mary Joan Winn Leith
'Ever since I first discovered it in college, the “Cherry Tree Carol” has been one of my favorites. Its surprisingly risqué story line shines an unexpected light on the familiar Christmas Journey to Bethlehem from Luke 2:4–5: Joseph walking alongside the donkey and Mary, very pregnant, perched on its back. Creatively building on gospel narrative, the song fills in the gaps of the brief Nativity stories in Matthew and Luke. How endearing and wholly human, that Joseph might have had trouble fully coming to terms with his wife’s mysterious pregnancy despite the angel’s reassurances (“…do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”) in Matthew 1:20! Mary and Joseph in the cherry orchard recalls, of course, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There, trouble with fruit led to big trouble for humanity, trouble that the baby in Mary’s womb will set right. In this somewhat feminist counter-story, a man is put in his place by a woman—with God’s full cooperation!
Like many carols, the “original” version of the Cherry Tree Carol comes from the Middle Ages. It appears in a set of Bible-based “Mystery Plays,” known today as the “N-Town Plays,” that were performed in the English Midlands around 1500.'
'Scripture scholar Mary Joan Winn Leith, blogging at Bible History Daily, sees parallels between the parents of Jesus and the original parents of mankind. While Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, Mary and Joseph are in a cherry orchard. In both case, there’s a tussle over fruit.
But in addition to her musing about the song’s meaning in light of salvation history, Leith traces the carol’s roots far beyond medieval England—to “early Christian communities of the Middle East who worshiped in Syriac, a liturgical (religious) form of Aramaic, the language of Jesus.”
“I like to imagine ‘Latin’ Crusaders hearing the Syriac Joseph and Mary dialogue performed at Christmas in the Church of the Nativity,” Leith writes. “Captivated by the hymn, they adopted and adapted it to become part of the developing English Mystery play tradition, a tradition we can thank for the Cherry Tree Carol.”
Leith’s short essay is a good reminder of a rich tradition, and the fact that not all carols are about white Christmases or decking the halls.'
This exquisitely melancholy and evocative carol, imagining the Nativity in a snowy Northern landscape, was originally written by Christina Rossetti as a Christmas poem for an American magazine, Scribner’s Monthly, in 1872.
Ian Bradley wonders about its theology. ‘Is it right to say that heaven cannot hold God, nor the earth sustain, and what about heaven and earth fleeing away when he comes to reign?’
Yet few carols can express the quiet heart of Christmas more movingly. It was set to music by Gustav Holst for the 1906 edition of The English Hymnal – the poignant and simple tune is known as ‘Cranham’.
I love Holst. If you can, get hold of a copy of the DVD documentary on Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter.
'The first ever full-length film about Gustav Holst, composer and revolutionary - a man who taught himself Sanskrit; lived in a street of brothels in Algiers; cycled into the Sahara Desert; allied himself during the First World War with a 'red priest' who pinned on the door of his church 'prayers at noon for the victims of Imperial Aggression'; hated the words used to his most famous tune, I Vow to Thee My Country, because it was the opposite of what he believed; and distributed a newspaper called the Socialist Worker. Holst's music - especially the Planets - owed little or nothing to anyone, least of all the English folk song tradition, but he was a great composer who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he was 60.'
You can’t beat the traditional carols!
This one is a favourite from ages ago. It did used to get airplay back in the 1970s, and I loved it. But then it disappeared. Gilbert is a fine singer-songwriter. Simple lyrics, but true. It seemed negative when I first heard it, an inversion of Bing Crosby’s seemingly obligatory dream of a White Christmas. But it conveys a positive message of peace, and marks how far we still are from that Christmas Dream.
‘All I'm dreaming of the whole day long
Is a peaceful peaceful world.’
I love this one! I can remember going out on my rounds in the neighbourhood, working in the snow. A neighbour stopped me for a chat, told me to go home and put my feet up. I love the snow, I said, and started singing this tune: ‘Watch me now, here I go, all I need’s a little snow ...’ The neighbour quickly went, wearing a nervous expression. And so did I, with a smile, singing as I went.
'Crazy things, said an' done, Every single day but one! Every night should, I believe, Be the same as Christmas Eve, Nights should all be silent, Days should all slow down, An end to the hurry, the noise and the worry! And I hope you believe that too! It's Christmas, Remember? Does no one remember?'
I sing this one! Here's my version.
‘The whole world needs, a Christmas dream,
We need it to warm us, to calm us, to love us,
To help us to dream our Christmas dream!’
Also worth checking, Frank Sinatra, Christmas Dreaming (A Little Early This Year)
We’re still dreaming.
‘Someday at Christmas there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth.’
All are equal and free and no one has fears.
Rejoice! A song of praise. The world has been renewed.
Gaudete is a Finnish carol or, perhaps, a Swedish carol first published in the medieval songbook Pia Cantiones in 1582. It is a Christmas song of praise honoring Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary, rejoicing that the time of salvation and grace has finally come.
Joy, Fortitude, and Patience
Holy Mother Church knows that it is easy for us to get distracted by "the cares of the world," and overly sorrowful due to the trials of life. That is why she rouses us to joy in the Entrance Antiphon of Gaudete Sunday, which comes from Paul's letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near." This text in Scripture continues: "Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." We can all reflect: in what ways am I overly anxious about the cares of life? In what ways have I let despair and self-pity conquer my hope? Jesus revealed the ways of the kingdom to us in his words, so that, as He said, "my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."
This is a particular favourite of mine, among many particular favourites. Elvis was born on January 8th, a day which Orthodox Christians celebrate as Christmas Day (on or around the 7th). I mentioned this song to my brother when I was in hospital over Christmas 2016, and he said the song had been banned on account of the last line being too sad. ‘I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.’ I’m a dreamer. We're all dreaming of going home. I didn’t get home for the 25th December. I did make it for the 8th January, though. I had an extended Christmas. Or a real Christmas. Depending on which day you identify as Christmas Day. I'll try them all out for size. I'm very open-minded. We will all get home one day. Such is my belief.
This is another song that used to be played a lot, and then disappeared. ‘Peace and goodwill to all men, and love for a child’ and, as Chris de Burgh asked when writing the song, "what if the star of Bethlehem was a space craft and what if there is a benevolent being or entity in the universe keeping an eye on the world and our foolish things that we do to each other?" Jesus was the original E.T., as someone put it to the brothers in my R.E. class at De La Salle. The brothers ran with the idea.
We can think things over if we like. Some folk even spend their time arguing pointlessly with the angry, bigoted, semi-educated half-heads who populate politics and social media (not that I bear them a grudge for daring to argue back at me). Others just ‘simply’ have a wonderful Christmas time. OK, fine, this is one of those songs that tends to annoy folk after the umpteenth play. But there is room for simple-minded joy, if it's not forced or fake or enforced - I've been happy in the middle of it often enough to know it to be real.
And give thanks for the love and happiness. This from a band I always loved, but who did sing a song telling God ‘I don’t believe in you.’ Interesting point: 'Did you make us, or did we make you? And the devil too?' The Christmas we get, we deserve? I’d just say that when we get round to making these created gods and devils, we use a standard which says love, peace, happiness, justice, freedom, goodness, and kindness are the things to aim for, common ends to share in our earthly fellowship. Not devils. We go wrong when, in our thoughts and deeds, we make devils. I'm sure XTC would agree. We have a transcendent standard, then, and in our mind's eye hold a vision of the true, the good and the beautiful. Which is, broadly speaking, the idea, I think. And give thanks for it.
Home is the same in any language. And there is always that temptation to get a little withdrawn in our home comforts at Christmas, when we should be opening out to the world. But it all starts from and returns to rest at home. Oikophilia is love of home. We're going home.
‘Sentimental city, proud and pretty, burning bright.’
I'm not sure I’d describe Liverpool as pretty, but it has immense pride and splendour. And I can vouch for the fact that the wind on the front cuts you to the bone.
I should also put here Peter Coyle’s Christmas in Liverpool, reminiscences about familiar family Christmases.
I love the wintry sound on this. The lyrics, however, are seriously .. troubling. This is an oddity among Christmas songs. The snowman is not really a snowman, but a real man that has frozen to death, and with whom the kids are playing in the snow. Gee. I like to throw the odd one in. Try Scott Walker's Christmas song, my word, you need a couple of bottles of sherry to warm you up after that one. (That's why I play it a lot, any excuse for my Christmas tipple. It's only once a year. It's just that in only being once a year, I make it last).
‘And what have you done?’
This is a special one. Inclusive. For all: the old and the young, weak and strong, black and white, rich and poor. If that sounds simple, then try and live by it in a divided world. Divided we stand, united we fall. Try living that ethic to see how hard it is. Impossible?
‘I was born in Bethlehem
2,000 years have passed since then
And I've done what I can
To be there when a man can't find a friend.’
To whom do the friendless cry?
For anyone who needs a helping hand. Because the abstract ‘we’ of the world isn’t always around to help and isn’t always capable of helping.
‘No matter where I wander
I'm always in your sight
And so, my friends, to you my love
Upon this Christmas night.’
I've been looking for a Françoise Hardy Christmas song. I don't think she believes in Christmas. Song of Winter is very good, though. And it did make the BBC's Christmas Top of the Pops show in the UK. I'd listen to Françoise singing 'Jingle Bells' or 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.' She's a cool one, though. Dalida keeps it traditional, white but warm rather than icy. Here's an interesting fact, both Dalida and Françoise were born on the 17th January. Which is close enough to Christmas for me. (It depends on the calendar). Dalida's real name is Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti. She was born in Egypt and won the Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954. By the old Julian calendar, epiphany falls on the 19th January. The Fêtes de l'âne I referred to above with respect to The Friendly Beasts is on from 13-21 January. I think this gives ample scope to enjoy Christmas at length.
I’m looking for Mireille Mathieu’s “Chante Noël.” From that, this:
And it’s always nice to see and hear Tino Rossi again.
Whilst this is an old tune, we know it in the UK as the tune to "The Red Flag."
I don't mind Mireille Mathieu, but I much prefer Françoise Hardy. Unfortunately, the ethereal Françoise never sung any Christmas songs. Or The Red Flag. She did sing Des Bottes Rouges De Russie though.
Going home. Simple gifts. It's a popular theme. Don't knock it. I don't mind some heavy intellectualizing, but the truest truths are simple and within reach of each and all. Some humility, please! And some recognition of the truths engraved on the human heart would go a long way to digging us out of the problems we get ourselves into. It's a lesson that the great philosopher Immanuel Kant learned from Rousseau. Kant was particularly struck by Rousseau's moral vision of simplicity and integrity. He wrote: "I feel a consuming thirst for knowledge and a restless desire to advance in it, as well as a satisfaction in every step I take. There was a time when I thought that this alone could constitute the honor of mankind, and I despised the common man who knows nothing. Rousseau set me right. This pretended superiority vanished and I learned to respect humanity." Knowledge is affective as well as cognitive - there is an emotional intelligence at work, and it stronger and more enduring than other forms. Clever folk need to remember that, or learn it in the first place.
Jona Lewie always denied that the song was a Christmas song, claiming it was a protest song. It’s for love and peace and home and is against war, it has bells and trumpets. That makes it a perfect Christmas song. That’s the message, surely, getting through to the politicians in charge to ‘stop the cavalry.’ Once we've absorbed that message ourselves and learned the ways of peace.
OK, you who know this one will love it like an old friend. I remember it coming out in 1973 and loving it from the very first. Me and our Mike along with a million others would scream out: “It’s CHHHRRRIIIIIIISSSTTTMMMAAAAAASSSS!” Come on, you all did and you know it!
I was sat in my hospital bed Christmas Eve night 2016 when this came on the TV. I was on my own and feeling very far from home. This was like being visited by a cheery old friend and had me jumping around on my bed. That wasn't wise. I was recovering from a massive heart attack and the nurses were testing me regularly worried about a spike in my temperature. This must have sent me up a few notches.
What a joyous song, though!
‘Look to the future now, it’s only just begun.’ We would sing this very loudly, and make the elders wonder about what the rest of Christmas had in store for them. Don't listen to the mockers and the knockers, join in with the rockers. Tin hats and ear plugs and a strong drink recommended.
This is another favourite from youth. I remember seeing Mud do this on Top of the Pops back in the day, with Les Gray saying ‘Merry Christmas Elvis, wherever you are’ at the end. As Elvis fans, we all loved this bit. Elvis was my favourite singer then, as now, and we still have no idea where Elvis is, or ever was. But Merry Christmas Elvis!
Talking of whom …
As some indication as to what Elvis was up against when he burst onto the scene, writer Irving Berlin wrote to radio stations in the US telling them not to play this version of his song. If you want my not so humble opinion, Elvis’ version is cheery, light, and swinging, and knocks spots off all other versions of what, to be honest, I always considered to be a dreary song. It's a standard, true, and deservedly so. It was almost like a hymn, and treated with due reverence. Elvis lightened the mood. Berlin should have got down on his knees and thanked Elvis for what he did to the song. This is my favourite version. But each to their own. I was young way back when, and impatient for the jollities and frolics of Christmas to commence. I see the song in its true beauty now. The warm rosy glow of nostalgia for Christmases past, the good memories made with family and friends, now attach to the song. And, of course, I love Bing’s version now. There’s room for all good things in a good world.
Christmases are not what they used to be... I heard elders telling me that when I was acquiring the Christmas memories I now cherish, thinking that these were the best times ever. I know the sentiment. It’s one for those who want to be alone awhile with those memories that can no longer be shared. And then, if you are wise - and fortunate - you get back to making some new ones for others to reminisce over one day.
I’ve heard loads and loads of stories about this one, suggesting that Bowie treated it as a joke and as an attempt to make it big with American audiences, as though the song was beneath his talents. I have even heard Bowie himself, jokingly, say ‘forget Bing Crosby.’ Only a philistine would forget Bing Crosby. You have to be really insecure to try to appear ‘cool’ by putting down Crosby. So I’m having none of it. Call me naïve, but Bowie seems very sincere delivering the lyric here. I knew Bowie fans who loathed this. I thought it was Bowie’s best song by a billion miles, (apart from "Under Pressure" with Queen, which he also spoke of with disdain – some people take themselves far too seriously. Bowie crucifies Brel’s "Amsterdam," and yet those same cool critics rave about it. Rubbish. I know Brel and his music like the back of my hand. Bowie’s "Amsterdam" is weedy, an abomination, weak. But here, Bowie is majestic, reaching levels he rarely reached in his 'performance' music. Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy is beautiful and powerful. This was recorded on 11 September for Crosby's 1977 television special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. Crosby died a month later on October 14, 1977. It's just my view. I may be wrong. It has been known. I think this is Bowie's best. This is my dad's favourite Christmas song, although in a much older version going back to his school days.
Peace on Earth can it be? Years from now, perhaps we'll see? See the day of glory See the day, when men of good will Live in peace, live in peace again.
I pray my wish will come true
For my child and your child too
He'll see the day of glory
See the day when men of good will
Live in peace, live in peace again
Peace on Earth
Can it be
This one takes me back to student days, Christmas, early-mid eighties. For some reason, despite making a lot of good friends at Liverpool JMU (as it became), I spent Christmas alone. Gee, I was impossibly young then. Come to think of it, I still am.
Simple, heart-felt lyric, delivered with great warmth. I have a soft spot for Keith Whitley. He spent his short life trying to outrun his demons. Sadly, he didn’t win that race. But he left us this.
‘tonight he'll make a million dreams appear
While he wishes that his own dreams would come true this year.’
‘I want peace on earth for Christmas
In a world where there's not one hungry child
They would hope and faith
Conquers fear and hate
All I'm asking for is a little more love.’
Simple country song. But why the need to complicate something when it is already true?
More country Christmas, Christmas morning once upon a time. Once upon a time never comes again, said that famous old song. In all truth, once upon a time comes around at the end of every year.
‘Poor George,’ I said to the nurse checking I was still alive, as the TV news in hospital reported George Michael's death Christmas 2016. She didn't say anything, probably having heard it all day, and dealing with life and death every day of every year. It was a close escape for me, too, 'last Christmas.' I was in good company, though. I’d been put off George Michael early on, after having to share a railway carriage with a gang of girls at the back who were Wham! fanatics and sang every damned Wham! song they knew, which was a lot. That, frankly, made for a very, very long journey. Imagine the sounds of strangulated cats being continually prodded with red-hot pokers in sensitive places. It was worse than that. Much worse. But the girls still loved him years later. I have a soft spot for George. And he was the best singer at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert too. Poor George. Listen without prejudice.
And poor Rick Parfitt, who popped his clogs the day before George. I was sat there in the bed wondering if I'd make it a hat-trick. ‘It’s Christmas time, wake up, and find it’s snow outside.’ I've loved the Quo for years and years, great band.
I didn’t get snow. But I did get the message. ‘Give thanks for all you’ve been blessed with, and hold your loved ones tight. For you know the Lord’s been good to you, on a snowy Christmas night.’ You can't beat Elvis at Christmas.
I do remember getting a train set once. It must have been … interesting .. watching me trying to put the tracks together. I remember having difficulties. Which is not good, when all I want to do is see a train go round. And even then, not for long. I remember thinking 'is that it?' The train goes round. Wonderful. The real fun was setting up. ‘All is calm, all is well.’ Not when I'm trying to put things together, they're not. I was never given another train set.
'Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed?'
Probably. But I was always a night owl.
Roger Miller wrote this song in 1967 for his new son, Dean Miller. It’s that theme again. Released that year, it ended an eight-year ban on Christmas single releases by the Smash label. Good thing too!
And maybe down in Memphis, Graceland is all in lights
And in Atlanta Georgia, there’s peace on Earth tonight ..
Merry Christmas Elvis! Wherever you are.
'there's peace on Earth tonight'
Simple words about the sights and sounds, hopes and joys of Christmas, expressed in sentimental tones to make peace and unity seem possible.
'God bless you all.
We love you.
Happy New Year.
Goodnight.
Merry Christmas!'
Self-explanatory. Just make sure to stock up the memory bank as you go along.
‘And the blind gained sight
As we met our light
Oh the joy and fight
The gift of life’
ONE WILD LIFE SOUL by Gungor
Introducing One Wild Life: Soul, the first album in a trilogy (Soul, Spirit, Body), exploring what it means to live as a human being in this marvellously absurd and extravagant universe.
In their words:
‘This first album in the trilogy is largely the result of a very painful 2014 for us. And as usual for us, heavy doses of pain tend to give birth to heavy doses of music. In 2014 we felt betrayed. We felt judged. We felt homeless. We felt abandoned. But we also felt loved. We felt hope. We felt passion. We felt faith. So we wrote about all of it. From the birth of our daughter to the re-awakening of faith, hope and love-- we wrote about it all. Soul is sight. Why do we credit human beings as being more ’soulish’ than other animals? Because of our minds. Our ability to see and process reality in a different and more self-aware way than other animals. We have the ability with these minds to see differently and therefore react to reality differently than an animal simply ruled by raw instinct. It is this ability to see that we explore on this first volume of One Wild Life. How we see our life is how we experience it.
"These are the days we’ve been given; what will you do with your one wild life?"’
‘Oh, conscience
Where will you carry me?’
Sufjan Stevens is a true Christmas hero. He recorded a whole box set of Christmas songs, some five CDs in total (I think, I lost count). Over the last decade or so, Stevens has released 100 Christmas songs. Some tunes are modern originals, while others are from auld lang syne (including "Auld Lang Syne.") The music is spread across 10 albums available for purchase in two volumes, Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold.
Here, a fan has ranked every one of the songs he has recorded in his immense tribute to Christmas. Sufjan Stevens' 100 Christmas songs
‘This is perhaps the best compliment I can give the music: listening to these songs ad nauseam has not made me sick of them.’
Sufjan Stevens, we salute you!
Seeing stars yet?
The music seemed to come from afar.
It really doesn’t get any better than this.
‘Valley's deep and the mountain's so high
If you want to see God you've got to move on the other side.’
Now this, I read repeatedly, is not a Christmas song. It is ‘mistakenly’ thought to be a Christmas song. If it sounds Christmas …. Jesus as the saviour of us all. The writer dedicated the song to all who have died as a result of drug abuse. ‘Don't try to fly, dear God, you might not come down.’ Go to the other side, I say.
‘(Dreaming) So quiet and peaceful
(Dreaming) Tranquil and blissful
(Dreaming) There's a kind of magic in the air
(Dreaming) What a truly magnificent view
(Dreaming) A breathtaking scene
With the dreams of the world
In the palm of your hand
(Dreaming) A cosy fireside chat
(Dreaming) A little this, a little that
(Dreaming) Sound of merry laughter skippin' by
(Dreaming) Gentle rain beatin' on my face
(Dreaming) What an extraordinary place!
And the dream of the child
Is the hope of the, hope of the man.’
I love a bit of Queen at Christmas, my favourite band by a mile. I miss Freddie Mercury. I would always get an Elvis album at Christmas, until 1979, when I got a Queen album. I remember getting Queen's last album "Innuendo" Christmas 1992, after Freddie Mercury died. It was like saying goodbye to my youth. I distinctly remember that feeling. But "Made in Heaven" came out in 1995, and this beauty of a song was on there.
I got a guitar for Christmas back in 1978. And a Bert Weedon Play in a Day book. I never got past the first song in that book, Bobby Shaftoe, a song for which I have a particular loathing. That book could have been designed to put people off playing guitar. Why are these guitar books packed with songs no-one would want to play, even if they could?
‘"I really didn't want to cut it because it was such a bad song. So me and one of the musicians worked on it for about an hour putting a melody to it and we put a bridge to it," said Helms, telling The Indianapolis Star about "Jingle Bell Rock" in 1992.’
Well I like it. Kind of. For a while. It’s got bells in it.
‘You ask me where did I fall
I'll say I can't tell you when
But if my spirit is strong
I know it can't be long
No questions I'm not alone
Somehow I'll find my way home’
Elvis. In black leather, in the heat of Burbank Studios, California, in the summer of 1968, singing about Christmas and playing the blues. In a duet with a singer who, born in 1966, was just two years old at the time of the original recording. It all makes some kind of sense.
Why? As everyone challenged with a pertinent, and unanswerable, question this time of year replies: ‘Because it’s Christmas.’
I remember being at school, 1978, the height of the punk rebellion. All the lads were choosing their favourite songs in the charts of the day. When it came my turn I chose Barry Manilow’s ‘I Can’t Smile Without You.’ I got many peculiar looks, as people tried to work out if I was being sarcastic. I was so dead-pan. I must have been being sarcastic, I think they thought, and moved on. I wasn't. I was deadly serious. I’d still choose it over punk. I know someone whose wife dragged him kicking and screaming to a Barry Manilow concert. He came back saying it was the greatest concert he’d ever been to. There’s room for all good things. I embrace multiplicities.
This came as a revelation to my granny when she heard it for the first time. A side of Elvis she didn’t know existed. It's the authentic Elvis. Elvis loved Christmas. He had Max Bygraves’ SingalongaChristmas in his record collection at Graceland. I kid you not.
No Christmas list would be complete without Cliff. He’s lived it, lived it well, and taken the criticisms. Cliff sings well, and he's still standing.
Candles, bells, snow, mistletoe, carols, all these things and more. Candles, bells, snow, mistletoe, carols are a good start, though.
Songs as a humbly offered gift. And as a search for truth.
“Beauty is the last bastion of evangelisation in our culture, and part of that is because it is one of the only things people are idolising any more,” says Audrey Assad. “It was Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II who really cemented in my mind that beauty was something worth pursuing, that it still has a place in people’s lives, and if we strive for it then we can turn them on to truth and goodness as well. Being the three great transcendentals, they’re all connected – they’re all qualities of God.” Plato made beauty the supreme political category, for the way that it lights the path to truth and goodness and invites the heart to follow. In The Symposium Plato wrote of the divine beauty which is beheld by the eye. That’s a very different notion from the subjectivist assertion that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
‘And the wheels just keep on turning / The drummer begins to drum.’
The song recalls the night Sufjan Stevens’ dad got everyone out of bed and announced that the family was converting to Catholicism. I'm not sure why that announcement couldn't have waited until the morning. Maybe, in the middle of the night, you are too tired to put up any resistance and, having slept on it, even the worst ideas can come to appear ... if not the best, then unavoidable.
'I feel like I'm doing a disservice to myself, and to my convictions, in speaking publicly about these things, because they're too easily misconstrued,' he says, bristling at the very thought of elaborating on his faith. 'I find in music there's a space and a language I can use to express things in ways I can't describe conversationally. And it always leads to some kind of discussion about politics. There's a good reason for suspicion of faith, but, you know...' He trails off. 'It's 71.5 degrees. We'd better go.'
Michigan, Illinois ... and 48 states to go. Lynsey Hanley talks to Sufjan Stevens, who plans to document the whole of the US in song and has just made one of the albums of the year
Here is theology as harmony.
‘“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” is an easy carol to write about, because I do not have to convince you it is beautiful. Pull up any choral recording, slide over to the penultimate phrase—“amid the cold of winter”—and listen hard to that last word. Between the first and second syllable of winter, the minor chord blossoms into major.
I mean this seriously: What else is there to say? Here is the chill of winter transfigured into an ardent flame; here is theology as harmony. “Lo, How a Rose” even includes an extended pastoral analogy and an allusion to the Book of Isaiah. I’m not a Christian, but I’m at a loss as to what more you could want from sacred music. Kazoos?
Most Christmas carols, and most of our popular music generally, exist for the rhythm or melody. Consider how much mileage “Angels We Have Heard on High” gets out of its cascading glorias, or how much of the fun of “Carol of the Bells” springs from its icy intervals or insistent tempo. But “Lo, How a Rose” exists for the chords. There is almost no rhythmic variation: The four voices move together, syllable after syllable, in patient homophony. This is a hymn about beholding and listening. It’s about watching revelation flourish.’
Proof of the Greater Love that moves all things? None possible, none required. Those still demanding ‘evidence and proof’ are frozen stiff. Move!
I asked my dad if he’s having a holly, jolly Christmas. ‘Yes,’ he replied. He didn't elaborate. Thus ended our theological discussion. I ask him the same question every time this one comes on the radio. In fact, I ask him anyway. He just says 'yes.' And who am I to disagree?
If you love Christmas and you love the blues, then you will find Christmas blues songs irresistible. "Let's Make Christmas Merry, Baby" is a classic by Amos Milburn and his Aladdin Chicken-Shackers. Recorded in Los Angeles on the 1st of October, 1949, this track reached number 3 in the R&B chart in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
It reminds me of another Christmas blues classic, “Merry Christmas, Baby,” of which there are several excellent versions.
"Merry Christmas Baby" is an R&B Christmas standard credited to Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore and originally recorded in 1947 by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, featuring the singer and pianist Charles Brown. Charles Brown tells the story behind the writing and recording of the song: "Leon René had Exclusive Records. They needed a song; Bing Crosby had “White Christmas”. Lou Baxter, who was a songwriter and used to hang around Johnny Moore and the Blazers, said 'Charles, I want you to do one of my songs because I need money.' He had to have an operation on his throat, he had throat cancer. If we did one of his numbers they would give him a $500 advance. So I looked in the satchel, I took the satchel (of songs) home that night and I looked in there, I looked at all them things, and it didn’t impress me. I saw "Merry Christmas Blues", but the idea struck me. I said this would be a good idea, but it wasn’t like what he had written. I wrote the title "Merry Christmas Baby", and I wrote the words, how I was going to sing it, and I mapped it out, played the piano, and I presented it to Johnny Moore. We didn’t know it was going to be a great big hit, but I thought it was unique. Leon Rene said put the celeste on it. I had never played one. He said it's just like the piano, put it on the side of the piano. 'Cause they didn’t have all these synthesizers. He said just play it (on the intro) like you play the piano then get back to the piano. Exclusive never paid copyrights. Hollywood Records took over, lawyers for creditors said artists would get their money, but it never happened. Don Pierce [Hollywood Records] never paid a nickel. Charles lost his letter. When Exclusive Records was sold, the artists/creditors got nothing. Leon Rene promised the artists the money would come. Never happened."
What did happen was that Johnny Moore's Three Blazers recorded the song, hitting number 3 on Billboard's R&B Juke Box chart during the Christmas season of 1947. Moore, a guitarist, was accompanied by Charles Brown, bassist Eddie Williams and guitarist Oscar Moore (Johnny's brother, then a member of the King Cole Trio)
Of the many versions of the song, I would single out those by Chuck Berry, Booker T. & the MGs, Otis Redding, Elvis, Bruce Springsteen, and Bonnie Raitt.
I do like Elvis’ version, I have to say.
Sticking with the soul theme, some Northern Soul!
I like a bit of Northern Soul. This was a contrived slice of Northern Soul, but it's perfectly good. Why? Because it's Christmas!
Gee whizz, this is Rufus Thomas' daughter! Fantastic soul star.
A cracking bit of soul.
Chill out. I have vague conscious memories of this from when I was very young, but strong subconscious ones. I can’t place it in my mind, but it lies deep in my heart. I know it intimately. This is one of those simple, easy instrumentals that were once a staple of the radio, long, long ago in my youth. This is from 1963, two years before I was born. But that melody haunts, in a pleasant and reassuring way. It seems like the 1960s to me. Or my very first years. The world at peace. Just lie back and get absorbed into the emotional simplicity, and solitude and silence.
‘Ironically, to this day Pursell has never met “Our Winter Love’s” composer, Johnny Cowell, has never spoken to him, nor until a month ago, did he even know what he looked like. Many years ago, he simply reworked a demo Cowell had sent with a form letter in a brown envelope and transformed it into a timeless classic, earning for Cowell (in theory anyway) a whole bunch of money as the song’s sole composer.
In exchange, Pursell never asked for a single dime — which is, as one might expect, exactly what he got.
That doesn’t change the fact that “Our Winter Love” has carved out a small but meaningful niche for itself in the annals of pop history, and has become for many a song for the ages; a remarkable little melody that can be evocative, wistful, romantic and slightly melancholy, all at the same time.
And while the song has never achieved one of those Hollywood-fueled moments of rediscovery, such as the ones enjoyed by other long-lost instrumentals like Link Wray’s “Rumble” or Dick Dale’s “Miserlou,” it remains a song near and dear to countless people’s hearts.
And given its haunting, lilting and ethereal piano, and the extraordinary success that Windham Hill Records would go on to achieve a few decades later with virtually the same sound, I suppose it’s not a stretch to call “Our Winter Love,” the world’s very first New Age hit.’
‘Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love’
The song's Spanish title, "Viva la Vida", is taken from a painting by 20th-century Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In Spanish "viva" is an expression used to acclaim someone or something, so "Long Live Life" is an accurate translation and the painting reflects the artistic irony of acclaiming life while suffering physically. When asked about the album's title, referring to Frida Kahlo's strength, enduring polio, a broken spine, and a decade of chronic pain, lead singer Chris Martin said: "She went through a lot of pain, of course, and then she started a big painting in her house that said 'Viva la Vida', I just loved the boldness of it."
"It's a story about a king who's lost his kingdom, and all the album's artwork is based on the idea of revolutionaries and guerrillas. There's this slightly anti-authoritarian viewpoint that's crept into some of the lyrics and it's some of the pay-off between being surrounded by governments on one side, but also we're human beings with emotions and we're all going to die and the stupidity of what we have to put up with every day. Hence the album title."
This song has a Jerusalem bell on it. Jerusalem means city of peace. Ring them bells!
One of Liverpool’s finest. Billy Fury.
Amazing how, at the end of a year spent outraging morals and being .. outrageous, Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaffirm a very traditional, and very true, moral. I’ve been to Hollywood.
Long live life!
The Wexford Carol (Irish: Carúl Loch Garman, Carúl Inis Córthaidh) is a traditional religious Irish Christmas carol originating from County Wexford and, specifically, Enniscorthy (whence its other name). It is one of the oldest extant Christmas carols.
This is one of Ireland’s oldest Christmas Carols and is one of the oldest surviving Carols in the European tradition. Dating back to the 12th century the Wexford Carol is also known by its first line “Good people, all this Christmas time.”
Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son
With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.
The night before that happy tide,
The noble Virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark right well what came to pass
From every door repelled, alas,
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble ox's stall.
Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep
To whom God's angel did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear
Arise and go, the angels said
To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you'll find, this happy morn
A princely babe, sweet Jesus, born.
With thankful heart and joyful mind
The shepherds went the babe to find
And as God's angel had foretold
They did our Saviour Christ behold
Within a manger he was laid
And by his side a virgin maid
Attending on the Lord of Life
Who came on earth to end all strife.
There were three wise men from afar
Directed by a glorious star
And on they wandered night and day
Until they came where Jesus lay
And when they came unto that place
Where our beloved Messiah lay
They humbly cast them at his feet
With gifts of gold and incense sweet.
‘The closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere
Is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow.’
Or, wherever you may be. It’s true. Christmas is not a place, it’s a state of mind manifested in place.
Real sleigh bells, all God’s children and peace on Earth will come to all, if we just follow the light. It's all in the song.
‘Did you know the jolly Christmas jingle "Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)" was born on the streets of Hollywood? The song has filled the young and old with joy for decades.
Hollywood Boulevard became "America's Santa Claus Lane" when, in 1946, entertainer Gene Autry rode as Grand Marshal of the Hollywood Christmas Parade.
"He heard the kids yelling, 'Here comes Santa Claus! Here comes Santa Claus!' Because Santa Claus was on a float just behind Gene," said Jackie Autry, Gene's widow.’
I’ve been to Hollywood Boulevard! Elvis did a great version of this one, too.
‘I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down’
Not explicitly a Christmas song, it cuts deep to question enforced merriment and joy.
We delude ourselves when we begin to think that a holiday might have all the answers, but "Hard Candy Christmas" is ideal because it celebrates the hope that comes with merely asking the questions.’
This puts the point well:
‘Christmas, to me, has always been an almost unreservedly happy holiday. Yet as I've grown older I've come to resent the way that Christmas is presented as such an overwhelmingly upbeat occasion, as if the act of celebration begins and ends with dancing around a Christmas tree hand-in-hand with a gingerbread man while Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer looks on approvingly. It's a holiday for people who can't wait to scrapbook it and share it on Facebook.’
‘it's draining to hear songs (or to be around people, frankly) that egg on the idea of Christmas as a time of reckless, sleigh bell-filled jubilation rather than a time of respite and quiet reflection.’
OK, 100 Christmas songs might be overdoing the reckless, sleigh bell-filled jubilation. But I do do the respite and reflection at the same time, and I do it right from having been brought up with a true understanding of Advent. The objection applies to those who don’t do this. And knowing hardship, I don't let hard times steal the joy. I celebrated Christmas from my hospital bed in 2016, having come close to dying, and still being close to the danger zone, all wired up.
‘Perhaps part of this reaction has to do with hearing songs like "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" played on a loop many years after that cassette arrived during a stint working at Dillard's (and elsewhere in retail, but that's the poetic one) during the holidays. Obviously that's part of it. But because of that reaction, "Hard Candy Christmas," always a perfect, arresting song, has only grown on me.’
It’s a song that goes ‘way beyond’ the banal Christmas music – I’d say banal in its repetition, there’s nothing wrong with a holly, jolly song as such. I make room for all things in their proper place and perspective, I think.
‘We delude ourselves when we begin to think that a holiday might have all the answers—once again, yes, a common Christmas movie theme—but "Hard Candy Christmas" is ideal because it celebrates the hope that comes with merely asking the questions.’
Celebrating the hope and asking questions is, I think, precisely the point. You earn the joy that is offered that way.
So we can ask for Christmas everywhere, the peace, the joy, the happiness – but it’s a practice. It’s a story of hope, but one you act on. Don’t act, it won’t happen. So it's a song we need sometimes, but not all the time. Dolly Parton does the full range of Christmas songs, and the Christmas shows too.
The Carpenters did a decent Christmas show in 1978. And a very good Christmas song.
I should pick Dana singing It's Gonna Be a Cold, Cold Christmas, just to show that I bear no grudges for her song All Kinds of Awfulness beating the delightful Mary Hopkin in the Eurovision of 1970. It is Christmas, after all, a lime to let bygones be bygones. But I won't.
‘Let heavenly music fill the air
Let anger and fear and hate disappear
Let there be love that lasts through the year’
‘It was clear from the very first spin that Alan Jackson's 2002 Christmas song would be more than just another wannabe standard. First, the voice -- strong and fatherly, warm... like a plate of fresh gingerbread cookies. A gentle acoustic guitar accompanies a story that sneaks in a lesson of morality.
'Let It Be Christmas' is No. 1 on the list of the Top 50 Country Christmas Songs of all time because it's an original that seemed instantly timeless. It even charted that year, something very difficult to do with a swarm of new songs and covers each season. The entire album is a project worth keeping close come December 25. You could do much, much worse.’
'Many people mistakenly assume this Christmas classic has been around for years and that it is of European origin. But it was written in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis as a powerful plea for peace by a man who had experienced the horrors of war.
The song’s message of peace is as desperately needed today as it was then.
Seeking Goodness and Light
That October, as Noel Regney walked through the streets of New York, a sense of despair was in the air. No one smiled.
Regney had endured the horrors of war. He knew the fear and terror of being close to death. The safe and secure life he had built for himself in the United States was on the verge of ending.
Christmas, which was supposed to be a time of peace and goodwill, was approaching. Noel Regney had been asked by a record producer to write a holiday song.
“I had thought I’d never write a Christmas song,” he recalled. “Christmas had become so commercial. But this was the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the studio, the producer was listening to the radio to see if we had been obliterated.
“En route to my home, I saw two mothers with their babies in strollers. The little angels were looking at each other and smiling. All of a sudden, my mood was extraordinary.”
A glimpse of these babies filled Noel Regney’s heart with poetry. The little ones reminded him of newborn lambs. Thus, the song begins, “Said the night wind to the little lamb….”
As soon as Noel arrived home, he jotted down the lyrics. Then he asked Gloria to write the music to accompany his words. “While walking down the street in New York, my mother heard trumpets playing the melody in her head,” explains Gabrielle Regney.
“Noel wrote a beautiful song,” Gloria said later, “and I wrote the music. We couldn’t sing it, through; it broke us up. We cried. Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at that time.”
“Do You Hear What I Hear?” carried a beautiful message close to people in all walks of life. It became a popular Christmas carol, “a song high above the tree, with a voice as big as the sea.” But the message of peace was lost on many people.
“I am amazed that people can think they know the song and not know it is a prayer for peace,” Noel Regney once told an interviewer. “But we are so bombarded by sounds and our attention spans are so short.”
Let us hope and pray that, when it is sung in churches worldwide during the Christmas season, this song of peace will remind us that “The Child, The Child sleeping in the night” came to “bring us goodness and light.”
- Richard W. O’Donnell
It’s the nativity story, retold during the Cold War.
Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker wrote “Do You Hear What I Hear” in 1962, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in response to the existential dread they felt because of the Cold War. “In the studio, the producer was listening to the radio to see if we had been obliterated,” Regney once explained. “En route to my home, I saw two mothers with their babies in strollers. The little angels were looking at each other and smiling.” This inspired the first line of the song: “Said the night wind to the little lamb … ”
With this context, a carol that may feel like a classical standard suddenly seems much more haunting, urgent, modern. Not that it’s not haunting on its own. Like many a great Christmas song, it is one of call and response, and of dramatic shifts in volume and pitch. Each refrain begins with a question sung solemn and low, and then jumps up the scales for the answer. This creates a sense of size, of craning upward for revelation.
The lyrics are impressionistic, writerly, about a chain of communications between objects animate and not; I have always felt a bit frightened at the notion of “a voice as big as the sea.” The mentions of The Child make the song Christian, of course. But when there’s the command for “people everywhere” to pray for peace, the import is beyond any one religion.
Baker once said that because of the fearful mood of the nation at the time, she and Regney had a hard time singing “Do You Hear What I Hear” without crying: “Our little song broke us up.”
There’s reason enough for it to have the same effect today, unfortunately.
Pray for peace people everywhere. Learn its ways. And practice them.
‘Help Them To Learn (Help Them To Learn)
Songs Of Joy Instead Of Burn, Baby, Burn (Burn, Baby Burn)
Let Us Show Them How To Play The Pipes Of Peace’
The way of peace needs to be learned and practised.
‘A spirit stronger than war was working that night, December 1914, cold, clear and bright.
Countries borders were right out of sight. They joined together and decided not to fight.’
‘Let’s go home!’
And on this theme ...
'The Baron made Snoopy fly to the Rhine
And forced him to land behind the enemy lines
Snoopy was certain that this was the end
When the Baron cried out, "Merry Christmas, mein friend!"'
I had a Snoopy necklace once upon a long ago. I am sure it must still be here somewhere. My mum never threw anything personal away. I should have a look. Top dog.
Jazz pianist wrote the music for the "Peanuts" TV specials. This is a classic.
A cool jazz version. Very classy, I like this one very much.
Ring those bells!
It doesn't exist.
‘Stevens has repeatedly told all who will listen that he regards his beliefs as something not to be explored in the public arena of his music. Yes, he has a hugely affecting humanitarian streak running throughout all his work, but this is a man whose multi-faceted approach and sheer dedication to churning it out is only rivalled by someone like Prince. Remember, he still may release an album for every state in the USA, if he doesn’t get distracted by the myriad of other projects that he’s involved with. He's a complicated guy...What's more, anyone who includes a song entitled ''Get Behind Me Santa'' has to be some kind of genius who's obviously NOT taking the birth of our Lord too seriously.
Having said all that, Songs For Christmas does have some beautifully wrought traditional fare. His versions of ''Silent Night'' or ''Once In Royal David's City'' have exactly the kind of delicacy you'd expect from him, while he still has time to rock out (''Put the Lights On The Tree''), get silly ('Come on! Let's Boogey To The Elf Dance!'')and also be quite cynical (''Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!)'') on top of it all. Hardly a straight-ahead Christmas album, then.
Whatever, it's Sufjan Stevens. He's a modern wonder, and now he's just made Christmas better as well!’
Having mentioned 'Silent Night,' here is a nice country version.
I’ve never been keen on Charles Dickens, I must admit. But I always loved A Christmas Carol, ever since we read it in Miss Forkin's second year class at Windleshaw Juniors. I’ve never been too keen on musicals, either, so the idea of a musical Scrooge never appealed. But in my hospital bed, Christmas 2016, this 1970 film starring Albert Finney came on, so I gave it a go. And I loved it. And this jolly tune had me bouncing on my toes. When I got out of bed, that is.
‘I feel as if another life’s begun for me.’ I took that message home with me. New beginnings are always possible.
I’m not sure that this is how the world of politics could ever go in resolving our problems of poverty, inequality, and injustice. But you have to start somewhere. And you start with the sense of rightness and with little acts of kindness, and the hope efforts can come together and something can be done in that direction. And a jolly tune always helps.
I also watched this from my hospital bed. You'll see and hear nothing better.
And I also watched this from my hospital bed. You'll see and hear nothing better.
This was written on the eve of yet another war.
Find yourself a place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place?
Only in our Christmas dreams, which we strive to make real.
A popular light orchestra standard composed by Leroy Anderson, sleigh bells jingling. And … the track was recorded in Los Angeles in the heat of the summer.
I need to get hold of Rumer’s Burt Bacharach album, she's very good. Try to hear her song "Butterfly," you'll see what I mean.
Here's the view from Manchester, reindeers off for their first flight.
‘And maybe tomorrow
Were gonna see
Things I'd never believe
I'll make you want me you'll see
The initial morning of spring
Only two reindeer
Oh what a sight
As they take their first flight
I will, I will
We wait until
For them into the sky.’
Unafraid to be simple, straight and emotional, Manchester’s very own Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy), delivers a completely unironic Christmas love song. And that makes this a precious gem in an age all too prone to lower its sights by way of cynicism. Watch the reindeers take their first flight and follow!
‘For a movie critical of holiday music, though, About A Boy pulled no punches when it came to its own contribution to the songbook. Written by Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy), "Donna and Blitzen" skips the jadedness of the movie's early acts and goes right for the emotional fragility. It's a lovely, sentimental piano ballad that, in a different world, could've been a sunnier companion piece to "Fairytale of New York." If Gough earns any royalties from this one this year, I hope he buys himself something nice.’
In a different world? That’s the point isn’t it? To break out of a world weighed down by war and misery, and the cynicism and hopelessness and tiredness that all of that nonsense breeds, to break into a world of peace and joy. Take flight with those reindeers! I will!
Glad to say, that as everyone was packing up and returning to droning their lives away, under orders from a capital and commerce that declared Christmas ended with the Christmas shopping, we were singing this one at Church, announcing that it’s still Christmas, whatever the money-men decree. Any ordering that needs to be done in my life comes from principles established outside of the world of monetary calculation, thank you very much indeed.
Ella Fitzgerald takes it slower, and finds even more beauty.
We sang this one at Church, too. Timed, of course, correctly, with the visit of the three wise men or magi to the crib. The Quest of the Magi. The carol centres around the Biblical Magi, who visited Jesus during his Nativity and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh while paying homage to him. Though the event is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew, there are no further details given.’
‘With simple naïveté, “We three kings” outlines its narrative in a manner with which children might identify. Though in triple rhythm, this is not a dancing tune like many of the more traditional carols, such as “Good Christian friends, rejoice.” “We three kings” is usually performed in a more plodding three, giving the feel of the long journey of the magi.
The imagery of the star is central to the Epiphany season and the narrative. The refrain focuses on the star and invites us to join the magi in following its light—“guide us to thy perfect light.”
‘Guide us to thy perfect light.’
A Christmas song from the remarkable, and endlessly nourishing, Jacques Brel, the man who takes our hopes and fears, and earths them, makes them real. Like a true priest.
The light will come out
That eternal traveler
My heart in vain sought
But who was in my heart.
Incredibly moving. To go with that perennial favourite Christmas film, The Wizard of Oz, which I enjoyed immensely in my hospital bed. Nothing clever. Just simple emotional truth and honesty - for those who, through loss or lack in some way, are short of joy and happiness at Christmas, but still wish it for others, in the hope that, maybe, one day, their day will come.
The writer:
‘On His Favorite Christmas Memory
"My favorite Christmas memory was of being 6 or 7 years old, and my mother decorating the tree. And she was a very artistic woman, and she did sensational Christmas trees, so it was a real joy every year when she would decorate it, and it was a very wonderful moment. That was my favorite Christmas memory."
On How He Views Christmas Today
"I'm really upset by Christmas now. I just hate Santa Claus and the jingle bells and reindeer and the wrapped packages and the holiday push. I hate all of that. I just loved it when it was, well, all my life ago, 90 years ago."
OK, there’s a recurring theme here on how much better Christmases were when we were young, and how Christmas isn’t what it used to be. As I said above, I remember family elders saying this when I was young, experiencing what I, in time, would remember as the best Christmases ever. It’s an illusion. I had a spell of miserable Christmases, because they didn’t measure up to Christmases past. Until I realised that the point of Christmas is to live it, reflect upon it, celebrate it, invoke the spirit, and lose false expectations and measures, all the packaging and the pushing that comes from outside via commerce and inside too via self-absorption. When we enjoyed Christmas in the past, we did so by being thankful for simple gifts, and experiencing simple joy. That can’t be ordered or bought and sold or delivered, because it is something that occurs only in true relation to the things that really matter. And that never changes. You can call back the spirit of Christmas any time. It's the externals that change, the outside pressure, the enforced happiness and jollity, charged at an always exorbitant price. You don't need any of that idiocy.
I have no idea if my mother was ‘a very artistic woman’ or that her Christmas trees could be described as ‘sensational’ in any artistic sense. I thought they were sensational. Just decorating the tree and then gazing at it was always wonderful. I do my own, in my own inimitable style. I think it’s sensational. And the angel I made at school aged six still sits on top, as she always did, promising great things to come.
My own tree! To the tune of Constant Billy. One late night. A little reflection. There's a lot of memories to draw on, to keep you safe and warm.
'There once was a tree, a beautiful tree … wishing he were a Christmas tree...'
I wish I were a Christmas tree, dressed with baubles and tinsel. I could enter Eurovision and win for the UK.
"Simple Gifts" is a Shaker song written and composed in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett.
The song was largely unknown outside Shaker communities until Aaron Copland used its melody for the score of Martha Graham's ballet Appalachian Spring (Shakers once worshipped on Holy Mount, in the Appalachians), first performed in 1944.
I don’t quite know who the Shakers are. (The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing). But I do know who the Quakers are, and one of my favourite thinkers and activists Gerrard Winstanley was a big influence on them.
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.
Gerrard Winstanley wrote of ‘turning the world upside down.’ And in so turning, we turn the world the right way round so that we ourselves come ‘round right. True simplicity. We should have known that God was an old song and dance man. Have a look at the world he created, the evidence is there, within and without.
Bryn Terfel does a fine version of this, too.
As for the Linda Perhacs CD - what a great Christmas present! And a wonderful message.
Many, many years ago now, I made an angel in Miss Rigby's class, Windleshaw Infants. I misunderstood the instructions, as usual, and things were going so badly wrong in the making that I tried to stay off school. My poor mother thought I was being bullied. I refused to go to school, pretending I was ill. But I had to go, seeing as I was perfectly fine. Miss Rigby resolved all outstanding issues with a stapler. And many years later, my angel still soars high. Higher, even, than a golden star. She's held together by more than mechanics. And that's how she holds these Christmases over the years together. She goes up on top of the tree every year, as she has always done, keeping a watchful eye over proceedings. My auntie Mary drew the face when she saw her all blank. She thought I hadn't finished. I had. The face was blank purposely, to stand for no one in particular and for all people equally. I kind of assumed my angel was female. But in terms of race, colour, creed, nationality, gender, she was everyperson. Not that I was aware of any distinctions consciously. I didn't reason any great point on this at the age of six. It just seemed right that way. People are people, and all good things are the birthright of one and all equally, without distinction. Obviously. I have thought of painting the face blank as it was originally. But my auntie Mary's contribution was an original and well-intended contribution on her part, and is now a part of the family Christmas history. And it gives me the opportunity to tell my little story every year. I'm an old traditionalist. Recognising an enabling tradition.
I'm an inveterate lover of Christmas. Incorrigible. Not a hopeless case, though. I'm very hopeful, in fact. Hope renewed every year. An angel helps.
'And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder
I need a little Christmas now.'
Shall we do it again?
Every year, Boxing Day night, my Nin would always say, ‘Christmas is far away as ever now.’ It was that happy-sad moment that the great event was drawing to a close, normality to return, back to work for the elders. But I long ago learned that you keep Christmas in your heart for the rest of the year.
I’m recalling past Christmases, and the sense of meaning, belonging, and community, and looking forward to renewing all of these things with others in the future. If it can all be dismissed as just a dream, it’s no less true that people dreamed it all the same and, more importantly, lived it.
Until next year. When we do it all again.
Til next year then.
'Oh Christmas lights
Light up the street
Light up the fireworks in me
May all your troubles soon be gone
Those Christmas lights keep shining on.'
I've nothing more to add, really. Except that the Latin motto over the stage at 2:28 in this video reads: 'I believe Elvis is still alive.' Elvis is alive and well at our house. Have a look at my Christmas Tree video, you'll see him in the front room, looking good indeed. Merry Christmas! God bless us, everyone!
And Merry Christmas Elvis! Wherever you are. (Possibly somewhere hot, if judged on this. You really can't beat the traditional carols)
