Counterpoint: My favorite serious holiday-season songs

[thatcrazycajun]

Despite the cynicism inspired by what some have called "secular Christmas," and my own rebellion against my Catholic upbringing and the sins of that church's teachings and policies, and resultant agnosticism, there is more to my musical tastes in this season than simply parody and jaundiced ridicule (example: "Merry Christmas, You Suckers" by Paddy Roberts). I do find some worthwhile purpose in remembering what is most important about the celebrations of the Christ Child's birthday, the solstice, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Chanukah etc. Here are some truly meaningful (to me, anyhow) songs I also enjoy this time of year:

• "O Holy Night"—yes, that hoary, schmaltzy old hymn from 1847 France, especially the dramatic version performed here by Céline Dion. If there is ever a moment when I come close to believing again, it is when I hear or sing this song.
• "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid. The first of the mega-group benefit singles, and forever the best...although Barenaked Ladies did a live-concert version a few years ago (with help from Dido and Guster) that kicks major quantities of ass. And the problem the song was recorded to help fix—Africans' starvation—is, sadly, still with us and much more broadly spread.
• "A Companions' Christmas" by khaosworks. I've been a Doctor Who fan for the better part of three decades now, and for me the companions make the show at least as much as any of the Doctors. I'm a sucker for anything that brings together the Doctor's Secret Army...and Terence did one beautiful job with this one.
• "Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth" by David Bowie and the late Bing Crosby, from one of Bing's 1970s TV holiday specials. It's become a bit kitschy in its aging, but the novelty of the Thin White Duke hanging with Mr. "White Christmas" himself—and singing counterpoint harmony until they both come together as one with a powerful message—still hits me where I live. "Ev'ry child must be made aware / Ev'ry child must be made to care..."
• "Light One Candle" by Peter, Paul & Mary. I've said earlier this month on this page what moves me about this one.
• "Green Chri$tma$" by ad-man/comedy legend Stan Freberg and friends. This may not appear to be a serious song—in fact, it's a combination comedy routine and musical number of the sort Stan made his stock-in-trade, back in the day—but it makes a barbed point about the commercialization of Christmas...and did so seven years before Linus van Pelt brought the same message to TV viewers with a reading from the Bible in A Charlie Brown Christmas. It also got Stan in a whole mess of trouble for biting the hand that fed him; read the backstory here...or in Stan's regrettably now out-of-print autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh from Random House. And unfortunately, the recording is not only still topical today, decades later, but the problem it pokes fun at is even worse.
• And speaking of that very first Peanuts TV special, the kids singing "Christmastime Is Here" always gets to me, no matter how often I've heard it. Maybe it's nostalgia for childhood...or the simple beauty of real children performing from the heart.
• Another TV holiday-special soundtrack song that somehow makes me eight years old again every time I hear it is "Put One Foot In Front of the Other" from the Rankin/Bass clay-animated classic Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. Hearing Mickey Rooney and the late Keenan Wynn singing about how easy it can be to choose good over evil, to do things differently today than you did yesterday, speaks to my own daily struggle.
• "Put A Little Love in Your Heart" by Annie Lennox & Al Green. It was originated by Jackie DeShannon back in 1968...but it took Annie and Reverend Al's energetic, uplifting rendition (and its inclusion as the closing theme of Scrooged) two decades later to put it on my permanent Yuletide playlist.
• Any good, heartfelt version of "Silent Night" or "O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)"—especially one that remembers there are more verses than just the first one everyone and his dog knows. Yeah, yeah, I know; you can take the boy out of the Catholic Church, but...

What songs truly move you to feel the spirit? Tell me about 'em.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

ouisel says that O Holy Night *sucks* in English.... but is gorgeous in its original French. She being a much more discerning student of music than I, I believe it.

Light One Candle is a good one. Peter Yarrow is one of the best...

Speaking of the original: Silent Night in English with some sort of keyboards? SUCKS! The harmony is BORING, and the words childlike. OTOH? Give me a version a la the original (in German, with solo acoustic guitar for accompaniment), and I'm happy.

The soundtrack to the Grinch. Thurl Ravenscroft's impression of what poor Boris *should* have sounded like if he coulda carried a tune in a lidded bucket was bang on, and the song is just FUN, like most good bad guys are. "I wouldn't touch you with a.... thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole!!!!" Whatta line. And the other major bit, "Welcome Christmas".... I didn't used to like it, but like the Grinch's heart, it's kinda grown on me. "Christmas day is in our grasp / as long as we have hands to clasp... "

"Adeste Fideles" done a capella, in a cathedral with good acoustics. You know what I'm talking about.

The Nutcracker Suite... in particular, the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy. Tchaikovsky had the celesta imported from France just for the piece... when I finally got to see the Sendak version here in the PNW, we scored second tier front-row box seats, and I was looking straight into the orchestra pit. During Sugarplum, I totally ignored the dancer.... I was hyperfocused on the celesta. :)

As for Chuck and company... my favorite bits of that are Skating, and the ever-popular Linus and Lucy. (I actually saw somebody play that up close recently. I'm still impressed. The left hand is totally freaking *ignoring* the right hand. :)

Ah, and for just plain choral fun: "Angels We Have Heard on High" (how LONG can you make a single word? Especially with that cool bass counterpoint :).... and a couple pieces from the Messiah, "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" and "Hallelujah".

Oh, and Carol of the Bells, same reason. RIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!

Ummmm.... I'm gonna presume you've heard Wintertide, the Heather/Alec seasonal album? If you have not, my friend, get it. You are in for a treat.

Also, most of the Mannheim Steamroller seasonal stuff. :)

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

Compleeeeeetely off topic, but.... My friend is making a cartoon and she's looking for a photo of the old Wild Maus rollercoaster from Ponchartrain Beach.... Thought I'd pass it along to you just in case....?

She's shadowstripes. She's a very talented artist. Check out her El J and her website if you're interested.

Here's her request:

his is a long shot, here.
oes anyone have any photos of the "Wild Maus" rollercoaster that was in Pontchartrain Beach? We are thinking of using it in the climax of this cartoon I'm working on, as the persistent rumors that "yeah, man, it's always closed for repairs these days 'cause some kid went flying off it and broke his skull" fit all too well with the morbid tone of the song.
hotos of the Beach are rarer than I'd imagine online, despite its place in the hearts of anyone who grew up in New Orleans before it was torn down in the eighties. I just keep finding the same ten photos from the sixties via Google. I vaguely remember it had a dense, boxy shape and some weird graphics but the Internet is failing me.
nyone got some faded photos kicking around in a shoebox or album? Let me know!

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but Pontchartrain Beach closed down long before I moved to NOLA; can't help ya there.

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

Not technically a Christmas song, but "Ave Maria" never fails to hit me in the old emotions.

Have you heard Enya's "Oiche Chiúin?" Basically, it's "Silent Night" sung in Irish Gaelic. Very pretty.

And yes, I'm one of the few who actually likes the Band-Aid song.

[kshandra]

Band-Aid and Bing & Bowie are Christmas for me.

In the "overlooked movie music" category, I'd add "The Closing of the Year" from Toys - whether "overlooked" is qualifying "movie" or "music" in that clause is a push, IMO.

And I second technoshaman's recommendation of WinterTide if you don't yet have it. Far beyond it being a literal once-in-a-lifetime recording, it's just PRETTY.

[erinwrites.livejournal.com]

I've recently been noting how much I love "Do They Know It's Christmas" in spite of the truly awful lyrics. I can't help it. ;)

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

"Christmas in the Trenches," can't remember the author or the artist at the moment. The true story of an informal armistice between British and German soldiers on the battleground on Christmas Eve during WWI. Beautiful and very moving, and a call for peace and brotherhood.

Not a traditional carol, but it certainly espouses the traditional meaning of Christmas for me and never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

[gorgeousgary]

"Christmas in the Trenches" is John McCutcheon's, I believe.

[filkferengi]

Good choices, all! Thanks for sharing some happy memories.