Today's (well yesterday's as I'm a day late) song is Christmastime is Here Again by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Charles Schultz's Peanuts is an enterprise that lasted way too long. Retiring while on top, like Bill Waterson with Calvin and Hobbs and Gary Larson with Farside, hadn't really been done yet. With The Grey Lodge Pub, I hope I end my run while at my peak and try something new rather than suck a great thing dry and have people say "yeah that place used to be good". But rather than dwell on Charles Schultz and Peanuts' decades long crappy end run, today we are going to remember back when Peanuts was at its prime.
A Charlie Brown Christmas is older than I am. That seemed normal to me when I was in grade school, but is now a little hard for me to believe. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the very first notable children's Christmas TV special. Young or old you have to agree that A Charlie Brown Christmas is an masterful production. Solid story, a little humor, and a solid ending. It's the music that really pits over the top.
I remember buying this CD back when I was 25 (20 years ago) and feeling very cool to be into the retro jazzy soundtrack from a touchstone (oooh big word) of my youth. What an urban hipster I must have been back then. Now a days everyone is nostalgic for their youth and it doesn't feel "cool" to like this anymore. Currently cool or not, this is a great album, and it brings back lots of childhood holiday memories and always puts me in a wonderful holiday mood. It wouldn't be Christmas for me without the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Turns out I somehow picked a YouTube Vince Guaraldi Trio mix, so I've been listening to four songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas as I write this. Who could ask for anything more?
Bonus Video (Song Count Stays the Same)
Turns out you can ask for more, because it also turns out there's a super cool video for Matisyahu 's Miracle. The live version is a few days back, so the song count stays the same.
Showing posts with label Xmas music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xmas music. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
30 or so Songs of Xmas # 05 & 06
Today has two featured songs. Fountains of Wayne released a two-song Xmas CD single right after their debut CD. Original rock Xmas songs were still somewhat rare back in those days. Both songs are great (though Man in the Santa Suit is better), so why choose?
This reminds of how annoying CDs were back in the day. You'd have to pop this in for two great songs, then take it out and pop in another. Even with a 5 disk changer, you were changing CDs too often. Being able to manage a giant playlist from my hard drive is way better. Sepia-toned days of youth my ass!
I wonder what Fountains of Wayne is up to these days. Guess I'll go do some Gooling. Catch you tomorrow.
This reminds of how annoying CDs were back in the day. You'd have to pop this in for two great songs, then take it out and pop in another. Even with a 5 disk changer, you were changing CDs too often. Being able to manage a giant playlist from my hard drive is way better. Sepia-toned days of youth my ass!
I wonder what Fountains of Wayne is up to these days. Guess I'll go do some Gooling. Catch you tomorrow.
Friday, November 26, 2010
30 or so Songs of Xmas # 01
It's the day after Thanksgiving, so it's time to start cranking out my collection of Christmas Music.
Back in the day, the early 80s, Christmas rock music was hard to come by. There wasn't much of it, and what there was wasn't available in stores. You would have to wait until an Xmas song you wanted came on the radio and you had to have your cassette recorder ready to tape. Jeez talk about primitive. Music collecting back then really was about the hunt. And the good thing about music collecting is that you can listen to it, rather that just have a useless possession.
By the 90s, some Xmas songs wound up on singles or on greatest hits albums. So you actually could possess the music, but playing it around the holiday was extremely laborious.
How it's the 21st century and I have 100s of Xmas songs on my hard drive. All in the same folder. No labor at all to play them.
I'll post one my favorite Xmas songs every day until New Years. Hopefully I can find each on YouTube, which would take care of any copywrong issues.
My first pick is Sting's version of I Saw Three Ships.
Sting has his share of duds as a solo artist; this sure ain't one of them. I really,really love this song, especially the percussion. The whole sound is really different. Caribbean maybe?
I really like this song despite its seemingly stupid lyrics. There were several YouTubes of this song. I picked one with lyrics (which don't seem to match up 100%, but it's good enough for our purposes here, already created, and free).
Three ships? I guess that's a reference to the holy trinity, but that seems to be stretching it. It could be a reference to the three magi, but they didn't travel with Jesus, they traveled to him. So pretty much the title and overall theme are questionable.
And then there is the line featuring "The savior Christ and his lady". Jesus never married, so who is his lady? I guess that would have to be Mary, but when is your mother ever called "your lady"?
Think about that if you wish, but enjoy the song either way. I do.
Back in the day, the early 80s, Christmas rock music was hard to come by. There wasn't much of it, and what there was wasn't available in stores. You would have to wait until an Xmas song you wanted came on the radio and you had to have your cassette recorder ready to tape. Jeez talk about primitive. Music collecting back then really was about the hunt. And the good thing about music collecting is that you can listen to it, rather that just have a useless possession.
By the 90s, some Xmas songs wound up on singles or on greatest hits albums. So you actually could possess the music, but playing it around the holiday was extremely laborious.
How it's the 21st century and I have 100s of Xmas songs on my hard drive. All in the same folder. No labor at all to play them.
I'll post one my favorite Xmas songs every day until New Years. Hopefully I can find each on YouTube, which would take care of any copywrong issues.
My first pick is Sting's version of I Saw Three Ships.
Sting has his share of duds as a solo artist; this sure ain't one of them. I really,really love this song, especially the percussion. The whole sound is really different. Caribbean maybe?
I really like this song despite its seemingly stupid lyrics. There were several YouTubes of this song. I picked one with lyrics (which don't seem to match up 100%, but it's good enough for our purposes here, already created, and free).
Three ships? I guess that's a reference to the holy trinity, but that seems to be stretching it. It could be a reference to the three magi, but they didn't travel with Jesus, they traveled to him. So pretty much the title and overall theme are questionable.
And then there is the line featuring "The savior Christ and his lady". Jesus never married, so who is his lady? I guess that would have to be Mary, but when is your mother ever called "your lady"?
Think about that if you wish, but enjoy the song either way. I do.
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