some updates
My little group of kind family and friends have enjoyed the music blog, but we forgot some biggies….
Trans Siberian Orchestra is a new standard. Not everyone’s cup off the samovar, but thrilling stuff!
And Vince Guaraldi — the Peanuts Christmas Special soundtrack, from 1965! There’s no way to describe that music, really — although, a little heartbreaking comes to mind — but enough of us liked it that the soundtrack has sold over 4 million copies.
We also forgot to mention Perry Como, who, while unknown to most anyone under 60, really started the whole TV crooner thing. Bing Crosby started the “crooner” genre, but Perry brought it into our living rooms.
My husband, always ready to do the deep dive into music, discovered that Louis Armstrong did another “Christmas in….” besides Harlem, and “Christmas in New Orleans” is more fun.
And in the “unexpected category” there are Cheap Trick, Twisted Sister, and a compilation called “We Wish You a Metal Christmas.”
You can explore that esoteric selection here with lots of links and review. Who knew?! Well, we did, but we’re kind of weird that way.
I won’t address the “do they know it’s Christmas” genre because I’ve come to despise the self-serving social justice pandering, and John Lennon’s Christmas song, while ear-wormish, is just pure marxism. Oddly enough, my every-surprising husband has come to dislike “Santa Baby,” even though Eartha Kitt was from just up the road. He looked at the lyrics and decided it’s more appropriate as a rap song, all that ho-ho-hoe gold-digger attitude of “where’s my stuff Big Guy?” So even we change in our attitude towards the Christmas “spirit.”
There is also a rather charming video of a very young David Bowie, doing the “Little Drummer Boy” with Bing Crosby. I wonder if Bowie enjoyed that over the years. He seems sincere, and is wearing a cross, the only time I ever saw that on the master of androgyny.
Here’s a power lift for your morning – here