Saturday, December 12, 2009

Carols?

For the length of this song, every time I hear this I am a Christian again.



I offer you the Bing Crosby rendition because Bing was the frigging bomb. If you don't think so, well, bugger off.

It really doesn't matter who is singing this though. We were running errands today, and I would lay money on Celine Dion being the vocalist. I was sobbing my eyes out while driving. I listen to these lyrics, and I simply want to throw myself at Christ's feet and repent for everything. Including simply being an asshole. Holy Mary, I DO want to fall on my knees and beg.

When the song is over I resume my bound for hell, heathen philosophies.

NO other religious carol affects me the way this one does. Not Silent Night. Not O Little Town of Bethlehem. None of them. Just O Holy Night. Is it the music? Is it the lyrics? I have no idea. This goes all the way back to childhood. Being a former Catholic raised in a fairly old parish I am used to the old hymns and prefer them. Throw some "Christian Rock" at me and I want to barf into my shoes. Churches have their ways, but I've noticed a whoooole lot of guitar etc. in the music of Catholic churches down here. No. A thousand times no. Hymns are meant for organs or orchestras. End of story.

Almost immediately after O Holy Night ended today they went into It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas. I used to DESPISE this song. I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and the Thanksgiving parade each year was hosted by a department store called Gimbels. On Thanksgiving Day the commercials would start, "It's beginning to look a lot like GIMBELS!"

I was like, 7. I wanted to shoot myself. This continued all season.

Turns out that none of those commercials exist on Youtube. Consider yourselves lucky. Oh, I was gonna include it. You know I was.

After the radio folks played that little ditty I was hoping for a trifecta, but I didn't get it. My favorite secular Christmas song:



I grin like a complete fucking idiot every time I hear this song. And I'm dating myself. So what. Screw you. For all I know, you think episodes 1-3 are where Star Wars actually begins.

This song ROCKS. It's cheerful. It's fun. It's absofuckinglutely happy.

I love happy.

As far as I'm concerned it's Billy Squire's best work. Kind of sad, kind of awesome.

An ex-boyfriend of mine went to the ends of the earth to find me an 80s Christmas compilation CD that included this song. It's the only reason I don't hate his guts after he dumped me three times. Three.

My most hated secular songs are Santa Baby and All I Want for Christmas. Flames shoot out of my head when I hear them. So far I haven't seen that godawful Victoria's Secret commercial yet this year. I'm waiting though. Remote in hand.

So. Carols. What are yours? Discuss please. Links to videos would be nice.

5 comments:

squirrelgirl said...

Oh, my favorite "new" holiday song is definitely The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping".

Stacia said...

I TOTALLY agree about the Christian Rock thing. Gag. When I see those commercials on TV, I can't grab the remote fast enough. I grew up attending a Baptist church and still have some connection and comfort from 1 or 2 of the old school hymns. But I can't stand the new stuff. I get they're trying to appeal to young people and all, but I personally do not like the flashing digital marquis, serving up Starbucks, and yeah the added instruments in the "band"... I wouldn't pledge 10%+ of my income to pay for that crap... you know if I wanted to participate in organized religion.

Mellow Diva said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_HdrywerGE

Call me up and I'll sing it to you if you want. :)

Julie said...

That. Was. AWESOME.

and I love that song.

Cyn said...

O Holy Night is a wonderful song. My favorite is the Hallelujah Chorus. I remember singing it in junior high and high school. I would get a natural high singing that song.