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 |  A blog about music from my unique perspective (also a spot for some poetry I’ve written) |
A blog, generally about music, usually for projects hosted by Jeff  . I may also write about the 48-Hour Media Prompt Challenge if I don't feel like writing a story or poem inspired by the given song. Other bits of poetry or different topics of discussion might end up here as well.![Merit Badge in WDC Media Prompt
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My sixth track for "12 Days of "Christmas""  is an instrumental rendition of the Christmas piece Little Drummer Boy by Simply Three.Ouch. That opening bass beat is almost too much. As I said in the last post, I haven't had a chance to hear my Xmas collection in high quality audio until now. This is another track from S3's Lux album, which means the edginess is played up… which basically means they cranked up the bass notes. Despite the whopper drums, which after all is a basic element of a song called "Little Drummer Boy," I still like it. In large part I like it because it has no vocals. Last year I tried listening to For King and Country singing Little Drummer Boy, and I found it so annoying I couldn't bear to finish it. Which is a shame, because apparently they're quite proud of their rendition of it and use it as their Christmas album title. Lyrically speaking, when I first discovered the song years ago, I was puzzled by the anachronistic nature of the story and the fact that it's spiritual yet retro, from the same era as such tacky songs as "Let It Snow" or "Baby It's Cold Outside." I wondered why it's admired by Christians on the same level as the "genuine" Christmas carols of centuries past. Finding the S3 instrumental version taught me to appreciate it for the melody, and this year as I've encountered it in public I can't help appreciating the spirit of the story it tells. (Though I wonder if a newborn baby would really smile at the sound of an army drum…) In fact, I thought the version performed by The Jackson Five was actually pretty good, "rum-pa-pum-pum's" and all. Perhaps I'll add that to my playlist before the year is out so I can finally sit down and listen to the lyrics. Words: 316. |
| My fifth track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is an amusing one. I first discovered Snoopy's Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen way back in 2017 during my first year of taking music especially seriously. We were staying in South Carolina over the holidays, and one particular radio station played it frequently, and it captured my fancy immediately. I thought it was the cutest thing all around: the "moment of mercy" storyline, the idea of singing about Snoopy—one of my favorite characters!—and the hook of the bells ringing through the land. When I mentioned it to Mom, she'd never heard of it. She played me The Royal Guardsmen's "original" Snoopy song, which dismayed me because of the exaggerated bloodshed and the merely superficial similarity to the comic strip. I couldn't imagine what Mom thought was so interesting about it. Obviously, I'd much rather hear the Christmas edition. I'm sitting down on Christmas Eve, playing these songs as I write about them. This is the first time I've listened to Snoopy's Christmas with my "high quality" Bluetooth earbuds I bought for $5 at Dollar Tree this summer. I'm delighted by the binaural sound effects and the clarity of everything, bombs and all  Audio device quality definitely makes a difference. It doesn't cost much to get it surprisingly good these days.The concept here is a classic trope, and one I may use someday in my writing. And with that, I present you a wartime treat. Words: 248. |
| My fourth track is a Christmas favorite from a rare gem of an album, Midnight Clear by Andrew Dale and David Chafe. I'm choosing the title track to introduce them to you, as it was the first one I found from them. I believe it was on BBN, Bible Broadcasting Network, where Mom and I heard this version one evening a couple years ago. We don't usually listen to that radio station, because they play a lot of cringy baritones and exaggerated pipe organs from a century ago. This time, though, Mom liked the singer's voice and the simple, muted production, even though she doesn't usually care for pianos. I Shazamed it, tracked down the album, and added the whole thing to my YouTube account to save it because I keep forgetting their names (in my offline playlist, I have them down simply as "Andrew and David"...) The duo is Canadian; they came together in 2007 solely for this special holiday album and are not affiliated with a band, being more of the classical type of artists. Andrew does the vocals and David plays the piano throughout, and that is all Midnight Clear has in the way of production. This simplicity allows the depth and sincerity of Andrew's voice to shine through. I'm happy to have this on my playlist at last, because it's a song you don't hear often in public. As a kid the lyrics appealed so much to me, I memorized them straight off of that booklet of sheet music I mentioned in the previous post. Which means it's special for me to hear it now as it's supposed to sound rather than how I always had the words laid out in my head. The third verse is somber, different from what I knew as a kid; you can see all the verses on Wikipedia here. And now, enjoy a true Christmas classic  Words: 317. |
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