Friday, December 14, 2007

The blessings of a poor old man whose heart will soon be clay

Stealing a theme from T$, I realized that there's actually quite a lot of "holiday" music that I like. I'd even go so far as to say that "Alvin & The Chipmunks" still make me giggle a bit when I hear their Christmas ditty on the radio. Everything from The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping to Eartha Kitt's rendition of Santa Baby (and yeah, even Madonna's Betty-Boop version) to the Coventry Carol, and all manner of tunes between those extremes have a place in my December ritualizing.

However, two of my top favorites are the following (click titles for links to videos on YouTube):












2000 Miles by the Pretenders










Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, with the late, great Kirsty MacColl.
My heart still breaks at the following couplet traded between Shane McGowan and Kirsty:
- I could have been someone
- Well, so could anyone... You took my dreams from me, when I first found you


Go ahead and have a listen, both are really good stuff and should manage to warm up even the frostiest of Grinches.

Update 12/18: This morning on "The World" by BBC/PRI, I heard about BBC Radio 1 playing an edited version of the Pogues song above in which the words "faggot" and "slut" are bleeped out (see story here). Ridiculous. That's something I'd expect more from American radio. I wonder if the FCC issues any guidelines on the use of "faggot". Apparently, other BBC channels are still playing the unedited version. Also, apparently Fairytale of New York was voted 'favourite' Christmas song in BBC/VH1 audience polls in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

6 comments:

Stash said...

I go for stuff like the Hallelujah chorus which sometimes moves me to tears.

*shrug*

LadrĂ³n de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

Good choices. I definitely agree about The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping", one of those feel-good-despite-my-cynicism holiday songs. I always get teary when I see the word "late" next to Kristy MacColl's name. For some reason her "Titanic Days" always makes me think of the holidays too -- another optimism in the midst of the current horror albums.

Dave said...

I love that Pogues song too. It was Christmas Eve in the drunk tank...

I also love that song with the barking dogs singing "Jingle Bells."

Papagayo said...

man, kirsty maccoll was the best. great songs here- there's actually a good christmas station on somafm.com, true story.

Salty Miss Jill said...

Yes, great Xmas songs, all. :)
Thanks for the links!

"You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy faggot, merry Chrsitmas your arse, I pray god it's our last".

BigAssBelle said...

i'm with stash. the hallelujah chorus gets me every time.

i have an immense collection of christmas music, none of which was played this holiday season. maybe 10 days of darkness, but mostly lack of interest. my christmas spirit has simply vanished.

hope you are having a blast at home.