Not That There's Anything Wrong with That

Yep, also including that classic "Grandma" song.

Here we are ....

1)  12 Redneck Days of Christmas – The Christmas Hillbillies
2)  Rudolph Drank The Moonshine – The Christmas Hillbillies
3)  Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer –Dr. Elmo
4)  Deck The Halls – The Christmas Hillbillies
5)  Oh Santa, Where Art Thou? – The Christmas Hillbillies
6)  Jingle Bells – The Christmas Hillbillies
7)  Christmas Spirits – The Christmas Hillbillies
8)  Christmas In Las Vegas – Dr. Elmo
9)  O Come All Ye Faithful – The Christmas Hillbillies
10)  Silent Night – The Christmas Hillbillies

While all are silly, come are kind of comically profound, such as Tracks One, Five, and Eight.

Gee-haw Rudolph!

The Children of the Day Christmas Album

This album was released on Maranatha Records in 1975.  Wikipedia's brief article  reports,
"Children of the Day was a contemporary Christian music group that recorded and toured from 1970 to 1980. It is considered to be the first Jesus music group, and Marsha Stevens the mother of contemporary Christian music."

This album exemplifies a prime characteristic of "Jesus Music" -- that is, restating the basic issues of God's love in a more personal way.  The thing that makes it "more personal" is often, besides guitar or other simple-to-imitate arrangements,  a more modern and usually less formal rephrasing of the "wow, He loves even me, crummy person that I am" observation that's the heart of Christianity, especially at Christmas time.

There are some nice production touches -- strings, and such -- added to the basic acoustic sound.

01. Joy to the World (1:18)

02. What Child Is This (2:22)

03. Angels We Have Heard on High (1:37)

04. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (2:26)

05. Oh Come, Oh Come Immanuel (2:49)

06. O Little Town of Bethlehem (2:24)

07. For Unto Us a Child Is Born (4:54)

08. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (1:28)

09. Holy, Radiant Light (4:38)

10. He Is Born (1:31)

11. Deck the Halls (1:09)

12. Oh Come All Ye Faithful (1:54)

13. Silent Night / It That's Not Love / Oh Holy Night (6:56)

You can celebrate here or here.

Have a contemplative Christmas season!
 

MA-71 - Joyful Christmas Time

 

            Here is my 2014 Christmas anthology, comprised of songs that make me joyful in all sorts of ways.  You can be “silly joyful” or “reverent joyful,” you know.

01. Joy to the World - Anointed (3:46)

02. I Wonder as I Wander - An Old World Christmas (3:58)

03. Silent Night - Teja Bell (6:00)

04. Feliz Navidad - The Rubber Band (2:48)

05. Away in a Manger - Nat King Cole (2:01)

06. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing - Herb Avery (4:38)

07. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Bing Crosby and Judy Garland (2:46)

08. Feliz Navidad - Sly's Alter Ego (1:44)

09. Carol Medley - The Swingle Singers (3:04)

10. Hark! - Claymation Christmas Celebration (3:35)

11. Joy to the World - Classics for Joy, Carols of Christmas (2:46)

12. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - Robert Shaw & Atlanta Chorus (2:26)

13. Silent Night - Robert Fripp & Apollo 8 (3:03)

14. Welcome Christmas - How the Grinch Stole Christmas (3:30)

15. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Joy Electric (2:12)

16. Blue Christmas - Denny Brownlee as Porky Pig (1:59)

17. The First Noel - An Old World Christmas (4:04)

18. Cleaning Man Christmas - The Cleaning Man (4:27)

19. What Child Is This? - The Rubber Band (4:38)

20. Joy to the World - The Philadelphia Orchestra (1:54)

21. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Robert Shaw & Atlanta Chorus (4:14)

22. Joy! - Claymation Christmas Celebration (2:34)

23. What Christmas Is All About - A Charlie Brown Christmas (1:03)

24. Away in a Manger - Joan Baez (1:55)

25. Silent Night - The Swingle Singers (3:45)

            If you haven’t seen the Claymation Christmas Celebration, then you have missed a lot of fun.  The soundtrack is full of fun and wonder, too.  As you will hear, it contains some joyous-solemn music, along with some silliness.

            The Rubber Band is a Beatles Tribute Band that’s been around since 1979.  I think you’ll like their arrangements on Tracks 4 and 19.

            Track 13 is an overlaying of spoken broadcasts from Apollo 8 astronauts with a Robert Fripp "Frippertronics" version of “Silent Night.”

            There used to be a little radio station in Oklahoma City called KOKF -- site with some history here.  It went off the broadcast airwaves in 2006.  You can now hear it online at 91 Online.  Anyway, during broadcast days one of the sponsoring businesses was a janitorial service.  Their tongue-in-cheek mascot was The Cleaning Man (who sounded a lot like Dudley Do-Right).  And, one Christmas time, we were treated to “A Cleaning Man Christmas,” which I am thrilled to share with you here. 

            The Swingle Singer tracks are from an album unreleased on this side of the pond.

            Track 25 is from a stupendous 1966 album by Joan Baez called Noel.  The arrangements were by Peter Schickele of PDQ Bach fame.

            The Track List moves back and forth from solemn to happy to silly and back again, several times.  I hope listening to this compilation lets you celebrate the greatest gift of all, God’s love, given through his son.  

MA-71 - Joyful Christmas Time

Maxwell Davies' Vesalii Icones

From a 1970s LP (and added to by a few other short works), we have a creepy depiction of the flailing of a human body, as reinterpreted through the life of Christ.

The "Vesalii Icones" are a series of depictions of a stripped-down human body by Andreas Wessels in the 1500s.

Vesalii Icones

for Cello, Small Instrumental Group & Dancer, J. 85

1      Prima Musculorum

Tabula The Agony In The Garden 5:32

2  Secunda Musculorum

Tabula The Betrayal of Judas 2:33

3 Tertia Musculorum Tabula Christ And Pilate 2:35

4 Quarta Musculorum Tabula The Flagellation 2:04

5 Quinta Musculorum Tabula Christ Condemned To Death 3:51

6 Sexta Musculorum Tabula The Mocking of Christ 2:57

7 Septima Musculorum Tabula Christ Receives The Cross 1:58

8 Octava Musculorum Tabula St. Veronica Wipes His Face 2:52

9 Nona Musculorum Tabula Christ Prepared For Death 1:05

10 Decima Musculorum Tabula Christ Nailed To The Cross 1:58

11 Undecima Musculorum Tabula The Death Of Christ 4:42

12 Duodecima Musculorum Tabula The Descent From The Cross 2:45

13 Deceimateria Musculorum Tabula The Entombment Of Christ 3:00

14 Decimaquarta Musculorum Tabula   The Resurrection - Antichrist 1:50

The Bairns of Brugh

for instrumental ensemble,

J. 176

15 The Bairns of Brugh Runes from a Holy

Island 6:00

Runes from a

Holy Island

for instrumental ensemble, J. 148

16 Runes from a Holy Island First Movement 2:37

17 Runes from a Holy Island Second Movement 0:56

18 Runes from a Holy Island Third Movement 1:58

19 Runes from a Holy Island Fourth Movement 3:58

20 Runes from a Holy Island Fifth Movement 1:36

You can read more about the music, and the artist who inspired it, here.

Here is the Discogs page, including sleeve & disc images from the LP.

It's Track 14 that deliciously chills me the most, the concept that at the Resurrection, out pops ... the Anti-Christ!  (You've GOT to have a sense of humor here.)

Chill yourself.  Or, alternately.