float

the original kStyle blog.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Bloggers, Did You Know?

I got in the car to drive home, turned on the All Day All Night Christmas Music Channel.

Now, I can be something a classicist, figuratively and literally. I majored in Greek philosophy in college, for goodness' sake. I want my holiday songs to be classics, be they the Alleuia chorus from Handel's Messiah or Andy Williams' shiny-as-a-new-penny Most Wonderful Time of the Year (what an arrangement! Bravo to whoever did that!).

And instead, the song that played when I switched on the radio...It was...It gave me belly laughs. Whooping belly laughs with tears in my eyes. I mean no disrespect to any Christian believers. It's the aesthetics of the song that really killed me. A gravelly voice crooned in a rock-pop-country way to Mary, asking, repeatedly, "Mary, did you know"--that your Son would walk on water, that the Son you delivered would deliver you, etc etc.

But, as LeVar Burton (my first crush) used to say on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it. Someone very thoughtfully made us a PowerPoint YouTube video.

PS. From the looks of it, this song I'd heretofore never heard of is quite popular, maybe in a different geographic region than the Deep Blue North.

6 Comments:

Blogger Larry Jones said...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!! I especially like the part in the YouTube video where Jesus is walking with the angels and wearing shades. It's great to have these important compositions explicated for me like that. Who knew you needed sunglasses in heaven? Makes sense, though: proximity to the sun, presence of The Almighty, etc. I wonder if The Blessed Virgin listens to that station? If so, she knows now...

12:05 AM  
Blogger Narya said...

I don't have time to look at the video just now, but I'm guessing this song would be the perfect accompaniment to the Cavalcade of Bad Nativities. (Link at my place if you haven't seen it.)

6:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to checking out the video at home...

I wonder if it's possible to write a good contemporary Christmas/holiday song. Seems like these days it's hard to do sincerity a la "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and "May your days be merry and bright." Which is, I think, a bit of a tragedy.

3:33 PM  
Blogger kStyle said...

Larry: Glad you enjoy it as much as I do. The shades get me, too. As does the bridge--dear God, the bridge!

And yes, she would know now, wouldn't she?

Narya: Oh yes, love them Bad Nativities. Thanks for the link.

Ann: Excellent point. Maybe we should try to write out own song here at float...

5:17 PM  
Blogger Larry Jones said...

If anyone at float makes a serious effort at Christmas song lyrics -- we're talking verses with meter and rhyme and sentiment -- I'll make a serious effort to set them to music and record them. It probably won't be finished until Christmas '08, but at least we'll have a new song.

BTW, has anyone heard "Christmas Shoes," the country song about a little boy who doesn't have enough money to buy a pair of fancy shoes for his mother, which he needs to do because she is at home DYING ON CHRISTMAS EVE and he wants her to "...look beautiful when she meets Jesus tonight."? I laughed, I cried. I wouldn't want to write a song like that, in case you're wondering.

6:36 PM  
Blogger kStyle said...

Larry, you're on! Anyone else in?

Just your description of "Christmas Shoes" gave me a hearty LOL. Send a YouTube video if you can find one...

7:03 PM  

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