Listening to: My match's wonderful Christmas mix
Merry Christmas to one and all. I have waaaaaaay to much to get done and so I'll keep my list comments brief. I tried to give this disk a mix of the untraditional, traditional, and the obscure. Anyway...
Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus & Lucy, Traditional, obviously, it entered our collections over 40 years ago and has stayed there ever since.
Rosemary Clooney - Come On-a My House, Traditional at my house, come on-a my house, baby...
Mabel Scott - Boogie-woogie Santa Claus, a nice little novelty number from the golden age of R&B.
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Sound the Trumpet, a beautiful reggae Christmas song from the day when Leslie Kong was the reggae producer.
Dr. John - Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfente, a taste of New Orleans for Christmas as is...
Fats Domino - Frosty the Snowman, no wonder Frosty melted.
Harry Conick, Jr. - Sleigh Bells, smoothe as a Hurricane.
Ella Fitzgerald - Let It Snow, more smoothness from the lady who defined "smoothe".
Eartha Kitt - Nuthin' for Christmas, a naughty take on a song about being naughty.
The Soul Stirrers - Christmas Means Love, some people who read my blog might think I'm anti-Christian which would be a sad miscalculation; I just despise how the fuckwit whiny ass cocksuckers of the Christian Right have approprated the voice of most Christians and have given the majority of Christians a bad name. The Soul Stirrers were one of the greatest gospel groups ever and this song defines what real Christians (not scum like Bill O'Reilly) know about Christmas.
Mahalia Jackson - Oh, Holy Night, another gospel great - this version gives me shivers.
Kiri te Kanawa - Ave Maria (Schubert), I think you could point to this song (and this singer) to argue for the existance of a God without having to stoop to the intellectual dishonesty of "Intelligent Design".
John Fahey - Oh Tannenbaum / Angels We Have Heard on High / Jingle Bells, amazing guitar work from the master of "Joe Blind Death".
The Roches - We Three Kings / Good King Wenceslas, if there are angels, they sing like The Roches.
The Beach Boys - Christmas Day, since I listened to "Smile" far more than any other CD in 2005, I had to include this.
The Crystals - Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, the sassiest version of this song, EVER.
Stevie Wonder - Someday at Christmas, probably the best Christmas protest song.
Al Green - Silent Night, I don't think I could make a Christmas mix without including the Rev. Al, no way.
Elvis Presley - Merry Christmas, Baby, Elvis had his sneer going with this one.
James Brown - It's Christmas Time, not a frantic JB but a subdued, JB; incredible restraint and oddly beautiful.
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Christmas Eve Blues, oh, mama, if you've never had the blues on Christmas, BLJ will tell you how it feels.
Enrico Caruso - Cantique de Noel, I remember being a kid and listening to this on a 78, thinking "Wow, wow, wow... how does he do that?!?"
Renata Tebaldi - Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod), Tebaldi is, to me, one of the greatest singers of all time, someone whose voice can move me to tears because of the sheer beauty of it. I worship her.
Judy Garland - Have Yourself a Merry Christmas, Why isn't this one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time? I mean this version...
Diana Krall - Christmas Time is Here, she had the good taste to do a killer version of this song and marry Elvis Costello, so you gotta figure the woman's got substance.
Louis Armstrong - White Christmas, couldn't think of a better way to end this mix than this version of this song.
Merry Christmas!
4 comments:
Awesome, as always. As is your playlist. Merry Christmas, my dear precious friend.
That's a lovely mix, Jim.
I'm with you on the coopting of Christianity by the religious right, and find it highly ironic that some mega-churches cancelled Christmas services today. Lapsed liberal Presbyterian that I am, I went to church today to sing the Christmas carols that I love, and listen to a story of hope and peace.
Merry Christmas!
Great mix Jim, as always (James Brown doing a Christmas song?). Reading some of the lists on other sites, it's interesting to see the variety on the mixes (and how some artists like Stevie Wonder and the Vince Guaraldi Trio show up on a bunch of mixes).
It's also interesting to see how many people couldn't confine their holiday favorites to just one CD. If I had more money and a better connection, there's no telling how long my mix would've been...
Anyway, Happy Holidays!
Wow, now I'm sorry I didn't participate! (Although I shudder to think of how embarassed I would now be if I had.)
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