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| Kudos for LAW's Christmas Album; I most definitely agree | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 23 2006, 07:00 AM (437 Views) | |
| Smartin | Dec 23 2006, 07:00 AM Post #1 |
Forums Master (700+ posts)
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It's the most wonderful album of all By Jeffrey Lee Puckett The Courier-Journal With two days left until Christmas, you may be so burned out on holiday music that "War Pigs" is in constant rotation as an antidote to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." NORTH POLL: What's your favorite Christmas album? OK, it's pretty clear Jeffrey Lee has stacked the deck. Here's your chance to weigh in. Click here to cast your vote — or make your own nomination by scrolling to the bottom of the page and posting a comment in StoryChat. But that's not Christmas music's fault. Place the blame on whoever invented novelty songs. They don't deserve a Christmas. Real Christmas music can be deeply satisfying, triggering dormant childhood feelings of joy, excitement and anticipation -- all the things that were sadly tossed aside after that crazy drunk uncle broke the news about Santa Claus. It's nice to feel those things every once in a while, which is why it's important to have a favorite Christmas album. My favorite is the best Christmas album ever -- "The Andy Williams Christmas Album" -- which is also the most economically named. It has the top five things that the perfect Christmas album needs, which are: • A timeless demographic versatility. Christmas albums should appeal equally to ages 8, 28 or 78. • A combination of the religious and secular. No one wants to forget that Dec. 25 is a major birthday, but we also need to hit the spiked eggnog. • Songs including "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)," "White Christmas," "O Come All Ye Faithful" or "Silent Night, Holy Night." All four would be good, but at least two are essential. • An unflappable belief that the season is worth celebrating as opposed to simply selling. A Mariah Carey Christmas album, for example, is for selling. • Andy Williams. In conclusion, I think we can all agree that "The Andy Williams Christmas Album" is clearly the best. What? You actually think there's something better? "As a matter of fact, the best Christmas album of all time is, quite simply, 'A Chipmunk Christmas,' as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks," said Louisville musician Scott Carney, leader of Wax Fang and obviously a bit of a heretic. "If you haven't heard it, do yourself a favor and take that little bull by the horns. If you can't handle those squeaky little chipmunk voices, drink a bunch of cough syrup. That'll slow 'em down a little! I had this album as a kid and it never failed to delight me come the darker months, I mean, Christmastime." Alvin and the Chipmunks? What's next, Twisted Sister? "Brother, 'A Twisted Christmas' rocks," said musician Justin Fitzgerald, an otherwise rational man. "Seriously. They do 'O Come All Ye Faithful' to the tune of 'We're Not Gonna Take It.' It's awesome." In case you were wondering, here's the final chorus from the album's "Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas)": "On my heavy metal Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 silver crosses, 11 black mascaras, 10 pairs of platforms, nine tattered T-shirts, eight pentagrams, seven leather jackets, six cans of hairspray, five skull earrings, four quarts of Jack, three studded belts, two pairs of spandex pants and a tattoo of Ozzy." All right, maybe Fitzgerald has a point. But he's getting an argument from Cleveland, one of the funniest men working the stand-up comic circuit. You can find him at the Comedy Caravan quite a bit when he isn't on the road. "I think that 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' is the best Christmas album out there and here's why," he said. "When I was a kid, the best part about the holidays was always when 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' would come on TV. Everybody in my family enjoyed the Peanuts, and we each had our favorite characters, but most of all we loved the music. "Two weeks ago, my wife and my son and I flew to Florida to celebrate my mother's 60th and have an early Christmas. … My sister was there, and she brought a CD of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas,' and it was like being a kid again. My son took right to it, and it was like the circle was complete. "I see that CD being just as important for the holidays as the star we put on the top of the tree every year. Take a listen to it and maybe you'll see what I mean." Singer and songwriter danny flanigan also takes the TV route, choosing the soundtrack to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," the title track of which is sung by Burl Ives. "It takes me back instantly -- not just that tune, but the voice," flanigan said. "I'm a kid again, and I so love turning my kids onto the vibe. Good stuff." Those are some strong arguments, and they both play the kid card, but I didn't hear the words "Andy" or "Williams" anywhere. Surely Alanna Nash, a writer of several acclaimed books about Elvis Presley and a veteran of music criticism, would understand that Andy's "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is the most wonderful Christmas song to listen to while wrapping gifts. "Though she's primarily known as a country singer, Lee Ann Womack proved her chops with her 2002 Christmas offering, 'The Season for Romance,' a throwback to the age of jazzy, big band crooners," Nash wrote in an e-mail. "As sophisticated and elegant as a New Year's Eve tuxedo, the album seductively frames a couple slipping into love, Womack's ethereal soprano perfectly capturing the head-spinning rush of it all. "It's impossible to listen to this without thinking of your own holiday romance, and even if yours didn't make it to spring, you'll never want to trim the tree again without this enchanting reminder of bright, shiny promise." Well said, I guess, although it's a bit light on you-know-who. Maybe it's time to head farther north, closer to Santa, for a more rational opinion. Ruadhan J. McElroy, of Ann Arbor, Mich., posted an intriguing Christmas-album list on Amazon.com, so I got in touch. "The single for 'Fairy Tale of New York' by The Pogues comes very close for me," McElroy said. "It represents the kinds of Christmases that I, and many others, grew up with but tried to deny happen. Dysfunctional relationships, poverty, war and unemployment don't take the day off for Christmas." Speaking of denial, it seems plenty clear after looking back over everyone's responses that "The Andy Williams Christmas Album" is still the best Christmas album of all time -- and here's the main reason why: My fourth-grade teacher, whose name escapes me, asked the class to bring in our favorite Christmas albums. It was the week before the holiday break, and things were pretty loose, so we would spend an hour each day playing records. When I proudly pulled out Andy, who sports a black tuxedo against a red background on the cover, some of the kids actually snickered. Everybody's a critic, even fourth-graders. It hurt my tender feelings, and I can still feel my face flushing to match the album's red. But more important, I remember my teacher standing up, scolding the snicker kids and walking me over to the record player. We cranked "White Christmas" and she even quietly sang along to it from behind her desk -- an endorsement that wasn't lost, even on fourth-graders. Her generosity of spirit was a pure expression of Christmas, one of the best I've ever known, and every time I play "The Andy Williams Christmas Album," I think of her and feel like doing something nice for someone. What more could you ask of a Christmas album? Reporter Jeffrey Lee Puckett can be reached at (502) 582-4160. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.d...ENE04/612230375 |
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| AshleyMiranda | Dec 23 2006, 06:03 PM Post #2 |
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A coffee lovin' chick
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thats great
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AshleyMiranda The A from LAME >> myspace!! << "Lalalala loser..." Weird Al rocks <3 | |
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| Whoa-mack | Dec 29 2006, 07:50 PM Post #3 |
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Arizona Buckaroo
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cool...what a compliment- thanks for posting that! For our trip back home, I downloaded "Man With the Bag" from that album (love it!) and then "The Nativity" from the other album .
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-CF http://www.icfmusic.wordpress.com/ | |
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"Though she's primarily known as a country singer, Lee Ann Womack proved her chops with her 2002 Christmas offering, 'The Season for Romance,' a throwback to the age of jazzy, big band crooners," Nash wrote in an e-mail. "As sophisticated and elegant as a New Year's Eve tuxedo, the album seductively frames a couple slipping into love, Womack's ethereal soprano perfectly capturing the head-spinning rush of it all.



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5:24 PM Jul 10
