Category: Arts

Advent song for December 5: The Land Of Christmas (Mary)

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

What I like about this song is that it’s so completely and essentially Carly Simon that it’s impossible to tell what era it dates from. Go on, have a guess. No, go on. It’s from 2002! Did you get it right? I somehow thought it was from the eighties, although I guess the production values are maybe not quite right for that. This is from her album Christmas Is Almost Here, making it the perfect advent song. I am writing in a hurry because I have to be on a plane to Prague in just over two hours, so tomorrow’s song will come from the land of Good King Wenceslas. Na zdraví!

Advent song for December 4: O Holy Night

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Welcome to the first artist who is here for her mad skillz rather than for a specific song: you can’t have a list of the best women singer-songwriters without Tracy Chapman on it, duh. And this version of O Holy Night is a perfect showcase for her beautiful voice. Are you calm? If you’re calm, this will suit your mood perfectly. If you’re not calm, listen to this and you will be.

Advent song for December 3: Don’t Forget To Feed The Reindeer

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Did you know that Peggy Lee had a Christmas album? I mean, I suppose most crooners (and she is one, which is why she is featuring on our first Crooners’ Sunday of 2017) have a Christmas album, but what sets Peggy’s aside is that she wrote about half the songs on it, including this one. It is a little more middle-of-the-road than our first two entries, but no less charming for that. If you want to know (or remember) what Christmas sounded like in 1960, here’s your answer.

If you like this, there’s a whole lot more where that came from.

 

Advent song for December 2: Christmas Tree

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

From the sublime to the ridiculous and back again, because what Kate Bush and Lady Gaga have in common is that they are both both, more than almost anyone else. I love this song and it makes me want to dance like Gaga which, let’s be clear, I cannot do.

If you don’t like this song never fear, it is – like all the best songs not counting November Rain – under three minutes long.

Advent Song for December 1: December Will Be Magic Again

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

I can’t think how we’ve never had this theme before, but it works out nicely because if there was ever a year to celebrate the achievements of Phenomenal Women (thank you, Maya Angelou), 2017 is it. So here are Christmas songs from twenty-four of my favourite female singer-songwriters, although I will definitely have missed some good ones so feel free, as always, to send me your nominations.

Point of information: some of the artists that will be featured have written amazing songs, but never a Christmas song. In those cases I have decreed that it is OK to have them singing someone else’s Christmas song, because they are too important to leave out altogether.

It’ll give you an idea of the calibre of songs coming up to enthral and delight you over the next twenty-three days that we are starting with Kate Bush and this very twinkly 1979 live performance of December Will Be Magic Again. If this doesn’t get you in the festive spirit, go away, drink a small sherry (or a sparkling cranberry juice with a slice of orange in it) and then come back and try again.

December 24: Beatles Christmas Supermash!

On By Laura MorganIn Music

I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking you don’t need to listen to any more Beatles Christmas music. But wait! Because I have saved the best for last in the shape of this incredible mashup by Tom Teeley, who has taken fragments of all the Christmas messages and mixed them with extracts from Beatles songs, in a way that sounds on paper like it shouldn’t work, but totally does, because he’s done it amazingly (thank you Paul for seeking this out and sending it to me).

For the dedicated Beatles fan, spotting where each sound is taken from is like a mini treasure hunt (and we get pretty esoteric – there’s an instrumental segment from You Know My Name, Look Up The Number which is a song I haven’t heard in actual years), and even for the regular listener it’s just brilliantly clever, AND comes with a video that I promise you will love. Happy Christmas Eve, and thank you for accompanying me along this odd and intermittently rewarding journey. I think Sweeney would have liked it (and you can listen to his own songs here, if you feel so inclined, and if you like them, or have enjoyed this year’s advent calendar, you can also donate to the hospice where he stayed).

 

December 22: Christmas Time Is Here Again

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

This is the only actual Christmas song ever recorded and officially released by the Beatles, which is why we have saved it for near the end, although if you listened to the 1967 Christmas message (yeah, I know you didn’t) you will have heard a version of part of it. This eventually had a re-edit and a release in 1995, as the B-side to Free As A Bird. I can’t argue that it’s a lost classic, but it is an Actual Christmas Song by the Actual Beatles, and it also has an entirely peculiar Auld Lang Syne flourish at the end, which is kind of more fun than the actual song, although I’m not sure about John’s Burns impression. Enjoy!

December 21: White Christmas

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

This is, tragically, the last entry for this year from Ringo’s seminal 1999 album I Believe In Santa Claus, and if you thought the ones we’ve already heard had a lot of percussion, you’ve got a treat in store. There is a bit of guitar and some fun backing vocals on this, but what there mostly is is REALLY A LOT OF DRUMS, of about every type you can think of, although I don’t think there are any bongos in there, which seems like an oversight, Ringo.

I can’t believe I didn’t find this when I was scouring the internet for twenty-four different versions of White Christmas back in 2013. It is quite the oddest thing I’ve ever heard, and would have been given a novelty spot somewhere towards the beginning of the month. I am very happy now to be able to rectify the omission. Tomorrow: a Christmas single by the Beatles that is an actual song! I know!

December 20: The Christmas Song

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

If you search for “Paul McCartney Christmas Song” on YouTube, you don’t get this. You only get this by searching for “Paul McCartney Chestnuts Roasting”, which to be fair is probably what lots of people think this song is called, but you still wouldn’t know to search for it unless you knew it existed, which until recently I didn’t. This is Macca’s contribution to a 2012 complication album called Holidays Rule which apparently sank without trace. This, though, is lovely, which is why it gets a coveted twentysomething spot, although I think it’s also fine for you to listen to Nat do it instead.

 

December 19: Lily The Pink

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

The Beatles only released three singles in 1968, though since one of them was Hey Jude it probably still counts as a good year. Fortunately it was also a good year for another McCartney – Paul’s brother Mike, who with The Scaffold had a Christmas number one with Lily The Pink. There is nothing Christmassy about it, but it’s very jolly, so it’s an excellent way to perk up the first day of the busiest week of the year (though actually it looks as though I have a couple of hours to spare on Thursday, so let me know if you need anything).

I’ve also included a photo of Paul and Mike as toddlers, because why wouldn’t you?

mccartneys