Tag: Christmas

Advent song for December 9: Joys Of Christmas

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

I know you knew that Chris Rea had a Christmas single, but did you know that in fact, he had two? Released almost exactly a year before Driving Home For Christmas, and regarded by ol’ Christmas himself as the superior of the two songs, Joys Of Christmas is very probably the least joyful Christmas song I’ve ever heard, including everything we listened to the year the theme was Sad Christmas.

In the one minute and twenty four seconds of intro before we hear any vocals I wondered whether I’d accidentally pressed the “play a song by Dire Straits” button but no, this is Rearrangements himself sounding just like them, at least until he starts to speak-sing very much in the style that Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson on their much-missed 2 Dope Queens podcast once described as White Nonsense.

This song is weird, but I like it; it’s idiosyncratic and less ‘put bells on and people will buy it’-cynical than most Christmas songs. On the other hand I can absolutely understand why, halfway through it, YouTube suddenly suggests that you listen to Driving Home For Christmas instead.

Advent song for December 8: Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Ramones (I know from pub quizzing that there is no definite article) are one of those bands, like the Pixies, that I know I’m supposed to know about, but I absolutely just don’t. In fact watching this video recently was genuinely the first time I have knowingly listened to one of their songs. True fact! I also found out in the course of my research that none of them are brothers or even cousins, that all of the founder members are dead and that Brain Drain, the 1989 album from which this track is lifted, reached number 122 in the billboard charts that year and thus isn’t, perhaps, the finest example of their work. This is a rollicking old number, though, with an excellent piece of dramatic art sandwiching it each side of the main event.

Advent song for December 5: Christmas Island

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

What?? It’s totally Christmassy! Did you know that in Tallinn, Estonia, there is a bar decorated in photos of Depeche Mode, which only plays music by Depeche Mode, and it’s called the Depeche Mode bar? It’s true and I know it because I once visited, and the reason I haven’t been back is NOT because it was weird and scary, but because it’s in Tallinn and that’s far away. This song, though, is absolutely weird and scary, but it’s from 1986 and has Christmas in it so we’re all going to listen to it this December 5th. You’re welcome!

Advent song for December 4: A Winter’s Tale

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music, TV and radio

I nearly posted another ‘song you don’t know by an artist you do’ today, but I have decided instead to bring you a bona fide Christmas classic in the shape of this 1982 hit from David Essex, who like Joey is both from Essex and named after it. Reading up about him in order to find something interesting to tell you, I discover that he played a character in Eastenders for a bit, which is doing nothing to help clear up my confusion of him with Paul Nicholas, who did the same. If I stop to think I can remember which of them was dark-haired and which blonde, although having googled what they both look like now I can’t help thinking they’ve heard about my confusion and are playing a trick on me:

I am aware, too, that Paul Nicholas also troubled the hit parade more than once, but since his four top 40 singles were called “Reggae Like It Used To Be”, “Dancing With The Captain”, “Grandma’s Party” and “Heaven On The 7th Floor” I think we should draw our investigation to a discreet close at this point.

Advent song for December 3: She Won’t Be Home (Lonely Christmas)

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Sometimes I think Erasure might be my favourite band of all, even though I’d never heard this song until I started looking for 1980s Christmas songs. This was the fourth track on the 1988 EP that you will mostly remember for Stop!, which is one of the best pop songs ever ever ever. This doesn’t quite live up to that billing, but it’s still awesome.

Have you ever seen Erasure live? I never have, which seems like a terrible oversight. Next time they’re playing, let’s all go.

Advent song for December 2: Christmas Was A Friend Of Mine

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Not a seasonal edition of the Killers classic, but something even better: a 1981 single from Dutch singer and composer Fay Lovsky, who is as cool in real life as she looks in this video, having written music for various films and shorts, played all the most interesting festivals and worked with Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, Jona Lewie and Sven Radzke, among others. She also plays the musical saw, the ukulele and the theramin.

This is a better clue than yesterday’s song was to this year’s theme, which is Christmas Songs Of The Nineteen Eighties. Some you will know, some you won’t, all are excellent. Was the eighties the best decade for Christmas songs? Almost certainly, with acknowledgments and apologies to glam rockers of yore.

It Was Ten Years Ago Today

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music, Navel gazing

alexandra

Actually it wasn’t, because I only had the idea for a musical advent calendar on December 10th. But here we all are ten years and eleven musical advent calendars later, having enjoyed the highlights (Christmas songs from around the world, twenty-four versions of White Christmas, Christmas songs by Phenomenal Women) and, let’s be frank, lowlights (Christmas number ones from my lifetime, everything By Ringo Starr) together. So it’s only fitting, this year, to celebrate hitting double figures by enjoying twenty-four Christmas hits written (or in a couple of cases released) since December 2008: songs which I didn’t include first time round not because they weren’t any good, but because they didn’t exist yet. I made this list a month ago and I’ve been listening to it on rotation ever since so I can tell you with complete confidence that there are some crackers here.

In the meantime, to get you in the mood, here’s Cliff, whose last hit was in September 2008, meaning [spoilers] he WILL NOT FEATURE in this year’s line-up (except for now).

Happy Advent!

Help! I need somebody

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music2 Comments

musical santa

It’s around this time of year (after Halloween and Guy Fawkes are out of the way) when I usually start to plan my musical advent calendar*. I list possible songs, and listen to them over and over and decide what will go where and, especially, what will go last, because while I can get away with having some filler at the beginning of the month, the last few songs, and the Christmas Eve song most of all, obviously have to be killers. I watch different versions of videos and listen to different recordings and all in all, put in a large amount of effort in order to do justice to the year’s theme.

And here, reader, is where I have come unstuck! I can’t think of a theme for advent 2015. These are the themes we have already had:

  • 2008: My favourite Christmas songs (I hadn’t decided, at that point, that this would be a Thing.)
  • 2009: More of my favourite Christmas songs (Clearly I had decided it would be a Thing, but I still wasn’t planning ahead.)
  • 2010: Christmas number ones (This was the year I realised I needed a theme.)
  • 2011: I asked my Facebook and Twitter friends to pick the songs, then wrote about the people, rather than the music.
  • 2012: Christmas songs from around the world (My secret favourite.)
  • 2013: Twenty-four different versions of White Christmas (My other secret favourite.)
  • 2014: Sad Christmas (Although that was quite awesome too.)

…and here are the themes I have considered and rejected for 2015 so far:

  • My favourite Christmas carols
  • A Country and Western Christmas
  • Crooners at Christmas
  • Twenty four Christmas songs by the same artist (There are only a few people this could be, and none of them is exciting enough to pull off a whole advent unaccompanied.)

The years I liked best were the years when I had to do some research, and ended up listening to songs I’d never heard before. So I would like another theme that I will have to work at a little bit. Please send me your suggestions, here, via Twitter or Facebook or email, or even in real life. Whoever provides me with a winner will get a special prize and my undying affection.

*I am aware that I haven’t written anything since the last advent calendar, but that will All Change in 2016, for sure!