Jeff TalmadgeI've often felt, as is said in the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, [ I'm] the Charlie-Browniest". A Charlie Brown Christmas could be my perpetual soundtrack of the holiday season.... if I actually owned it.
I've been putzing along while the christmas tag played background noise since the start of Advent season, 1/12 of the year, actually less since I usually stop on the 24th leaving 6.8% of the year to this tag or xmas. I personally reserve "Christmas" tag for traditional carols or hymns. The first part is "Christ" after all. Those and the rest of the commercial Anglo tradition (with a Jose Feliciano "Feliz Navidad" thrown in to warm the bones), just seem more appropriate with the shorthand Xmas. But I digress...
It was a pleasant reminder of the Charlie Browniest sort to hear Vince Guaraldi's TV jazz wafting from my PC. Charlie Brown & company are admittedly my only exposure to jazz outside of classic issues of Playboy magazine and beat poetry. I suppose in the 1960s it was quite revolutionary to play jazz on a childrens television show. Growing up in the 70s it was just part of the season.
Those growing up Xmas songs are one of the few things uniting post-Boomers, Generation X if you will. These leftover songs of our Mamas and Papas, the 1950s pop & big band styles we wouldn't even think of listening to any other time. Think
* The Chipmunk Song (aka The Chipmunks)
*
Blue Christmas
* Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
My favorite was The Little Drummer Boy. What boy wouldn't want to just bang his drum, especially after sitting through a long quiet church service awaiting Santa on Christmas Eve?
I know lotsa artsy-fartsy types dis the old Holiday cheer. I'm mostly a Bah Humduck myself. More recently, tho, I turn on Christmas Time's A Coming and Blue Christmas on Rounder's O Christmas Tree bluegrass compilation, orFrosty The Snowman and I'll Be Home For Christmas on Lost Highway's A Very Special Acoustic Christmas. Who wouldn't be home if Tift Merritt was there waiting for them, eh?
So for the one month a year, I turn on the Xmas tag and let Bing Crosby and Eartha Kitt and Elmo 'N Patsy rule the iTunes. I'll even spin a little commercial country Alan Jackson or George Strait. It doesn't seem too much, and I've even a few other Xmas tracks from bona fide Americana like Audrey Auld Mezera, Mark Brine and Jeff Talmadge.
At the climax of the Christmas special, Charlie Brown exclaims, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about!?!" To which Linus answers so assuredly and innocently from the Book of Luke. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."
From those shepherds long ago and far away to this Shepard lost and seeking, that we should all have the faith of the children and the hope of peace, good will towards all.
Merry Christmas.
-jc
I've been putzing along while the christmas tag played background noise since the start of Advent season, 1/12 of the year, actually less since I usually stop on the 24th leaving 6.8% of the year to this tag or xmas. I personally reserve "Christmas" tag for traditional carols or hymns. The first part is "Christ" after all. Those and the rest of the commercial Anglo tradition (with a Jose Feliciano "Feliz Navidad" thrown in to warm the bones), just seem more appropriate with the shorthand Xmas. But I digress...
It was a pleasant reminder of the Charlie Browniest sort to hear Vince Guaraldi's TV jazz wafting from my PC. Charlie Brown & company are admittedly my only exposure to jazz outside of classic issues of Playboy magazine and beat poetry. I suppose in the 1960s it was quite revolutionary to play jazz on a childrens television show. Growing up in the 70s it was just part of the season.
Those growing up Xmas songs are one of the few things uniting post-Boomers, Generation X if you will. These leftover songs of our Mamas and Papas, the 1950s pop & big band styles we wouldn't even think of listening to any other time. Think
* The Chipmunk Song (aka The Chipmunks)
*
Blue Christmas* Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
My favorite was The Little Drummer Boy. What boy wouldn't want to just bang his drum, especially after sitting through a long quiet church service awaiting Santa on Christmas Eve?
I know lotsa artsy-fartsy types dis the old Holiday cheer. I'm mostly a Bah Humduck myself. More recently, tho, I turn on Christmas Time's A Coming and Blue Christmas on Rounder's O Christmas Tree bluegrass compilation, or
Frosty The Snowman and I'll Be Home For Christmas on Lost Highway's A Very Special Acoustic Christmas. Who wouldn't be home if Tift Merritt was there waiting for them, eh?So for the one month a year, I turn on the Xmas tag and let Bing Crosby and Eartha Kitt and Elmo 'N Patsy rule the iTunes. I'll even spin a little commercial country Alan Jackson or George Strait. It doesn't seem too much, and I've even a few other Xmas tracks from bona fide Americana like Audrey Auld Mezera, Mark Brine and Jeff Talmadge.
At the climax of the Christmas special, Charlie Brown exclaims, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about!?!" To which Linus answers so assuredly and innocently from the Book of Luke. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."
From those shepherds long ago and far away to this Shepard lost and seeking, that we should all have the faith of the children and the hope of peace, good will towards all.
Merry Christmas.
-jc
