Joe Mikolay's Blog - Posts Tagged "xmas"
Regarding Christmas Songs
This would be as good a time as any to weigh on in Christmas songs, seeing-in-how at least one major radio station is playing nothing but them since Thanksgiving.
I never really cared for the hymnal-type stuff. Songs like "Oh, Holy Night", "Hark, The Herald Angel Sing" and "Away In A Manger" always struck me as too preachy.
With Christmas songs, as with any other type of music, I need something that I can relate to. And so the whole Messiah thing falls outside of my wheelhouse.
It's still a mystery to me how the disjointed, arrhythmic "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time" still gets regular airplay. Guess you're given a lot of slack when you used to be a Beatle.
"Carol Of The Bells" is a classical number that I like. But that's more because of how inherently creepy it is, despite its Christmas dressings.
I do enjoy some contemporary, up-tempo Xmas tunes. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is really just a great pop song for any time of the year. U2's version of "(Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home" is also a rockin' little ditty.
Of the classic catalog, I can dig most versions of "Let It Snow", "White Christmas", and "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year". Though that may come from the fact the I'd bet Dean Martin was an awesome Christmas party guest, and "Wonderful" always makes me think of that great Will Ferrell SNL skit with the spinning platform, and the gallons of vomit.
I'd have to admit, though, that my overall favorite Christmas songs are the ballads and laments. I really became attached to this type of seasonal song when I was living in New York.
Gazing out the window of your apartment as snow fills the darkening sky, and the lights in the buildings of the skyline glitter in the distance can make you feel pretty isolated.
This is true even as you watch innumerable groups of friends and families walking by on the street below. Or, maybe you feel that way specifically because you're alone in your high window watching those groups.
Every cover of "Last Christmas" is a spot-on ode to the poor choices we make when rounded up in Xmas parties with bottled of booze rolling down the decked halls.
"Where Are You, Christmas?" is a good song about the changing perception of the holidays as you get older. It just gets a bad rap for its connection to a pretty ill-advised live action version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas".
My all-time top Xmas song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"- probably The Pretender's version, if I had to pick one- has just hit my personal holiday season spot for a very long time.
It's really just a big bummer of a song that ends on, what could be interpreted, as an upbeat note. Then again, the last line or two could also be interpreted as one of those empty promises we make to ourselves from time-to-time.
I actually put my Xmas melody taste to good use a few years back in two pretty massive Christmas iTunes playlists that I strung together. I constantly listened to them while I was writing my first book: "Misfit Toys In Love". One was up-tempo songs, and other was the sad stuff.
The playlist helped keep me in the right headspace to write a holiday-themed-coming-of-age-romantic-comedy-revenge-story. In fact, I may have to put those compilations into rotation again this year.
'Tis the season, after all.
Maybe I'll check in with some thoughts on Christmas movies soon as well.
I never really cared for the hymnal-type stuff. Songs like "Oh, Holy Night", "Hark, The Herald Angel Sing" and "Away In A Manger" always struck me as too preachy.
With Christmas songs, as with any other type of music, I need something that I can relate to. And so the whole Messiah thing falls outside of my wheelhouse.
It's still a mystery to me how the disjointed, arrhythmic "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time" still gets regular airplay. Guess you're given a lot of slack when you used to be a Beatle.
"Carol Of The Bells" is a classical number that I like. But that's more because of how inherently creepy it is, despite its Christmas dressings.
I do enjoy some contemporary, up-tempo Xmas tunes. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is really just a great pop song for any time of the year. U2's version of "(Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home" is also a rockin' little ditty.
Of the classic catalog, I can dig most versions of "Let It Snow", "White Christmas", and "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year". Though that may come from the fact the I'd bet Dean Martin was an awesome Christmas party guest, and "Wonderful" always makes me think of that great Will Ferrell SNL skit with the spinning platform, and the gallons of vomit.
I'd have to admit, though, that my overall favorite Christmas songs are the ballads and laments. I really became attached to this type of seasonal song when I was living in New York.
Gazing out the window of your apartment as snow fills the darkening sky, and the lights in the buildings of the skyline glitter in the distance can make you feel pretty isolated.
This is true even as you watch innumerable groups of friends and families walking by on the street below. Or, maybe you feel that way specifically because you're alone in your high window watching those groups.
Every cover of "Last Christmas" is a spot-on ode to the poor choices we make when rounded up in Xmas parties with bottled of booze rolling down the decked halls.
"Where Are You, Christmas?" is a good song about the changing perception of the holidays as you get older. It just gets a bad rap for its connection to a pretty ill-advised live action version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas".
My all-time top Xmas song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"- probably The Pretender's version, if I had to pick one- has just hit my personal holiday season spot for a very long time.
It's really just a big bummer of a song that ends on, what could be interpreted, as an upbeat note. Then again, the last line or two could also be interpreted as one of those empty promises we make to ourselves from time-to-time.
I actually put my Xmas melody taste to good use a few years back in two pretty massive Christmas iTunes playlists that I strung together. I constantly listened to them while I was writing my first book: "Misfit Toys In Love". One was up-tempo songs, and other was the sad stuff.
The playlist helped keep me in the right headspace to write a holiday-themed-coming-of-age-romantic-comedy-revenge-story. In fact, I may have to put those compilations into rotation again this year.
'Tis the season, after all.
Maybe I'll check in with some thoughts on Christmas movies soon as well.
