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Old 12-25-2012, 03:22 AM   #25
johnfowles
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Default Re: Christmas Songs.

It is now Christmas Day on the US East Cast and a bit earlier we had a nice light snowfall
As my main contribution to this timely thread I wish my friends and fellow fans including Sydney hooligans my warmest greetings of the season,and make the observation that when one thinks of Christrmas songs one naturally thinks in terms of traditional carols, but there are of course a large number of other Christmas related songs that are not usually included in a list of carols, one of the best in my opinion came out of the 1950's craze for calypso music as personified by Harry Belafonte an acquaintanvcde o a young Gordon Lightfoot a few years later in New York, and who in 1956 recorded a lovely song that deserves to be a full fledged carol
In wishing one and all a merry Christmas a tad late I can do no beetter than quote one of the comments on that "video":-
"This is and always has been the song that gets me into the Christmas spirit"
Actually in years past we have often got into the spirit thanks to the non stop airing of Christmas songs by
New York FM radio station 106.7 a.k.a LiteFM

see their playlist at:-
http://www.1067litefm.com/iplaylist/playlist.html
for the record as it were here is the playlist on Lite FM yesterday
Overture (Beethoven's Last Night)
A Star to Follow (Christmas Eve and Other Stories)
The Ghosts of Christmas Eve (The Christmas Attic)
The March of the Kings / Hark the Herald Angel (The Christmas Attic)
The Snow Came Down (The Christmas Attic) -
The Lost Christmas Eve (The Lost Christmas Eve)
Christmas Nights in Blue (The Lost Christmas Eve)
The Dark (Beethoven's Last Night)
Beethoven (Beethoven's Last Night)
Wizards in Winter (The Lost Christmas Eve)
Night Castle (Night Castle)
Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 (Christmas Eve and Other Stories, Dead Winter Dead)
A Mas Russian's Christmas (Christmas Eve and Other Stories)
Midnight/Fate (Beethoven's Last Night)
Toccata-Carpimus Noctem (Night Castle)
What Good This Deafness (Beethoven's Last Night)
Requiem (The Fifth) (Beethoven's Last Night)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Christmas Eve and Other Stories)
The Lion's Roar (Night Castle)
Embers (Night Castle)
Christmas Canon Rock (The Lost Christmas Eve)

However This year Susan has created a long playlist using the Windows Media Player on her computer to rip the selection of Christmas CDs we have.
In previous years over the weeks leading up to Christmas as well as hearing Bing droning on about yet another White Christmas occasionally a Christmas song would grab my attention
For many years it was A Christmas Canon Rock by The Trans Siberian Express out of
Canon in D Major written by Pachelbel in the 17th century
per the wiki "The circumstances of the piece's composition are wholly unknown. One writer hypothesized that the Canon may have been composed for Johann Christoph Bach's wedding, on 23 October 1694, which Pachelbel attended Johann Ambrosius Bach Pachelbel, and other friends and family provided music for the occasion. Johann Christoph Bach, the oldest brother of Johnann Sebastian Bach was a former pupil of Pachelbel"
There are any number of YouTube videos of this modern version and I have chosen a live performance (it is almost cetainly not the best one available but it was "Recorded on December 26, 2008, at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto".
But more recently my favourite seasonal air has been "The Christmas Shoes"
For some reason I was sure it was sung by Dan Fogelberg but I drew a blank on YouTube
After a quick google later I found the correct answer is a "Christian group" called Newsong
WARNING. if you have not heard this before go and fetch a box of tissues!!
Newsong's recording may be played or downloaded or the embed code copied on this website
http://mp3skull.com/mp3/christmas_shoes.html
a good quality mp3 sampled at 256KBPS a file of 8.88MB may be downloaded from the
download link which is
http://warptubes.com/wp-content/uplo...-christmas.mp3
All the very best to you and yours in 2013
(Sir) John
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