But one very important thing to me is the music. Every year a selection of songs are played that, literally and definitively, you cannot hear on the radio any other time of the year. And what is so great about this category of music is that it transscends, and thus preserves, many genres of music that don't get a lot of play elsewhen.
Christmas Music.
Just about every genre of music is represented in the realm of music written and performed in celebration of Christmas and mid-winter. We can find it in classical, country, rockabilly, blues, rhythm & blues, swing, soul, metal, punk, 1960's close-harmony girl groups, British Invasion, Broadway, the folk music of any culture that celebrates it, and just about any type of jazz there is.
The reason is simple: the holiday is nigh-universal, and thus every culturecreates its music for it. Also, that writers, performers, and producers know that the fans wil buy up the recordings of this music in any media at this time of year.
This all means that by judiciously scanning through the radio station and YouTube, you can get a nice cross-section of an entire musical landscape, all about the same subject! You can hear the same songs done in many different styles, each brinnging something different to the enterpretation and enjoyment of the song.
So this year I decided that I was going to fill my ears with Christmas music of many variety. I wanted to hear my favorites, but I also wanted to hear new stuff that I had never heard before.
On one of the first days I tried the radio, I was lucky in that it was after 11 PM on a Sunday, and that meant it was time for Little Steven's Underground Garage on Q104 FM. This program specializes in playing rare and lesser-known but excellent rock & roll, often seasonably themed, counterpointed by Little Steven talking a bit about the origins of the traditions of the season.
He didn't disappoint. Rockin' and swingin' and some bizare versions of Christmas classics with a few originals thrown into the mix, it was a delight and I was locing every cut. I was expecially impressed that he pulled out a medieval-sounding number by Mannheim Steamroller!
The next day I went to work and decided to brighten up the late-night atmosphere of the lobby in which I was working with some holiday music. I had to be careful, though. I certain instances I would be palying music that others might hear, and I had to make sure that the music did not conflict with the intended "vibe" of the context.
So I started at my by looking up "best Christmas songs" on YouTube. I found a bunch of videos with 50 or 100 or 1 hour or 3 hours of "the best of" or "the greatest" or the best or greatest of 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. I tried a couple of those "oldies channels."
While I am used to hearing a mix of eras on the radio (Mariah Cary followed by Nat King Cole, followed by Elton John, for instance),it was a new expereince for me to hear nothing modern. It was all Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Gene Autry and other pre-rock or non-rock pop, comlete with the low-fidelity sound. IT was nice. Innoffensive. Domestic. It felt to be of a time and place when things were safe and cozy. It was interesting to hear older, perhaps even original versions that have been made more popular by other artists and finding the differences. Syncopation was not a big thing for Christmas songs in their early incarnatons. Singers with a bit of swing to their style, like Bing and Dean, could play a bit more with the rhythms and pacing, and some of those variants have become stardard parts of the songs.
I played that at work in a lobby of a luxury apartment building, and it felt fine. Just like walking through an old Christmas movie. And since it was an overnight shift, there were never many peole going through the lobby at any one time. Then after the three hour video was up, I really had had enough, The similarities of the sound quality, instrumentation, and singing styleshad limited its potential. I had heard a particular Christmas carol played by some Irish/Celtic band, so I decided to search for Celtic Chritmas music.
OF course there were a bunch of collections for that. I picked one. It was all instrumental, but it was hard ti oick out if they were laying Crhistmas songs or carols of just Irish/Celtic songs or melodies. I skipped to another channel and did find more identifialble song. That was fun for a wnile, but it only lasted an hour.
So then I decided to go big. I looked up the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. If you don't know, they are know for taking orhestral music and adding epic rock & roll instrumentation and attitude to play it, particularly for fantastic stage shows at Christmastime. I found a video of the entirety of one of their Christmas albums and let it roll.
They didn't disappoint for that for which they are known, but the heavy guitar riffs and epic oirchestrations seemed a little heavy that early in the morning. So I went back to the Celtic for the remaining hour of my shift.
Back at home I went back to the TDO. I had vended refreshments in the stands at a concert they held in the Prudential Center a bunch of years ago, and really enjoyed their show. I only ever seem to hear one or two of their songs on the airwaves during the season, so I wanted to know what else they had. I found a YouTube "radio station" of the band, which basically semeed like their entire catalog on "shuffle." It was great fun and helped me get through some midwinter chores around the house.
So that "radio station" held me for a while, but I was aware that TSO had made albums, and did concerts. I decided I wanted to hear one of these all the way through. I found a youTube video of the entire "Lost Christmas Eve" album music. and let it play. IT was good to hear teh mosic progress from oine song to the next according to the theme of an album rather than random skipping.Then I noiticed that there wa a YouTube video that included the narration on from the album, making a 1-hour progrm into over two hours. I was curious and wondered what that narration would be, so I swoitched to that.
The narration turned out to be a story of an anger who was sent to Earth to dfind something or someone.It was a veryu interesting story about the anger searching New York City for this certain person and the places he went, and the people he met, and the thingsthey all did. I wound up continuing this albunm at work, but this time it was during a period of the night shift in which there were very few people coming through (like, almost none) so I got through the whole album. It was nice listening to such a story at Cbistmastime. It reminded me of several such occasions over the years, particularly in my youth, in which I would hear seasonal stories on the radio.
That having been done, I went home. It now being Christmas Eve, I thought that CBS-FM, the oldies station that I had always counted on for my holiday music fix could be playing the seasonal music. It wasn't. So I went without radio for a while. I checked in later, in the evening, and FINALLY they were playing their 12 hours of the top 101 holiday songs. I heard some classic songs in their classic versions.
Christmas Day wasn't all that great a day for me. I had beguin feeling like I was "coming down with something" for the past day or so, and went to an Urgent Care place to get checked out. I tested positive for Fulu A. So taking my mom out for dinner was out of the question. I got some masks from the Urgent Care and wore hem while I ordered in sime really good burritos and guacamole from a local Mexican place (pretty much all other options being unavailable by that time). I tuned back into CBS-FM, but found that hey were no longer playing the Christmas music. (maybe they stopped at noon after their countdown was done?) But I found soemthing new on the radio.
It turns out that there is a Christian station in NYC called K-LOVE, amd they were plaing (of course) Christmas songs. This makes perfect sense, it being the bigest holiday in their religion, I just had not entertained the thought of tuning into a Christian staton for the holiday that bears its name. I found this station and they were playing the standard songs, but by artists I did not recognize. The songs of faithe seemed more...inspired than the common, popular versiuons, whild the more secular ones seemed to rock and swing a little harder . Perhaps it had something to do with these being bands that make their name doing songs of worship, and so they really know how to express the inspiratiuon in the performance, and when they get to cut loose and rock out ("Holly Jolly Christmas" was a notable example. It was done with a hard backbeat and a male chorus that soudned like it was having a party. A chorus of "Jingle Bells" was even thrown into the middle of it).
Interestingly, CBS-FM did still play a Christmas son here and there within their regular playlist, and the last such song I heard from them was Bruce Springsteen's "anta Claus is Comin; to Town. That happened to be the first song I heard on K-Love.
This station played this music long past midnight. I had trouble getting to sleep that night (something about my late-night work schedule). but nodded aff sometime after 3 AM. I woke up atround 6 AM, and they were back to playing standard worship songs, so I surfed the radio dial again.
I found myself near the top of the dial with LITE-FM
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