The music of Christmas

So I promised a post of substance. And well I am not sure this will qualify, but it isn't a diary type post.

I have probably blogged about my favorite Christmas song before, but just a quick recap. I have a special affinity in my heart for John Denver. (My husband is screeching and writhing in pain.) I suppose it comes from growing up near the Rocky Mountains and either near or in Colorado much of my life. Plus, my parents played his albums (yes, vinyl lp's).

I was and am still a huge fan of the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas Together. I had it on vinyl as a kid, on tape and then about a decade ago I bought it on cd. My parents bought John Denver's Rocky Mountain Christmas when I was a kid. It was more "serious"... except for the whole "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas" song. Which my sister and I just laughed at. Now I realize how sad it really is...

Anyways. My favorite Christmas song ever is "Christmas for Cowboys" off of this cd.



Despite the fact that I have never been impressed by anything remotely cowboy-ish, this song speaks to me. It reminds me of my childhood growing up in Wyoming and then in Colorado. It's everything to me that Christmas should be - the gift of the sky, stars, the wind singing and the snow on the plains.

Now let's jump to the flip side.

My least favorite song. AB tells me that my disdain for this song may be a little... hmmm... not wrong really... but off? The song had such intentions to be good and do good things. But to me it shows such incredible self centered views of the rest of the world and the strife in other nations and the strange notion that we know it all and can fix it all.



This song makes me nearly ill.

Aside from the images of the Georges (Boy and Michael) singing as if they have any notion whatsoever of what is going on around the world. The song just misses the mark and I am continually amazed that people actually remake this song. (Hello BNL... I was so disappointed.)

No, they do not know it is Christmas and they probably don't care because most are not Christian.

"Feed the World, let them know it's Christmastime". First off, let's not just feed the world because it is time to be generous, let's work at it year round. But even moreso, throwing food at the problem is not a solution since the main problem is getting the food to the people. But maybe we didn't know this in the mid-80's.

And the line that I have a major problem with is, "well tonight thank God it's them instead of you". This is like praying to win the lotto. Instead of thanking heaven that someone else is the one starving how about being grateful for all we have been given in our lives.

Poor AB... he knows when this song comes on (which it invariably does since I keep my XM Radio on XM Holly quite often) he gets to hear my rants and raves.

I threw in another one the other day... Bandaid... I can't believe they named the group Bandaid, because it is like putting a Bandaid on something will fix it. Wrong, Bandaids just cover it up.

Then AB pointed out that it was Band Aid and the goal was to get Bands together to provide Aid.

Ok, he may be right there. But that doesn't make me like the song anymore!