The Little Drummer Boy
Preamble: That's a Youtube link at the bottom. If I were you I'd view this post at a desktop equipped with speakers, and the volume turned up.
Right about this time of year we decide it's OK to play Christmas music. Unlike so much of our nation, we have held the holiday at bay to it's proper beginning.
Music was part of the essence of Christmas when I was a kid. We had one of those big, heavy wood stereo consoles with the built-in speakers and the lid that lifted up to reveal the turntable. You could pile on a stack of discs and they would drop, one by one, and play for their entirety, providing hours of continuous music until it stopped and you would flip them all over and listen to the other sides. I wish I could remember our Christmas music collection better. My memory ends after Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, and Bing Crosby. And I'm afraid I might have been insufficiently attentive when my Dad pointed to the box of vinyl and asked if I was interested in anything before it went out the door.
Our Christmas music is now kind of a hodgepodge. There's some of the nostalgic childhood stuff. There are some contemporary interpretations (Leon Redbone, James Taylor). There's some Windam Hill, Celtic, and Hawaiian slack key. There's also Presents by Dred Zeppelin - now there's a CD that will spice up your holiday collection. There are a precious few that I think are truly great discs of music in addition to being filed under Christmas - Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is fabulous, despite the fact that he was ill served by that association. It's overplayed because it has so few peers. Our Christmas begins and ends with that disc.
But there's another CD worth your attention, and it includes a song that is my seasonal obsession. The CD is It's Christmas Man! by Brave Combo. They are a Denton, Texas polka band (you read that correctly) but this disc is mostly riffs on various Latin genres. The whole CD is great; alternating between awesome and hilarious. But the song I can't stop loving is their version of "The Little Drummer Boy."
Can a song be both tongue-in-cheek and profound? This song rocks. Use it to cleanse your memory of the plodding, joyless drumming that accompanied the TV special, the renditions recorded in the 1960's and 70's, and those performed in compulsory grade school Christmas programs. If you have no such memories let this version be your introduction.
This little drummer boy grew up just outside Havana...
and he's good.
The Little Drummer Boy
Right about this time of year we decide it's OK to play Christmas music. Unlike so much of our nation, we have held the holiday at bay to it's proper beginning.
Music was part of the essence of Christmas when I was a kid. We had one of those big, heavy wood stereo consoles with the built-in speakers and the lid that lifted up to reveal the turntable. You could pile on a stack of discs and they would drop, one by one, and play for their entirety, providing hours of continuous music until it stopped and you would flip them all over and listen to the other sides. I wish I could remember our Christmas music collection better. My memory ends after Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, and Bing Crosby. And I'm afraid I might have been insufficiently attentive when my Dad pointed to the box of vinyl and asked if I was interested in anything before it went out the door.
Our Christmas music is now kind of a hodgepodge. There's some of the nostalgic childhood stuff. There are some contemporary interpretations (Leon Redbone, James Taylor). There's some Windam Hill, Celtic, and Hawaiian slack key. There's also Presents by Dred Zeppelin - now there's a CD that will spice up your holiday collection. There are a precious few that I think are truly great discs of music in addition to being filed under Christmas - Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is fabulous, despite the fact that he was ill served by that association. It's overplayed because it has so few peers. Our Christmas begins and ends with that disc.
But there's another CD worth your attention, and it includes a song that is my seasonal obsession. The CD is It's Christmas Man! by Brave Combo. They are a Denton, Texas polka band (you read that correctly) but this disc is mostly riffs on various Latin genres. The whole CD is great; alternating between awesome and hilarious. But the song I can't stop loving is their version of "The Little Drummer Boy."
This little drummer boy grew up just outside Havana...
and he's good.
The Little Drummer Boy
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