John Lucas

Dear reader, I understand that the next few days are likely to be busy ones, so I promise to keep these posts short. (I do intend to keep this countdown going until New Year’s Day, but these are my last chances to post Christmas songs.)

This means that I won’t be able to get into the full back story of “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24”, but here are the basic facts:

The song, which incorporates parts of “Carol of the Bells” and “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”, was first released by Savatage (a heavy-metal band featuring future members of Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on a 1995 album called Dead Winter Dead.

That’s a rather grim title, but it’s a fitting one, given the subject matter; Dead Winter Dead is a concept album about the Bosnian War. “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” (re-released by TSO on its 1996 debut album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories) was inspired in part by the real-life story of Vedran Smailović, a Bosnian musician who played his cello in ruined buildings during the siege of Sarajevo. Smailović’s story also inspired the novel The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. 

Okay, I promised to keep this short. Enjoy the music, and don’t forget to get to bed nice and early tonight. After all, Santa Claus won’t come until you’re sleeping.