Category: music
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For those not familiar with it, Kwanzaa is an African-American celebration of culture and unity. It was created in the 1960s by a Black separatist named Maulana Karenga. He is a pretty controversial figure! Then again, so was Jesus, and we still celebrate his holiday, don’t we?
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There aren’t that many songs about what happens after the holiday, so while this song has a “visualizer” rather than a video, I’m posting it anyway, thus breaking more than one of my self-imposed rules.
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This is the definitive version, and I won’t entertain any arguments to the contrary.
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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.
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Festivus was certainly popularized when it appeared as a plot point in “The Strike”, a 1997 episode of Seinfeld. However, it was actually invented decades earlier, in 1966.
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If anyone ever commented on any of these posts, they might suggest that one genre I have been neglecting is straight-up rock music. Like, fist-in-the-air, hair-whipping, Camaro-driving, Circle-K-parking-lot-loitering hard-rockin’ rock.
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Traditional Nordic Yule involves a lot of blood and fire. I think I’ll stick with eating rum balls and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the 1966 original, naturally).
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The ’68 Comeback Special’s official title was Singer Presents…Elvis. Because there’s nothing more rock ‘n’ roll than a network TV production sponsored by a sewing-machine company.
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When Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane delivered the song its lyrics were a little darker than the ones we all know and love today: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/It may be your last/Next year we may all be living in the past.”
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There’s really only one song I can think of that even comes close to capturing how weird and potentially frightening this entire Santa Claus thing is.
John Lucas 