Bear’s Top Christmas Songs, 2007
8. “A Mighty Fortress/Angels We Have Heard on High” from Amy Grant’s first Christmas Album, newly re-mastered and re-released this year
7. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, Sarah McLachlan’s beautiful version of the John Lennon classic, from her Christmas album Wintersong
6. “Early on One Christmas Morn” – Bruce Cockburn’s Southern Gospel cover of a 1929 song by The Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers, from Bruce’s Christmas CD that is sadly out of print but still downloadable from iTunes
5. “Christmas Time is Here” (and the “Linus and Lucy” theme!) from Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas
4. “Calling on Mary,” a haunting new song from Aimee Mann’s Christmas album, One More Drifter in the Snow
3. “Variations on the Kanon by Pachelbel” and “Some Children See Him” from George Winston’s wintry classic, December
7. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, Sarah McLachlan’s beautiful version of the John Lennon classic, from her Christmas album Wintersong
6. “Early on One Christmas Morn” – Bruce Cockburn’s Southern Gospel cover of a 1929 song by The Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers, from Bruce’s Christmas CD that is sadly out of print but still downloadable from iTunes
5. “Christmas Time is Here” (and the “Linus and Lucy” theme!) from Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas
4. “Calling on Mary,” a haunting new song from Aimee Mann’s Christmas album, One More Drifter in the Snow
3. “Variations on the Kanon by Pachelbel” and “Some Children See Him” from George Winston’s wintry classic, December
2. Several songs from John Michael Talbot’s Christmas CD, The Birth of Jesus: “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” and his medley of “What Child is This” and “O Come O Come Emmanuel”
1. “O Holy Night” – my all-time favorite
I love the history of this 1847 song (the first Christmas carol to be broadcast on radio, in 1906), a song that was initially rejected by most churches because its lyricist was a “free-thinker” wine merchant, its composer was Jewish, and its third verse was decidedly anti-slavery:
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sadly, most recorded versions of “O Holy Night” leave out that third verse. A recent one that doesn’t is from the new Christmas Offerings CD by Third Day, one of my favorite Christian rock groups. Their version is contemporary but still reverent – a good rendition of my all-time favorite Christmas carol, which has a somewhat-gnostic bent in its first verse: equating “sin” with “error” (rather than disobedience or transgression) and describing the appearance of the Christ child as the time when “the soul felt its worth.”
Blessed Yule ~
Grateful Bear
Labels: Music
posted by Darrell Grizzle | 8:08 PM
5 Comments:
My all-time favorite hymn too--and mostly for the same reasons, along with its haunting beauty. One more thing I enjoy in common with you, Bear!
Blessings of the season,
Peter
That Amy Grant album will always hold a special spot in my heart. I associate it with early marriage and the first years of children and Christmas. :)
Merry Christmas, Bear!
"Mary, Did You Know?" is my favorite "religious" song, but "I'll be home for Christmas" always leaves me in tears!
Blessed Yule and Happy Holidays!
One that I haven't heard for a LONG time that's been on my mind this year is: "Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella!"
About the "Gnostic bent" c'mon, you know that the Greek word for sin, hamartia means "missing the mark!"
Jon, of course I know that, but to me there's a huge difference between "error" and "missing the mark." Most Christians (at least the ones I've heard preach on this topic) interpret "missing the mark" as failing to meet God's standards. To me, the very idea that God expects us to live up to a code of conduct IS an error.
Post a Comment
<< Home