Centre of the Universe

With Christmastime, there comes an inescapable part of it, which is sometimes good, but more often bad. That is the music. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without some festive ditties. So, here are some of my favourites at this time of year.

And yes I know most of these songs are ancient….they just happen to be the good songs.

• Bing Cosby, White Christmas (1941) – The best selling Christmas song ever, and one with particular relevance for me living in South Africa. The only white Christmas we get here is if it hails on Christmas day, so we always dreaming of a white Christmas
• Jimmy Boyd, I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus (1952) – This song has come around in several covers, but is just a fun little song.
• Gene Autry, Frosty the Snowman (1950) – covered by just about everybody, I still think this song has a catchy tune.
• Gene Autry, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (1949) – C’mon, you knew I had to include this one. Christmas is not complete without this song.
• Santa Claus is coming to town – Another song that Christmas would be incomplete without, giving a feeling of the anticipation of the coming presents.
• Bobby Helms, Jingle Bell Rock (1957) – Just a little fun song.
• Frank Sinatra, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (1947) – Can you feel the festive feelings already?
• Brenda Lee, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (1958) – A little lesser known than the others but still a classic.
• Dean Martin, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (1959) – Another song playing on a childhood growing up with with a summer Christmas, missing out on all that snow.
• Winter Wonderland – This song from the thirties has literally been done by everybody. And dare I say it, another song to make me so jealous of my Northern Hemisphere relatives.

And as a special mention is Boney M’s Christmas album. This one is a true classic, and despite the fact that I would never dare listen to it any other time, and that shopping malls seem to have this album stuck on repeat for the whole season. No other album has reached this kind of status.

I adore opera music. I really do. And I have my mother to blame for that.

You see, when I was 6 years old, my mother took me to see a ballet, The Nutcracker Suite, and ever since then I have had a love for all things theatre, and that includes opera.

The downsides of this of course is that opera is not exactly seen as an “in” art form. People tend to give you strange looks when you sitting next to them in traffic with an Aria from Carmen or The Magic Flute playing loudly in your car.

Well, I, unfortunately, have repeated the mistakes of my mother. I have introduced Cole to opera and ballet, and he now loves it too.

This raised it’s head this weekend. Cinema Nouveau have over the next few months planned to show several recorded versions of operas at the cinema, and I was planning on taking Claudia to go watch a few. Cole, however, told me in no uncertain terms that I dare not leave him out of it. How many 7-year-old’s willingly want to go watch a full opera?

Maybe opera will never die….

I saw a post on the blog of Jeremy Nell, a South African cartoonist, that I found to be a bit of an eye opener.

I had heard the song Lola by The Kinks many, many times over the years, and really enjoyed that song. And not once did I ever imagine what the song was really about.

Turns out the song is about a guy who picks up a woman in a bar, and then the woman turns out to be a man. This last part escaped me until it was pointed out me, and I actually read the lyrics.

I must say, this is not the only song out there that does not always convey what it really means. The biggest one that pops in my head is Every Breath You Take by The Police. That song is about a stalker, yet at every dance I have been to, when they have a slow dance, this song gets played. People think it is a nice romantic love song, but in reality it is a rather disturbing song.

There are many songs which people have not gotten, and then had to have the real meaning pointed out – it is staggering how many songs have veiled references to drugs.

I was going to use the song, Puff the Magic Dragon, by Peter, Paul and Mary as an example of this, but digging around a little, I discovered that the song was actually intended to be an innocent song, and had nothing to do with drugs.

So, I think it pays to check before assuming too much about songs.

If you have any other cool meanings for songs, do add a comment.

I was shocked beyond belief when I had heard that Michael Jackson had died. Michael was a legend, and supposed to live forever.

I grew up just as Michael was at his prime. I can still remember, as an 8 year old, listening to Bad with a friend of mine who was totally obsessed with Michael. Since those days, I have been a huge fan of his music.

During Michael’s scandal-rocked years, I still supported him, even though the rest of the world was crucifying him. He might be strange and have quite a number of quirks, but I never got a sense of malice from him.

And now, the King of Pop is dead. May Michael Jackson live forever in our hearts.