Inland, Dreaming of Waves

I don't like it, but I love it

I’m not really a Christian.

Oh, I was raised that way, and I still looooooooove to talk to Jesuits about religion (not that I meet that many these days), but I can’t be a Christian because I don’t believe in sin. (Though I’m just as qualified to comment on what Christianity is and should be as a true believer. An upbringing in a faith is enough to make you a judge of that faith. Even a faith that tells you to “judge not.”)

If you don’t believe in sin, you don’t believe you need to be saved, no matter what all the Christians you know think about the state of your soul.

But this is not a post about religion, even though I love to discuss it. It’s about Christmas music.

I’m determined to have the largest Christmas music collection in the world.

Here’s what I have so far:

Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas
Alabama, Christmas
A Very Gospel Christmas
A Very Special Christmas
A Very Special Christmas 3
Beach Boys, Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys
Barenaked Ladies, Barenaked for the Holidays
Christmas with the Stars, Volumes 1-3
Christina Aguilera, My Kind of Christmas
Cyndi Lauper, Feels like Christmas
Elvis Presley, If Every Day Was Like Christmas
Heart, A Lovemonger’s Christmas
Judds, Christmas Time
Kenny G. Miracles: The Holiday Album
Linda Ronstadt, A Merry Little Christmas
Luciano Pavarotti, O Holy Night
Lynyrd Skynrd, Christmas Time Again
Mahalia Jackson, Silent Night, Holy Night
Manhattan Transfer
Shawn Colvin, Holiday Songs and Lullabies
Temptations, Give Love at Christmas
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve and Other Stories
Ultimate Christmas Album, Volumes 3 and 4 (never got 1 and 2)
Willie Nelson, Pretty Paper

As you can see, I have a ways to go. I haven’t even cracked 30 total yet! In 2004, I only bought 1 CD. My kitchen was torn up, we had a fridge in our living room instead of a tree, and I just wasn’t in the mood.

Feel free to send me something I don’t have or to recommend something.

My least favorite was the Manhattan Transfer CD, although I think I should listen to it again. I always need to listen to CDs several times before I know what I think of them.

My favorite now is the Cyndia Lauper CD. Most of the songs on it are not traditional Christmas songs. Some are silly, and a couple are beautiful, but most are original.

I don’t understand why some artists make Christmas CDs. The Barenaked Ladies, for instance. They sing the songs with no conviction whatsoever. Why bother? Do they need the money that badly?

It’s hard for me to understand what motivated this project of mine. It must be nostalgia, the kind that grips me every time I return to Kansas City and feel compelled to visit all my old haunts, including the house where I lived until I was 11. I don’t really want to get to know the contemporary Kansas City; I just want to recapture the past, boredom and loss and joy and all. That’s how I feel about Christmas.

Here are my favorite individual songs:

Ave Maria, Heart
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, The Judds
Blue Christmas, Sheryl Crow
Christmas Blues, Willie Nelson (instrumental)
Christmas Everyday, The Temptations
Christmas Song (Roasting Chestnuts), Christina Aguilera (the only version of this song I’ve ever liked)
December Child, Cyndi Lauper
Jingle Bells, Willie Nelson
Go Tell It on the Mountain, Mahalia Jackson
No Room at the Inn, Mahalia Jackson
O Holy Night, Pavarotti
Oi to the World, No Doubt
Pretty Paper, Willie Nelson
River, Linda Ronstadt (“I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” written by Joni Mitchell)
Silent Night, Stevie Nicks
Skynyrd Family, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Such a Night, Aaron Neville
What Child Is This? The Judds

If you want, I’ll burn you a CD with my favorites on it.

posted by Price of Silence @ 10:29 PM