Strange Versions of Traditional Christmas Music

Cafe Society
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  • ultrafilter, I suspect the Excelsis CD’s will be featured prominently in my show. The first collection is excellent. The second is pretty good too. I have never been much of a fan of the third, with the exception of the fantastic Frolic performance of Angels We Have Heard on High.

  • Eddie F., I like the Cocteau Twins “Frosty”, and also recommend their version of Winter Wonderland.

  • Eutychus, That “Suzy Snowflake” is downright sinister. May have to work it into the show somehow.

  • Sampiro, The Sufjan Stevens version of “Emmanuel” is also very good. Interesting that so many beautiful covers have been done of that carol. No one has mentioned the Belle and Sebastian version, O come, O Come, Emmanuel. Will be tough to choose among them.

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The Roches sing what would happen if a living snowman suddenly appeared in Brooklyn.

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Marlene Dietrich sings “Little Drummer Boy” in German: Trommelmann - YouTube

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Jingle Rock Bell because Markov chains can be festive, too, ya’ know. (Lyrics because you need them.)

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fishmen

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Great! Beaurtiful and eerie. Love the ghost children choir in the background.

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That was awesome! (sung to the tune House of the Rising Sun, and convincingly too)

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That link led me to “Little Steel Drummer Boy”. Check out their version of “Sleigh Ride”, too.

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The Butthole Surfers’ Good King Wenceslas is a classic.

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Does awesome Chanukah music count? :slight_smile:

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Joseph Byrd’s synthesized A Christmas Yet to Come (1975). Remember the “switched-on” synthesizer craze of the early 1970s?

Joe Byrd’s opus was not the first switched-on Christmas. It was preceded by Douglas Leedy’s A Very Merry Electric Christmas to You (1969), which provided a higher quotient of electronic weirdness.

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Rocket Park, which is a local St Louis group, does Rudolph the Redneck Reindeer to the melody of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird. Scans pretty good actually.

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By the Electric Amish

A Very Amish Christmas

Christmas Time In Amish Land (by the Amish Woodchucks)

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“Blue Christmas” - credited to Seymour Swine and the Squealers.

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Siouxsie and the Banshees give the Goth treatment to “Il Est Ne, le Divin Enfant” (sorry, couldn’t get the aigu on that e in “ne”).

Lousy video quality (looks like it was filmed directly from a TV), and I have to say the band members (especially the drummer and cymbal player) look pretty pissed about the whole thing.

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It certainly does!

And back to Christmas, how could anyone forget about Grandma and the Reindeer?

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::::shudder:::: Marlene Dietrich should never have been allowed to sing. Admittedly her performance there is at least “on tune” unlike her performance in Destry Rides Again (Lili von Shtupp was modeled on that character, I believe).

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Fittingly sung actually, even in an era when Medieval kings were expected to booze it up Wenceslas was a drunk according to plenty of accounts from foreign royalty. Had interventions existed then, Wenny would probably be the first to have one.

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The National covering Thanksgiving Song from Bob’s Burgers.

I love it more than words can tell. I know Thanksgiving isn’t Christmas, but I can’t think of a better thread to share the joy of this song in.

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http://lyrics.wikia.com/Wild_Man_Fischer:I'm_A_Christmas_Tree

I’m a Christmas Tree
I’m a Christmas Tree
Everybody hangs their ornaments on me!

I’m a Christmas Tree
I’m a Christmas Tree
People throw me out on New Year’s Eve!

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Joseph Spence: Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town