Also I am not aware of any evidence angels were actually singing at the stable itself. The drummer boy was the only music reported there of any kind. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
You’ll enjoy this Fowl Language comic, I think. 
Anyway, I’ve always liked this one. Maybe because we had the Harry Simeone album (the one with the doll on the cover) and played it as a kid, and then I bought it on cassette as a teenager. The Chorale’s version of “What Child Is This” and “Carol of the Bells” are nice too.
Simplistic lyrics, lousy rhythm, but most of all because it is a Christmas song. I fucking hate Christmas songs. There are maybe 5 I can stand hearing at all, and none I can tolerate on an endless loop of “Holiday Cheer.”
See post #22
I hate all modern Christmas songs. Carols and hymns written before WW2 are generally tolerable. Drummer Boy is loathsome but it floats in a sea of vomitous companions. When will they die? When, Jesus, when?
The best version: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
Personally, I think that the fact that Mary was able to nod at the percussive kid is proof positive that she’s a saint.
And hey, at least it’s better than “Do You Hear what I Hear”. Said the King to the people everywhere, Listen to what I say, a child, a child, shivering in the cold. Let us kill all boys under three years old. Let us kill all boys under three years old.
Indeed.
I have always disliked it because as a child I realized how unlikely it would be for a child to be playing a drum at the Nativity.
Heh. On the same theme, I rewrote the final verse a couple of years after my wife gave birth:
*Mary nodded (pa-rum-pa-pum pum)
It was a secret sign (pa-rum-pa-pum pum)
Then Joseph took my arm (pa-rum-pa-pum pum)
He led me from the barn (pa-rum-pa-pum pum
rum-pa-pum pum
rum-pa-pum pum)
Then he smiled at me (pa-rum-pa-pum pum)
And fed me my drum.*
(Right up my bum)
That line from “Away in A Manger” always bugged me. Ever since I was a little kid, I caught a subtext of “Not like when YOU were a baby. We couldn’t shut you up! Why couldn’t you have been a quiet little baby, like Little Lord Jesus?”
Of course if he really wanted to please the baby, he should have put down the drum and started tearing paper.
I don’t think it’s half as bad as most of the Christmas onslaught, and I might even like it if I hadn’t heard it so much.
But I am still laughing at that post.
From my SO:
Go, they told me, pa rum pa pum pum
And take that drum.
The venom against drum music is not in the spirit of the season.
How can you tell a drummer’s at the door?
The knocking speeds up.
What’s the last thing a drummer says in a band?
“Hey, how about we try one of my songs?”
Hey, did you hear about the drummer who finished high school?
Me neither.
How is a drum solo like a sneeze?
You know it’s coming, but there’s nothing you can do about it.
I sang this one a lot to my 2-yr-old grandson last Christmas (and through much of the winter as well–he called it “Broken Barn” for some reason and requested it frequently). I always made sure to change
“But little lord Jesus, no crying he makes”
to
“And little lord Jesus, much crying he makes.”
Partly to avoid this very issue. Mostly though for theological reasons. Much of the point of Jesus is that he is both divine and human. So, yes, he would’ve cried as an infant. I find it difficult to relate to the carols (and the iconography) that depict this perfect baby that is clearly 100% God and 0% person. Unfortunately, that’s most of them.
As for the carol in the OP…not at all my favorite. Too long and too saccharine and probably most of all too repetitive. Did I mention too repetitive? I do like the idea of replacing the three hundred and eighty-six instances of “rumpapumpum” with actual drumbeats, and am amused by people saying it wouldn’t work. Of course it would, musically and lyrically, and it would improve the song too. Did I mention it would improve the song too?
Yes, that’s nice, but the original is good- except when you hear it too damn often.
It’s one of those songs that grate after you hear it a few times in a hour.
Exactly.
