Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Featured Replies

  • Popular Post

 

Silent Night in all its forms is my favorite, but Young Me has a very soft spot for Mannheim Steamroller’s version.

O Holy Night in all its forms is MY favorite.  Tons of great versions out there, I tend to prefer the ones that keep it pretty simple.  Looking around on YouTube I found this one by Martina McBride that I really liked.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doobczYGo-c

 

Edited by utee94

Bings White Christmas, silent night, Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, Nat King Coles version of any Christmas tune.

Silent Night is actually the best one, but can't believe we haven't seen this yet

 

not sure if this is even a Christmas song, but it's on the Sufjan Christmas album and has been in my head

 

also, this is a great song

ah, almost forgot O Holy Night - the bridge to that is one of the greatest moments in Christmas music.  What's the best version of that one?

Edited by Celery Man

I lean a little instrumental due to years in band...for me it’s a tie between



And

I just don't understand how you assholes can't appreciate the dulcet tones of a freshly purchased Casio.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

I just don't understand how you assholes can't appreciate the dulcet tones of a freshly purchased Casio.

 

 

I prefer Lennon's but I like both

I prefer Lennon's but I like both


V.I. Lenin?
13 minutes ago, Homercles said:

 


V.I. Lenin?

 

Uncalled for. I'm telling McCarthy. 

This song perfectly expresses the overwhelming ambivalence I feel about the holidays.  I revisit it every year.

"I get freaked out by churches.

Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords (but the lyrics are dodgy).

And yes, I have all of the usual objections to the mis-education of children, who (in tax-exempt institutions) are taught to externalize blame, and to feel ashamed, and to judge things as plain right or wrong.

But I quite like the songs."

 

 

Edited by Paul Wesley

2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Bings White Christmas, silent night, Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, Nat King Coles version of any Christmas tune.

Bing's duet with Bowie on Drummer boy is fan-fucking-tastic, also. 

2 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Bing's duet with Bowie on Drummer boy is fan-fucking-tastic, also. 

Yep I remember seeing the as a kid for the first time.  Very cool, and a beautiful duet.

Already mentioned, but worth revisiting.

 

Gonna try and probably fail.

 

Edited by jinx
It actually worked. My Morning Jacket does a great cover.

On 12/24/2018 at 11:31 AM, Celery Man said:

, almost forgot O Holy Night - the bridge to that is one of the greatest moments in Christmas music.  What's the best version of that one?

David Phelps owns this song. Dude has the pipes and the passion for sure. 

 

Edited by After irth
Had to find the link

  • 1 year later...
On 12/21/2018 at 10:20 PM, Seger78 said:

 

Bump to honor the season and the artist #RIP

As I mentioned above (two years ago I guess), O Holy Night is my favorite all-time.  So many great versions of it, this is a  rock version by a Christian band called "Kutless."  And normally I'm not a huge fan of Christian rock bands, but this version is pretty cool.

 

My favorite secular Christmas song, is probably this one, and it's more true in 2020 than I can ever recall before:

 

 

O Holy Night is my absolute favorite.  With a truly powerful voice, it's just a chilling and aweing song.  I love Pavarotti singing it, but I think other versions are sometimes since he speaks English so much better.  NTTAWWT  

 

Ray Charles, The Spirit of Christmas.  Touches on the reason for the season, and all the reflections I have on Christmases past with my family, my 4 grandparents and other family that have passed on, and the Christmases to come with my own family.  Tears me up just listening to it. 

 

 

Not necessarily a Christmas song, but it's on his Christmas album with the space Christian choir.  Just unbelievably powerful the control he has with his voice.  Love Bocelli.  

 

 

Pos rep on the Ray Charles "That Spirit of Christmas."  I try each year to get into those standard classics by lame-ass white dudes, but give me this tune every time.  It's awash in soul and joyous awe.  Love that photo montage you posted, where's that from (besides youtube)?  Reminds me of that tear-jerker moment in an otherwise comedic classic, "Christmas Vacation" when Clark is watching those old home movies in the attic to this same song. 

Between that little B&W reel he finds and that photo montage you posted, reminds me not of the Christmases we had growing up, but of the ones I heard about growing up.  These legends of this era that happened before my time that I could still smell and hear.  Men in ties smoking cheap cigars fumbling together kid's gifts on Christmas Eve without spilling a sip of their drink.  All turn in unison to the camera as if to say, "What the hell do you want?  We're doing Christmas shit over here."  Indiscernible plates of food in the background, women in ugly glasses and hair up managing dozens of kids and stacks of dishes without losing the ash off their Winston Light 100.  A record player blasts out the standards in the background, some parade with Dick Clark on the 21" TV cart just out of frame.  Third cousins and friends of uncles whom you don't know, but your mother swears are as close to her as any brother or sister ever could be.  Deviled eggs out on the dining room table since noon, a friend of a friend who you thought was away at "College" comes in with a large ham, your older sibling gets to go move cars in the driveway at age 13 because the snow plow is coming through the next morning and some folks will be "resting their eyes on the living room sofa" later that night.  Boisterous laughter at jokes you already know at your young age are woefully off-color but fucking hilarious.  New girlfriends/boyfriends of relatives coming around the family for their first Christmas with this look of terror in their eyes, and you just look at the and wonder, "Isn't this what everybody's family Christmas" is like?  Somebody offers up a prayer, somebody brings up old shit, somebody falls down, somebody knows a liquor store in Cicero that's still open,  somebody goes to their car to get a new holiday song cassette tape, somebody goes out for a cigarette on the patio and never comes back in, somebody hands me a $5 bill, somebody can't find their coat on the pile in my parent's bedroom, and somebody cries because it's their first Christmas without their mom who passed last Spring.

 I look at photographs on my dad going off on his first Naval assignment right before Christmas of 1961.  I see photographs of my dad meeting my mother's family during the holidays of 1974.  I look at the photos and a even a few short home videos of our extended family gatherings in the 70's & 80's.  And I realize, there is no War on Christmas.  We just forgot how to truly celebrate the thing.  

After Vince's Charlie Brown record, this is the best Christmas record of all time:

This is the best song on that record:

This one is probably the second best Christmas record:

But you can't be a Texan and not throw this one on:

 

 I think I posted this in the 2019 Bitch about the Holiday's thread.

 

"The Christmas Song" by Torme/Cole was rated the most-loved by women 25-49 in 2004.
So there's your answer.

(BTW, if you've never heard Cole's early non-orchestral 1946 (June, w/o strings, and August, with) versions, they're pretty damn awesome.  Breezier, more jazzy.
 

Edited by phdhorn

Some of these are from Big Bob Wilonsky's Cool Yule last year. I would have never heard of The Soul Duo except for him.

Didn't scroll and load every video but enough to know this was previously mentioned, and even if this version didn't have a hip pop-art vid, it'd be worth the replay, but it does...

 

As a child of the 80s, I had a special affinity for the album "A Very Special Christmas."  And this was my favorite tune on it:

 

 

19 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Didn't scroll and load every video but enough to know this was previously mentioned, and even if this version didn't have a hip pop-art vid, it'd be worth the replay, but it does...

 

I still don’t understand how Chuck, as celebrated as he was, is still so overlooked sometimes.   

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.