Well, here it is Christmas Eve again, and boys and girls of all ages – good and not-so-good alike – are already climbing into their beds and trying to go to sleep. As appealing a notion as that may be, there will be no sleep here until the chief annual mission of this blog has been completed in full – namely, providing some background on the individual tracks that appear on this year's annual holiday mix. This year’s mix is called Here Comes Santa Claus, it runs for just
under 80 minutes and consists of 38 tracks. We've only got two more to go, and since
this is a big night, I need to be quick about it. Everybody ready? On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner, On Blitzen . . .
Track 38
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Caleb and the Caroling Caravan
(2011)
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| Caleb Groh (left) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (right) |
The closing song for this year’s CD is one of my very favorite
Christmas songs, for it captures what I consider one of the most powerful and
enduring messages of the season – faith and hope that amidst any temporary sadness and despair, the Lord’s grace shall bring peace and solace. The
lyrics to this song were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during the
depths of the American Civil War. Longfellow was despondent, and barely able to
get out of bed each morning. His wife had died in a terrible home fire in 1861, and shortly
before the Christmas season of 1863 he learned that his son had been seriously
wounded in the Army of the Potomac.
Sitting down at his desk on Christmas Day with the bells of the nearby
churches in Harvard Square ringing in the background, Longfellow wrote these
lines:
I heard the bells
on Christmas Day
Their old familiar
carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth,
good will to men!
And thought how, as
the day had come
The belfries of all
Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth,
good will to men!
Till, ringing,
singing on its way,
The world revolved
from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth,
good will to men!
Then from each
black, accursed mouth
The cannon
thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth,
good will to men!
It was as if an
earthquake rent
The hearth-stones
of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth,
good will to men!
And in despair I
bowed my head;
"There is no
peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is
strong
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth,
good will to men."
Then pealed the
bells more loud and deep.
"God is not
dead, nor doth he sleep!
The wrong shall
fail,
The right prevail,
With peace on
earth, good will to men!"
Longfellow's poem was first published in a children's magazine in 1865 under the title "Christmas Bells," and it became quite popular. It was first set to music in 1872 by British organist and composer John Baptiste Calkin in a version that remains the standard today. This version was recorded by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, among others. A second version was later written by Johnny Marks, who's best known for composing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Marks' version has been recorded by such artists as Frank Sinatra, Sarah McLachlan,
Harry Belafonte, Bing
Crosby and The Carpenters. Both the Calkin and Marks versions omit the third, fourth and fifth verses of Longfellow's original poem.
The version I chose to end this year's CD is by Caleb and the Caroling Caravan, an indie group created by Boston indie folk artist
Caleb Groh, who's also recorded under the name Happiest Lion. Caleb and the Caroling Caravan has released two albums to date, both of which consist entirely of holiday music. The first is a self-titled album that was released in 2009, and the second, titled Volume 2, was released the following year. Both are available on iTunes or
amazon. I like this group's version of the song because of its thoughtful, almost melancholy tone, which strikes me as especially appropriate in light of Longfellow's powerful lyrics.
However dark the skies sometimes appear, and however far justice and
right may occasionally appear, I have come to believe that right will ultimately
prevail. In the end, the train of human history follows a righteous track. Such
is the power of the holiday season that against such overwhelming despair,
Longfellow could find the ringing church bells a message of hope and
optimism. May those who suffer find the same this season, and may the coming new
year bring solace and comfort to one and all.
Track 37
The Christmas Gift, by Andy Griffith (2004)
I've always enjoyed The Andy Griffith Show. It’s one of those “comfort
shows” that seem to make people feel better after some bad news or a rough day.
I realize that it’s an unrealistic picture of American life, and that, like most
television fare, it glosses over hundreds of vexing social issues, but
sometimes we need to see something that’s simple, homespun and better than the
cold reality around us. Andy Griffith had a long and very successful career in film, television, stand-up comedy and music, but to me he'll always be fair-minded and thoughtful Sheriff Andy Taylor. As an attorney, I couldn't bear to watch Griffith's later TV series, Matlock, which took incredible liberties with the rules of evidence and criminal procedure for dramatic effect. It's also difficult to watch Griffith in the classic film "A Face in the Crowd," for although his acting was superb, the character he played was so much darker than Andy Taylor that I almost felt betrayed. And while Griffith took pains to assert that he was a very different man than Sheriff Taylor, that's how I'll always think of him – well, that and the courageous private citizen who recorded ads in favor of President Obama's election in 2008 and the President's health care reforms in 2010, commercials that
alienated large portions of his Southern fan base at the time.
This particular track is taken from Griffith's 2004 album The Christmas Guest: Songs and Stories of Christmas. I was torn between including this track on my CD this year and using an excerpt from the one holiday episode of The Andy Griffith Show. This track is a little corny, I suppose, but it's an important and inspirational message from an important and inspirational man.
That's the end of our main story for this year, and I hope it's been useful to have some additional information about the tracks on this year's CD. Please be sure to check out my holiday music blog at www.marksholidaymixcds.net for more, and note that this year's release will likely be available only through New Year's Day. We'll feature a few more blog posts before this blog begins its long winter's nap, so check back from time to time here, too.
