Christmas Music For Pipe Smokers
ghostsofpompeii
Master
in General
I realize we already have an on-going music topic, but this theme is solely dedicated to the holiday music you enjoy listening to during Christmas Season while puffing you favorite pipe.
Being an old prog/rockers the top of my list is peppered with progressive rock groups as opposed to the old standards or Muzak that echoes through store elevators and shopping malls.
1. Number one on my list if from the outstanding British Neo-Prog band 'IQ', "Tales From A Dark Christmas". This short six song EP is a collection of both joyous and haunting tunes, with the band's unique stamp on each track. The stand-out track is the final tune "The Dark Christmas Suite".
2. Another outstanding Christmas themed album from an old Prog/Rocker is "The Jethro Tull Christmas Album". Ian Anderson and company are tailor made for incorporating elements of English folk songs with traditional Christmas melodies, creating timeless tracks that seem both vaguely familiar yet fresh and new, each track exuding the Holiday Spirit.
3. One of The 'Moody Blues' final albums was "December", a collection of beautiful melodic tunes which capture the very essence of the Season.
4. Chip Davis and his project 'Mannheim Steamroller' have made a career out of producing superb holiday fare for the past 30 years. And in that time 'Mannheim Steamroller' have recorded over a dozen Christmas themed albums. Each one a Holiday Classic.
5. 'The Trans Siberian Orchestra' combines bombastic heavy rock with sweeping orchestral and choral renditions of original Holiday inspired themes. Each album is presented as more of a Christmas themed rock opera. Their live performances are grandiose and well worth the price of admission.
6. 'Emerson Lake And Palmer' have only one song written for the Christmas Season - but it's a good one "I Believe In Father Christmas".
7. And for me it isn't Christmas without a few spins of Dean Martin's Christmas album "Season's Greetings". The album is a collection of 10 Christmas standards done as only the great crooner Dino can do. Dean's velvet voice is a nostalgic blast from the past evoking memories of better times. Being a Sicilian, Dean Martin's music permeated the house during the Holiday Season. And it's not visions of sugar plums that dance through my head when listening to Dean singing these Christmas classics but ghostly images of my relatives as they fluttered around the dining room table preparing our Holiday feast.
Comments
Seriously, I don't have any specific Christmas albums but I listen to various playlist of Christmas music that include "traditional" and pop music. I also listen to playlists of the religious Christmas Carols - again, the traditional ones and not new release Christian pop music.