O HOLY NIGHT BEFORE THE STORM

It's a weakness in my character, I openly acknowledge that. And every year I promise myself I'll do better and every year I fail all over again.

You see, the problem is that I get so swept up in the Christmas Spirit that my anger is assuaged, my bluster is blunted, my snarkiness is subdued, and my mien mellows. 

O Holy God, forgive me - my mien mellows! It's all this marvelous music and colored lights, glittering tinsel, good food, and spiked eggnog. Joy to the world! And joy in my heart!

Fortunately, however, I usually recover from my illness fairly quickly and midway through the first week of the new year I am my old, cantankerous self again.

That was a roundabout way of apologizing for not having published any hard-hitting political stuffs for awhile. I assure you I have some nastiness in the works and will get it written and posted shortly after the start of 2014 if not before. I want to yak about Obama and Feminism. Those ARE two different subjects, right? (Oh! That felt good! The "bad dog, bad dog!" in me has been away too long!) Anyway, not just yet. I'm going to continue being wimpy for at least one more blog bit - this blog bit right here.

Where I work, they have this really nice Nativity scene on the front lawn. Below is a photograph I took, but to give you a better sense of perspective, be aware that the king standing at the far right is about three feet tall.

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I can't help but think of one of my favorite Christmas songs when I see a nice Manger scene like that one.

In our family, Christmas music was always a big part of the month-long celebration, and for as long as I can remember, the papa bear of all Christmas albums in our house was unquestionably the 1958 Johnny Mathis album 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'. That was always the first album my Ma would play after Thanksgiving Day, and it was always the album that got played on Christmas morning when We Three Kids approached the tree while the home movie camera was filming and the bright spotlight was in our eyes as we tried to see what Santa had brought us.

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That same recording was also one of the first I purchased on compact disc when I began switching my LP collection over, so it is no exaggeration when I say that prior to the year 2000, I had heard every song on that album - including 

'O HOLY NIGHT' - hundreds of times! I knew those 12 songs like I knew my own name... or so I thought.

On Christmas night in 2000, I left my Ma's house (Pa had already been in Heaven for four years) and I drove home to my apartment. At about 10 PM, I put my Johnny Mathis 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' CD into my player and just sat down on the couch in my living room which was illuminated only by the twinkling lights of my Christmas tree. And I just sat there, doing nothing other than listening to Mathis sing. Perhaps for the first time ever, I was hearing 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' not as background music while I did something else, but as the sole subject of my mind's focus.

I was simply enjoying the moment and the music (as I always did) until track #7, 'O HOLY NIGHT', began playing! Suddenly, it seemed I was hearing the song for the very first time! Of course I had always known that Mathis was a great singer, but now I was made aware of his awesome vocal technique, such masterful control of his voice and with it an ability to convey emotion, to express great Spiritual feeling. I was floored. I mean, literally "FLOORED!": One moment I was sitting on the couch and the next thing I knew, I was on my stomach, lying on the carpet to get my ears as close as possible to the compact disc player's speakers.

I pressed the "Repeat" button and must have listened to Mathis sing 'O HOLY NIGHT' at least eight times in a row before I finally unplugged the Christmas tree for the last time that year and went to bed. It has remained my all-time favorite version of one of the all-time greatest Sacred Christmas carols. I had planned to use 'O HOLY NIGHT' - Johnny Mathis versus Susan Boyle - as my 10th installment of 'Battle Of The Bands', but FarAwayEyes beat me to the song. So I am simply posting below, as my Christmas gift to all y’all, the rendition I would have voted for.

I'm not exactly sure where or when this live version was filmed, but apparently the producers took the 1958 Percy Faith Orchestra instrumental, removed Johnny's original vocal track and had him sing it live to the same music used on his 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' album. I don't know which vocal I prefer, the 1958 model or this live recording - they are slightly different but both are great and affect me most at different points in the song. You may want to close your eyes while listening so that the visuals don't distract you in any way from the purity of the music and the incredible sound of the Mathis artistry. In my opinion, this song doesn’t get better than this:
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‘O HOLY NIGHT’ – Johnny Mathis

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkW6b6y6BdA

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I hope you enjoyed that.

To all a very Merry Christmas!

The usual mean-spirited, intolerant, homophobic, misogynistic racism to follow shortly.

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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