20 German Christmas Favorites--Let's Be Happy and Cheerful; Sleigh Ride From the Sky High; In Dulci Jubilo; O Fir Tree (Peters International 7040; 1977)

 

Well, according to the Julian calendar, it's Christmas!  So, merry Christmas!  And I would have had this up sooner, but I was sort of glued to the TV yesterday, telling myself, "This isn't happening," even though I knew better.  In the evening, I finished my Lowrey Brings Joy to the World rip--before discovering Ernie had posted the LP in 2018.  Now, I know I checked Ernie's blog prior to ripping the album, and I know I saw no sign of anything Lowrey there.  Therefore, I must have misspelled Lowrey (probably as "Lowery") when I did my first search.  Dang.  And it's such a beautifully cheesy LP, with snyth-style sounds coming from two 1982 Lowrey organs.  Of course, electric organs were the precursor(s) to synths--and though my technical knowledge of such stuff is limited, electric organs had to produce (and manipulate) waveforms, so they would seem to be an early type of synthesizer.  Fans of the Who know (or should know) that what sounds like a sequenced synth in Baba O'riley is actually a Lowrey organ, with a repeated-note effect activated.  (I didn't know that until last night.)

Since I've got the thing ripped and ready, I may put the Lowrey LP up, anyway--after all, I didn't swipe Ernie's rip or images.  Decisions, decisions.  For the moment, we have a wonderful LP of the TV-offer-looking variety--20 German Christmas Favorites--and it's packed with top-quality performances, and it even has a choral version of Silent Night that I love.  Typically, I don't even like choral versions of Silent Night--not because it's not a good number (it's a great one, imo), but because it's probably the most played traditional Christmas number of them all.  Few things remain fresh after a zillion plays--except for Jingle Bells.  But the Thomanchor version in this collection is totally splendid, and I hated having to do a quick fade-out at the end, but a noisy defect in the pressing made it necessary.  A noisy conclusion to Silent Night--the irony.  Anyway, I spared your ears the sound of the errant closing grooves.

And just Googled "Most popular traditional Christmas song," expecting a list of traditional Christmas songs--i.e., carols and hymns of the non-Tin Pan Alley type.  And, of course, the idiotnet--er, internet--coughed up lists which include Frosty the Snowman and The Christmas Song.  Great job, internet--don't simply play to ignorance, encourage it!  Anyway, Silent Night would certainly be one of the most-sung traditional Christmas songs, even if "traditional" apparently has no meaning in cyberspace.  ("Well, my mom heard it on the radio, so it's got to be real old!")

Bryan led me to the free Google Translate app, which translates writing from images, and I used it for the first time here.  It did mostly a good job, though there were wonky moments--I had to figure out that, in addition to a couple other terms, "People's style" meant "Folk song."  I'm assuming.  And I'm still not sure about Sleigh Ride From the Sky High, but I'll take Microsoft's word for it.  The funnest of the literal translations was the one for the great Martin Luther chorale, Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come), which came out as That's Where I Come From.  Okay.  And O Tannenbaum is O Fir Tree, and I like that, so I kept it.  And I have no idea what A Muh, A Mowing is all about (animal sounds?)--only four matches in a Google search, one of which has someone asking, "'A Muh, a mowing' is a Christmas song?" Apparently, yes.  I think.

And we get a lovely version of the already lovely Italian carol You Come Down from the Stars, only under the title, Children's Eyes Under the Christmas Tree, which sounds like something out of Charles Addams.  I'm guessing it means something more like, "Children searching for presents under the tree."  I hope, anyway.  Again, marvelous performances, and I'm guessing that these are performers famous in Germany (duh), though I only recognize James Last.  A perfect mix of solo and choral material, and this should have been my opening post for 2020.  

And can anyone explain Power up the Door?  Wait--Wikipedia to the rescue: Macht hoch die Tür.  "Fling wide the door."  Of course.  What was I thinking?

"Freddy," by the way, is a terrific singer--his rendition of Vom Himmel Hoch is gorgeous.  He must be the Austrian singer Freddy Quinn.  Merry Christmas!

DOWNLOAD: 20 German Christmas Favorites (Peters International 7040; 1977)

Lee