Christmas Time is Here

My guitar and I reconnected last night. I can't go into the details--I don't kiss and tell--but we were happy to see one another again :)

Also last night was my favorite Christmas show, "A Charlie Brown Christmas"--followed closely by It's a Wonderful Life; okay, so maybe those are the only two I like, but that's besides the point... About two weeks ago I checked to see when it was on and set it to record. I didn't watch it yet--I had rehearsal and a bunch of other stuff to do--but I will soon. I am not alone in my love of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," so there is no need for my commentary on what makes it so great. But a large reason why is "Christmas Time is Here." If that is not the most melancholy song ever, I don't know what is. The song is so quiet, so vulnerable, so sad, so full of yearning, and so blue, the color of a winter sky around 5am, when the rest of the world is still asleep. It's one of those songs that I probably won't ever learn on guitar because then all the mystique will be taken from it. It won't be magical any longer, but merely a succession of chords and notes and melodic patterns.

Watch this clip for yourself; if you feel nothing, you must not have a pulse:



Aside from the music, note Linus's speech at the end, when he tells his friends the story of Christmas--something that overtly religious would never make it to prime-time television if it were released today.