Tuesday 18 December 2007

Twelve days of Christmas* - John Denver and the Muppets

So far, this has to be the carol of the season for me!

I've always been fascinated with this carol ever since i was a wee little boy. I loved the way how the song counts down with so many different gifts - and the change of tune during the 5th day to break the monotony.

This song first surfaced this year when i was teaching me Criminal Law students about this landmark case where there were 10 Lords of Appeals sitting - and i was like, "10 Lords of Appeal - hhmmm... sounds like a line from the 12 Days of Christmas". And just like my every other joke i make, many din have a clue at wat i was talking about!!!

Anyways, we were going back home from Jeram Besu the other day when this new version of this carol came on. I was trying hard to decide if i was more irritated or amused at it. Unfortunately, we din get to learn the artist's name.

The part of the song that goes "On the ___ day of Christmas my true love gave to me..." was sung in the traditional slow manner. Then the remaining of the line describing the gift was sung in hard rock style with distorted guitars rifts and drums and all!!! The really cool part was the "5 gold rings" part. Each time it came to that part, it was done in a different manner - 12 different styles. Cool. On one occasion, it was replaced with the refrain from "Frosty the Snowman"!!!!

I concluded that i enjoyed it but if i heard it again, it'd be tedious.

The funny thing was that a couple of hours later, i heard another version of it - the John Denver version with the Muppets!!!

And that wasn't the end of it - still another hours later, i heard the best of the lot - it was brought to me attention by one of me students. And i absolutely love it!!!! :-)

Here it is - trust me, it's worth the wait to listen to it (if you have slow internet connection):-



*Apparently, John Denver appeared with the Muppets in a Christmas TV Special in 1979. But i dun know if they sang this during the show or not.

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