An unusual approach to basic music theory based on The Chris

[buzzsmith]

Saw this today..,

Very clever, IMHO.




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[Phil O]

Cute. Meet the Flintstones - funny!

[Shooshie]

What an old chestnut!


And a nice approach to teaching things that you normally have to just absorb.

Shoosh

[Prime Mover]

Cute, and clever approach. Too bad it's one of my least favorite christmas songs, a classification I don't tend to care for in the first places. That said, it's the lyrics that bother me the most, and those are absent, but I still can't get over them.

Only song I know that KNOWS it's making a cliche and meaningless remark and apologizes in advance for it:
"Though it's been said many times, many ways, 'Merry Christmas to you'." <- possibly worst lyrical line ever.

Anyway, still a clever idea, I wonder if they could find some better songs to do it with.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

... and probably the most lucrative Christmas song ever. As Liberace would say: I'm sure they cried all the way to the bank. It also took 45 minutes to write on a hot Summer day on LA.

I wish I could write such a terrible hit song.

Actually, I really like the song and this version.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

ps -How bad can the lyrics be if you recall them from memory without blinking a neuron, or a Christmas light for that matter?

Terrible lyrics... indeed!

[Phil O]

Prime Scrooge!

[cuttime]

"Though it's been said many times, many ways, 'Merry Christmas to you'." <- possibly worst lyrical line ever.

Worse than

"Someone's knockin at the door
Somebody's ringin the bell
Do me a favor,
Open the door and let em in" ?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Yes, much worser... it's all about context. But while we're t/o...

War! Hoooh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothin'
Say it again...

~ Tolstoy (original title of War & Peace ~ Elaine)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Or...

Up against the wall mother F$%^er

Gimme an M (M)
Gimme an O (O)
Gimme a T (T)
Gimme a U (U)

What's that spell? (DAW)

Huh?

[Phil O]

Much worse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLqQpc5DWp0

I remember getting that album when it was first out. When it got to this track my mind was blown. (That's an expression from way back when for all you yung'ns.)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I thought was kind of "beat poet-ish" and not bad until the farts started.

Now THIS is something I always hated.

[HCMarkus]

I love Christmas Song, the lyric, the melody, and the changes. Its fookin' brilliant.

There is no accounting for taste, is there?

[stubbsonic]

OMG, MLC, I forgot all about that song. I remember seeing that old version of Hobbit. It's such a caricature of that fast vibrato folk style (a la "A Mighty Wind"). But those lyrics are rough. Oof. It's playing in the background-- keeps getting worse and worse. It is really funny, though. You win.

Though I was going to put Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" up there as worst lyrics, but this is way worse.

[Frodo]

I remember seeing that old version of Hobbit....

Well, that was enough inspiration for me to chime in!

I love Christmas Song, the lyric, the melody, and the changes. Its fookin' brilliant.

There is no accounting for taste, is there?

I think there is room for taste accounting, personally. It's one thing to improve upon what's already been done. It's another thing entirely to be the first to do it. Consider what other "new" holiday tunes were being done back then and one's disappointment would grow even deeper by the flood of tripe.

Mel Torme was always (imho) highly underrated as a writer, a singer, and an instrumental arranger.

Cute. Meet the Flintstones - funny!

Yep-- It was Torme who did the classic track for an early Flintstones' episode in which Fred as pop singer Hi-Fi sang "Listen To The Mocking Bird". It was a cartoon, but that track was top shelf-- an eternal lesson in how to write for a big band. I still refer to it all these years later from all those years ago.

"Although it's been said many times, many ways..." Even just after WWII, the song seems to nod at what was already considered to be an old and worn out expression as it endeavored to preserve a simple sentiment in the face of post-war (and unspoken) bitterness. It's not only difficult to compare the inspiration of 1946 to that of the 2013 mindset, it's almost unfair to do so.

Honestly, I'm having a hard time finding a better song among its peers. I also struggle to find a better song in the same context from recent years. The tune is what it is as it is, whatever that is. If nothing else, it's a classic.

I love the bridge changes, especially. That was the first song as a kid in which I learned what a bridge was. Figuring out those modulating two-five turnarounds was a lesson in futility at first attempt.

What makes a good lyric and what makes a bad lyric? That's a different topic destined perhaps for a different forum. Is "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah" a bad lyric beyond that of mere opinion? It resonated with *someone* out there-- a few million of them! I wouldn't mind having written something that became culturally iconic and part of the proverbial "musical lexicon", but until I do, I must sit back in wonder.

This is just my feeble attempt to be objective. I begrudge no one of their thoughts or opinions.