Friday, December 22, 2006

More Thoughts On The Big Debate

Okay, I've had the Ally McBeal Christmas CD going in my car lately--

And now I feel I should explain myself. I enjoyed the show whenever I happened to see it, but didn't watch regularly. However, several years ago Jeanne B. out at MCM&VCo. wanted to find out all she could about a song she'd heard in a Target commercial, and my crack detective skills (yes, I always tell the kids at school I'm not Nancy Drew, and thus they need to not talk at all during tests, to avoid my assuming they're cheating, but really I am very much Nancy Drew) led me to learn the song was called "The Man With The Bag" and there were three recordings of it available locally. One was on an Ultra Lounge holiday CD (and it was the original recording of the song, actually), one was on the (at that time) new Diana Krall CD--but only on the ones purchased at Target--and the other was on the Ally McBeal Christmas CD.

So I got each one. All three CDs are great, by the way. I love the Ultra Lounge holiday CDs. They are just about my favorites for car holiday cheer.

Anyway, the current car holiday CD is the Ally McBeal Christmas CD, and on it, Vonda Shepard sings the less-appealing version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"... well, the less-appealing of the first two on that link from the last post... I won't delve into the others on there.

Anyway (again... feel for anyone whose job it is to listen to me talk at length...), hearing this several times while delivering pizzas last night, I had another thought to add (and some confusing backstory as well, it would seem) to my whole debate below... and also, I felt I should clarify. I will probably feel I should clarify even after this post is over.

My big problem with the "brighter" version isn't that they say "This year Christmas is great..." it's that they're asserting that this year and forevermore everything will be great. "From now on our troubles will be out of sight."

Well now, please. Give me an ever-lovin' break already. "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" might seem to suggest something similar, but I look at that as, "Next year at this time, our current woes will be forgotten", or, in the more... I dunno... abstract, I guess, "In that future time when we have the best Christmas ever, things will be so wonderful, we'll never have time to think about the troubles we had in the past." But heck, even taken literally, all the original version promises is a year of trouble-less-ness.

I mean, come on, from now on? Yeah, maybe if you mean, "From now on, our troubles will be invisible to us, able to attack us at any time."

I'm just sayin' is all. The original version is far superior. Doth anyone dare to contradict my assertion? Post your comment, you varlaty thou, you.

Varlet. What's a varlet? Apparently, the spell-checker was wondering the same thing.

Also, for those of you who normally get me holiday/birthday gifts, I've just updated my amazon.com wish list. Sorry to be so late about it.

2 comments:

Andy B. said...

Twisted Sister, man! Rock on!

EyeRytStuf said...

I haven't seen the film, but someon (you, Jhoneric) told me about it after he first saw it, which is when I first decided I liked that version better. Even in the context of the film, the whole idea is, "Enjoy this Christmas, because even though it isn't perfect, next year's will be better."