Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas

It’s that time of the year. For myself and lots of other people, they have a Christmas song or album that kicks off or sparks the childhood Christmas spirit we all hope for this time of year.  Okay, maybe not everyone looks for a selection of Christmas music to put them in the spirit of the season. But, for me, it’s Vince Guaraldi’s  A Charlie Brown Christmas.

To be honest, for television Christmas specials, it’s a toss-up between Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas that gets me going. But, when it comes to music, the first album I cue up on the CD player, MP3 Player or whatever on Thanksgiving weekend is the music from the 1965 TV Animated Christmas Classic.

I don’t remember the first time I watched the much-heralded Christmas special. The show was first broadcast on CBS in 1965. I was born in 1967.  That being said, it’s been on every year of my life. For much of my childhood, I would watch ALL of the kids’ Christmas specials…Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty and of course Charlie Brown.  My sister Kathy would always make some comment every year about these specials being on AGAIN.  But, I would watch it every year. I’m sure in my teenage years I would miss the airings because of the High School activities along with a part-time job to take up my time. 

When I got to college, I was living on 3rd floor Mantor Hall at KSC(now UNK). One night(maybe after a holiday break), one of the guys on the same floor was blaring a cassette tape of him playing piano at a high school talent show.  What was the song he was playing?… Linus and Lucy – the iconic theme song for everything Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. As the familiar music came from his stereo speakers, I was filled with a wonderful feeling of the innocence of youth and I felt that playfulness of the music fall over me.  In those college years, I was struggling with my studies as a music education major. I wanted to succeed. But, as I learned…it was hard. The sound of the Vince Guaraldi music took me back to a place in my life where things were easier and less stressful.

In 1989, the jazz label GRP released a various artists album called Happy Anniversary Charlie Brown.  This album featured many of the contemporary jazz artists that were on the label performing music Vince Guaraldi and Peanuts TV specials.  In the late 80’s, MTV sister station VH-1 had programming that was geared for a more Adult Contemporary audience. I even remember watching their Sunday morning Jazz programming. One of those Sundays, there was a video for pianist David Benoit’s version of Guaraldi’s Linus and Lucy. 

I think I may have even opened up the CD for in-store play at Dustys just so I could hear Linus and Lucy again and again. Later, I had some friends of mine that went to the Ranch Bowl in Omaha to see Joe Satriani and his band play. They came back to tell that Joe’s bassist Stu Hamm did this bass solo where he played Linus and Lucy as part of the solo.  I thought “that is sooooo cool.”  A couple years later on Stu’s album The Urge, he had a track on the album titled Quahogs Anyone? Which was basically a live recording of his bass solo featuring the famed Charlie Brown song. I bought the Stu Hamm CD because that kind of instrumental stuff was some of my favorite stuff in those days.

As the 90’s progressed, this piece of music became fairly popular with musicians and music lovers alike. In 95 and 96, I spent a lot of time hanging out with my college buddy Mark P and his (now ex) wife Betsy. There were many conversations about music and movies that were banded about at the time. It was a common thread that we shared. At one point, a CD of Vince Guaraldi was put on. I don’t know if it was a “Best of” or the Christmas album. All I knew was that after hearing the different versions of the iconic songs, there was something intangible and unique about the original.

In 1996, Windham Hills artist and pianist George Winston released an album of Vince Guaraldi songs called Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi.  I think I received the CD as a Christmas gift that year. I absolutely loved it. It was nothing but solo piano. I’m sure some of my friends who knew me as a hard rocking drum loving guy were surprised by my fondness for this CD.  It was the relaxing piano music that I cherished. As time went by, it still seemed just a little stale in comparison.

Fast forward to Christmas 2006. It had been a year since my wife and I had separated. But, I was still having quality time with our son who would have been 2 years old by this time.  I was having a hard time trying to get myself into “The Christmas Spirit”.  So, what other way is there to spur it on? Buy some Christmas music. I had a couple of special Christmas CD’s I had compiled while my wife and I were together. Then, I saw a copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas original soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi.  It was priced reasonably. So, I bought it and I’m glad I did. Then, I realized that it wasn’t just the piano jazz that I loved. It was the jazz trio of Guaraldi on piano, Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums that drew me in. Of course, I knew Linus and Lucy.  But, it was arrangements of  traditional Christmas tunes like O Tannenbaum and What Child is This along with Guaraldi’s original songs Skating, Christmas is Coming and Christmas Time is Here all together that resonated in me as and adult yearning for the childlike wonderment of Christmas.  The other thing that I loved(as a drummer) was the sound quality of a small drumkit in the recordings as you can hear the ride cymbal swinging away and the rack toms along with the use of brushes on the snare. It makes me want to sit down on a small kit and play along. It’s such a great feeling. It’s like the way the kids are drawn to feel in this video.

This weekend I picked up a book from the library called A Charlie Brown Christmas – The Making of a Tradition. 

It’s interesting to read about this traditional holiday special. It was made in only 6 months and was delivered to the CBS network only a week before it aired.  The two network executives that watched that first copy of it were not impressed and didn’t like it. But, the show was scheduled to air in less than a week. So, they couldn’t pull it off the schedule.  The TV Critic who was to watch it after the execs eventually liked it but didn’t say anything after his initial viewing.  But, it’s been a beloved Christmas special ever since. Another thing that’s always highlighted about this special is that Charles Schulz wanted to have the characters actually quote a passage from the Bible to highlight the true meaning of Christmas.  That message still resonates as our society continues to grow in the commercialism of the holidays that even Charles Schulz could see way back in 1965.

I’m glad I eventually bought this on CD. I’ve ripped the CD onto my MP3 every year since I bought it. I dial up these songs on a daily basis during the month of December. I even keep some of the non-Christmas tunes on my player for a little while longer and then put them on my player at the end of November to rev me up for the holiday season.

In the book A Charlie Brown Christmas:The Making of a Tradition,  Guaraldi’s son David said about his father’s music

The Music he wrote for the shows relates to each scene and the Peanuts kids’ feelings. He captured that perfectly because he loved kids; he did a lot of things for kids in his life.

As Linus quotes from the TV Special says:

Of all the Charlie Browns in the World
You’re the Charlie Browniest!

If that’s a way to describe this holiday classic TV special and music, then it’s not such a bad way to be described.

MERRY CHRISTMAS CHARLIE BROWN!!

Peter Gabriel – So

In the Spring and Summer of 1986(and a long time after that), if you turned on MTV, you saw the ubiquitous video of Peter Gabriel’s hit Sledgehammer.  There was no way to escape this video. Of course, MTV was a whole other different media outlet than it is today. Now, in late 2012, Peter Gabriel is releasing a 25th (and a half) Anniversary Edition of his 1986 album So.

Looking back, there was something about that video. Of course, it went on to win a handful of Video Music Awards. This video was a visual onslaught. We see Peter Gabriel voicing the lyrics of the song and the things he mentions in the lyrics are recreated visually around his head and face. Lyrics talking about a “Steam Train” and “blue skies” and “bumper cars bumping” are all there in the video. His face then contorts into a claymation version and his hands morph into sledgehammers as he hits himself in the head. I personally remember watching the video once (for about the upteenth time) and thinking “I’ll walk away and get to my housework after the dancing chicken scene(about 3:25 into the video)”

With all the videos that were overplayed at the time, I never felt like I hated or disliked Peter Gabriel or the music. I obviously grew tired of the video. But, when that video was new and hot, you could not walk away from watching. There was so much in it to see.

By then, I had started to make a conscious effort to be a little more open-minded past my standard hard rock/generic heavy metal tastes.  I hadn’t known a lot about Peter Gabriel before this. Looking back, I probably knew a little bit more than most. I had a guitarist friend in High School who had a cassette of Gabriel’s album Security with the single Shock the Monkey.  Being a drummer, I had been a fan of Phil Collins. So, I was educated about the whole Phil Collins – Genesis – Peter Gabriel connection.  But, for a young man that loved heavy drums and distorted guitars, Peter Gabriel was just a little “weird” and “odd” to me.  During the summer after So came out, I vaguely remember sitting and talking with my friend John G about this album.  As I stated in my blog on Queen’s A Night at the Opera,  John and I had many conversations about music. John definitely opened my ears and eyes to different artists at the time. We were at his house with tons of LPs and he dropped the needle on this album. I remember a little bit of Red Rain then into the giant hit Sledgehammer.  Then there’s this intimate duet with Kate Bush called Don’t Give Up.  I knew very little about who Kate Bush was at that point. That may have been how we got into the meat of this album. I think we listened to some of Kate Bush’s solo stuff after that too. But, I remember thinking that Kate Bush’s vocals sounded very unique and pure. Even now, I can’t think of anyone who sounds like her. Soon, after that, MTV debuted the video for Don’t Give Up and it was very simple in contrast to the visually busy Sledgehammer  video.

Gabriel and MTV soon followed with the video for Big Time.  This was another video that was visually stimulating. There was so much to see. This was a commentary on the big lives that encapsulated the decade of the 80’s. I even remember my younger brother pointing out at one point in the video that there was a character from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that was dancing.  I still love the ultra-happy Gabriel at the beginning of the video with “HI THERE!”

By now, MTV was following and reporting everything Peter Gabriel was doing. This album was a big musical event. The entire music community seemed to paying attention to Gabriel’s avant-garde style that had somehow produced hit singles and was selling well.  In the December 1987 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, there was a cover story on Peter Gabriel’s new drummer Manu Katche.  Manu was a Frenchman and had played on the majority of the So album. This piqued my interest.  I remember reading the article and there is discussion in the article of the “Theatrical live show”. For some reason, I was put off by this. My mindset had been that musicians play their instruments and that theatricality was for Broadway musicals.  As the years have gone by, I’ve realized that both are performers performing for an audience.  So, both have their own “show” to put on.

A few years would pass. I wasn’t a huge Peter Gabriel fan. I just never felt compelled to buy the So album. Then, this album began to appear on some celebrity favorite lists.  The one that threw me for a loop was Eddie Van Halen. What?…
Edward –the King of all Hard Rock/Heavy Metal guitar histrionics and playing prowess-Van Halen was a fan of Peter Gabriel’s So? Then I saw it listed in a year end/decade end issue of Guitar World as an 80’s favorite by guitarists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

Then, my record store buddies Bob and Forrest and I got together one night over Christmas break. We had rented some movies to watch. One of the movies we watched was Cameron Crowe’s 1989 movie Say Anything.  If you’ve seen the movie, you know of the iconic scene where John Cusack’s character Lloyd Dobler stands outside his girlfriend’s house with his boombox stereo held high over his head while it plays Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes.  So many people have felt a connection to this scene(myself included).  Perhaps that is why it still remains an iconic scene.

Another friend of mine had mentioned that the “Boombox” scene was a cool and modern way to “serenade” a fair maiden. Looking back, I still think of that too. Recently, actor John Cusack joined Peter Gabriel live onstage with a boombox as Gabriel performed the song.

By this time, I was having serious thoughts of buying this album. When I moved to Omaha in 1991, I bought a used cassette copy so that way I had a way to listen to it. I then moved back to Kearney in 1994 and worked at Dustys Records again until the store closed in the summer of 95. We had a copy of Peter Gabriel’s new double live CD – Secret World Live for in-store play.  Dusty’s daughter Wendy was now an employee. She and I would often listen to the live album. We may have been bigger fans of that CD than any of the other employees at the time. After repeated listens to the live album, I decided it was time to buy a copy of So on CD. I had read interviews with Gabriel’s bass player Tony Levin about how he would play some songs on his bass with two drumsticks(cut down) on his fingers.

 

The sounds the bass made drew me in.  Eddie Van Halen had introduced his signature Music Man guitar in the early 90’s and Gabriel’s guitarist David Rhodes had been playing that model of guitar. Manu Katche played some of the most flowing expressive drumming on the live album. So, all the endorsements for this band and the music were there and I finally bought a copy on CD. I would often listen to it as a “wind-down” album. It felt like a soothing salve to a long day or week of stressful work.  I loved the sentimental romantic message of In Your Eyes and I had hoped that someday I could play that song for my future wife. Then, the woman who ended becoming my wife told me she HATED Peter Gabriel. She had a tough life in the 80’s and hated much of the music of the 80’s. Maybe now I can look back and see why she’s now my EX wife. I’m kidding. We all have our different tastes.

When I heard that there was to be the anniversary edition of the So album, I thought I would write up a memory blog for the album. I saw Peter Gabriel on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show promoting the package. Jimmy Fallon was exuberant about this anniversary package as he talked about it. It only excited me too. I also see that the Eagle Rock entertainment group is releasing a Classic Albums DVD featuring the So album.

Now, I’m facing a change in my life. I have a job that I’m not at all happy to go to. So, I’ve been listening to Don’t Give Up and the song continues to play through my head as I head through the monotony of an 8 hour workshift.  It becomes like a mantra to make it through to the next step in my life.

don't give up
'cause you have friends
don't give up
you're not the only one
don't give up
no reason to be ashamed
don't give up
you still have us
don't give up now
we're proud of who you are
don't give up
you know it's never been easy
don't give up
'cause I believe there's a place
there's a place where we belong

As I wrap this blog up, I’m thinking how odd it is that an album that I mildly enjoyed when it was first released is now in my consciousness everyday of my current life and one song(in particular) continues to resonate in my mind and my heart and soul.