stokebailey

My favorite mucking up of a carol was midnight mass in a New Mexico mountain village adobe church, where a mariachi band played Angels We Have Heard on High. The normally legato Glo o o o o o ria's had a chunk a chunk background beat.

Organists can't stop themselves from showing off with the descants, can they?

caroline_edinburgh

I didn't bother with that programme, Patrick, but did you see the one about Allegri's 'Miserere' ? That was quite interesting.

Cholmondley_Warner

Didn't anyone else sing different words to the carols when they were at school?

"We three kings of leicester square

Selling ladies underwear

So fantastic, no elastic,

only tuppence a pair"

And so on?

stokebailey

Sorry. All wrong.
We three kings of orient are
Trying to smoke a rubber cigar.
It was loaded. It exploded.
etc.

stokebailey

The last line might actually be
"Only tuppence a pair" though. I forget.

flanneruk

While shepherds washed their socks by night/all seated round the tub. A bar of Fairy (in Geordieland) or Sunlight (in civilisation) soap came down/ And they began to scrub.

We three Beatles of Liverpool are/John on a cycle, Paul in a car./ George on a scooter, blowing his hooter/ Following Ringo Star.

The Ballad of Walton Jail: Hark the Herald Angels Shout/Three more months and I'll be out

The last line to 'The Angel Gabriel from heaven came':
Most highly flavoured gravy: gloria.
Anyone know the earlier lines?

PatrickLondon

Not quite a Christmas carol, but my father was rather prone to reciting

Twas Christmas Eve in the harem
And the cry ran through the halls,
"What do you want for Christmas?" -
And the eunuchs shouted "Chocolates!"

Cholmondley_Warner

While shepherds washed their socks by night
All eating fish and chips
The angel of the lord came down
And charged them two and six.


CW - Age showing.

nona1

We three kings of orient are
One in a taxi, one in a car
One on a scooter
Beeping his hooter
following yonder star...

stokebailey

>>Twas Christmas Eve in the harem
And the cry ran through the halls,
"What do you want for Christmas?" -
And the eunuchs shouted "Chocolates!"<<<

I picture PapaLondon pausing dramatically after "shouted," and all the little Londons calling out whatever word seemed appropriate.

ElendilPickle

>>My favorite mucking up of a carol was midnight mass in a New Mexico mountain village adobe church, where a mariachi band played Angels We Have Heard on High. The normally legato Glo o o o o o ria's had a chunk a chunk background beat.<<

I can hear this in my head! What town was it, do you remember?

Technically, I suppose it's not mucking up - it's a cultural adaptation...

Lee Ann, only too happy to escape mariachi bands any time of year

stokebailey

Hi, Lee Ann,

It was after we got off work late at Espanola Hospital, so must have been somewhere close by and on the same side of the river, like a pueblo or Hernandez, and not as picturesque or risky as Truchas or Chimayo.

There were farolitos on the facade of the church, and over the arch of the adobe churchyard wall, and the place was packed.

ElendilPickle

>>It was after we got off work late at Espanola Hospital, so must have been somewhere close by and on the same side of the river, like a pueblo or Hernandez, and not as picturesque or risky as Truchas or Chimayo.<<

It would be such a weird coincidence if it was the Methodist church in Hernandez that my late mother-in-law pastored...

My son got a great set of stitches in his leg two years ago at the hospital in Espanola after tripping over a log at my in-laws' house in Chama and ripping a huge hole in his shin!

Lee Ann

Underhill

WillTravel,

Thanks for the link to that superb performance. What a voice that principal treble has!

Nikki

Eunuchs? Chocolates? I guess I know even less about Christmas than I thought I did.

tod

Cholmondley_Warner - Thanks for lightening the mood on Carol singing!
Yes, my son when in Junior school was obliged to attend the chapel service every Sunday night as he was a boarder. Around Xmas time he would come home singing the "altered" version of many carols and like any 8 year old thought it was hysterical.
I loved the different versions also!

Judyrem

Oooooooh, thanks so very much for this thread! It is brilliant. I tell you wonderful residents of the UK, that I love your traditions and culture. You embody all that I love about Christmas...Dickens, boys choirs, etc. I think next year being a major birthday milestone for me, I will spend it in the UK. Caroline, I had never heard of "In the Bleak" before. Willit, I agree, I hate when the choir sings and I have to hunt for the words!

tod

Caroline_Edinburgh - If you ever decide to go to a warmer climate for Xmas don't go anywhere else but Singapore. I have spent 2 Xmas's there and nobody does Xmas like they do!
Besides the overwhelming decorations lining Orchard & Scotts roads, every hotel has either a choir singing carols underneath some of the most humongous Xmas trees I've ever seen, or a small orchestra playing wellknown Xmas tunes, everybody dons a Santa Claus hat that has a bright light beeping madly, it's just awesome!
When a hotel ( I think it was the Grand Hyatt) flies in a Xmas tree so big that they took the seats out of a 747 to fly it from Norway, you know Xmas is serious stuff in Singapore!

Josser

Those shepherds washed their socks with Lifebuoy soap.

Hark the herald angels sing
Mrs Simpson's pinched our king

caroline_edinburgh

Hi Tod - that sounds, er, interesting, but I'd rather get away from it all. One year I went to Marrakech but they still had plastic Santas & artificial snow The Maldives were more like it but the food was terrible.