The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53533   Message #831720
Posted By: Genie
21-Nov-02 - 12:04 PM
Thread Name: New Christmas/Solstice/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa songs
Subject: RE: New Xmas/Solstice/Hanukkah/Kwansaa Songs
Mrrzy, I'm all for the folk tradition and for various occasions I have reworked known songs or written new verses, too. The U-U church I go to has done all sorts of rewriting of old hymns, though in some places it gets kinda contrived.
Generally, I like the versions you've done above, for those who celebrate Solstice and don't want to celebrate Christmas.

I just want to point out, since all the other songs you've revised above are traditional, that "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" is from a poem by Longfellow, and it had special significance in being written about bells he heard on Christmas Day being drowned out by the cannons of the War Between The States. Personally, I'm not in favor of rewriting Longfellow any more than I would a contemporary poet or Shakespeare.
(I can accept the "all" instead of "men," because I am quite sure Longfellow would have said it that way if he'd written a song in sometime after 1970; because "men" in the Bible may have been a translation of a word meaning "humanity" or "people;" and because that line doesn't rhyme with any other, anyway. But I usually sing the song straight.)

Anyway, I hope people are not under the impression that "I Heard The Bells" is traditional.

Genie