Child Of Winter

[Sheriff John Stone]

An interesting single to say the least....Good, bad, or great?

[XY]

A joke, like Brian called it a few days before it was released. But a good joke.

[phirnis]

I think it's cool. The group did better Christmas songs even in the 70s (think "Winter Symphony"), but this one sounds like such a genuine Brian Wilson production you just gotta love it. I guess in many ways it's pretty similar to the fairy tale, which I think is great, too.

[punkinhead]

one word to describe: QUIRKY

[Jay]

This just might be the last song where Brian has his old voice. He puts on that weird funny voice, but if you listen carefully you can hear the "vintage quality" in his voice. Did that make any sense? It's only on certain words, but it's there. 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Last semi-widely "heard" song, in any case. Last recorded one was Lucy Jones, if I'm not mistaken.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Last semi-widely "heard" song, in any case. Last recorded one was Lucy Jones, if I'm not mistaken.

Nah - "Lucy Jones" is primo 'shouty' Brian.

[Jay]

Last semi-widely "heard" song, in any case. Last recorded one was Lucy Jones, if I'm not mistaken.

Nah - "Lucy Jones" is primo 'shouty' Brian.

I wish I had your CD collection. 

[LeeDempsey]

The couplet "Christmas comes, and the snow covers all; trees are decorated with tinsel and lights" has always bothered me, because the next couplet ("Mommy's in the kitchen baking cookies and bread; the children are all hungry, they're waiting to be fed") is a rhyming couplet.  I asked Steve Kalinich whether it was supposed to be "trees are decorated with tinsel and BALLS" to make it rhyme, but he said no, that Brian read it just like it was written.  Leave it to me to try and be a poet...

Lee

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Last semi-widely "heard" song, in any case. Last recorded one was Lucy Jones, if I'm not mistaken.

Nah - "Lucy Jones" is primo 'shouty' Brian.

Odd, considering  it was recorded at same session as California Feeling. As I never have actually heard the song, I can't vouch, but those who have heard it have said that it was shouty but not raspy like it got later.

I'm about 99.9% certain that "Back home" was the first recording with his raspy vocals.

[hypehat]

It's just gone November!! It's too early to listen to Christmas songs!!! 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Not according to all the Christmas commercials I am seeing on tv today.

[hypehat]

 


seriously, they've put the christmas lights up all over the place around here. They haven't turned them on yet, but there they are, mocking me......

[Aegir]

I don't see why people think you can only listen to Christmas songs around Christmas time. I can listen to the car songs even when it's not "racing time". Does one only listen to Catch a Wave in the summer? Can you only listen to It's Over Now after a recent breakup? NO. What's the difference?

[The Shift]

I don't see why people think you can only listen to Christmas songs around Christmas time. I can listen to the car songs even when it's not "racing time". Does one only listen to Catch a Wave in the summer? Can you only listen to It's Over Now after a recent breakup? NO. What's the difference?

You';re right, and by that same token you can buy me a present at ANY time of year. SAnta has my wishlist - talk to him!

[hypehat]

Christmas music is different. I'm not sure why. Any day is race time. It's sunny somewhere in the world. Yet it's only christmas once a year. and that time is definitely not early october/november, although me and the local council appear to disagree on this... Just a pet peeve of mine.

Thats what irritates me, although on purely musical terms there's no reason why i shouldn't stick on A Christmas Gift To You... in July. It just feels horrifically wrong. Christmas music is tied with christmas, funnily enough. because it's a season and a massive personal event for people, the time and place are much more linked to the music than 'Little deuce coupe' is with driving to the shops or whatever. So to be hearing whilst you're dressing up for halloween/buying fireworks for bonfire night is a bit weird/irritating.

And unless you're on some kind of yearly schedule, break-up/whatever emotion you care to mention songs are different. It's more a very strong association with time and place than anything else. get me?

As for Child Of Winter, it's endearingly mad. Winter Symphony is better, if not quite up to the first christmas album snuff. And i try to steer away from the rest of the 77 stuff if i possibly can.

[Jay]

I've been known to listen to The Temptations 1980 Give Love On Christmas Day album on the Fourth of July. 

[punkinhead]

guilty of listening to Spector's Christmas album in non-seasonal seasons

[Jay]

Last semi-widely "heard" song, in any case. Last recorded one was Lucy Jones, if I'm not mistaken.

Nah - "Lucy Jones" is primo 'shouty' Brian.

Odd, considering  it was recorded at same session as California Feeling. As I never have actually heard the song, I can't vouch, but those who have heard it have said that it was shouty but not raspy like it got later.

I'm about 99.9% certain that "Back home" was the first recording with his raspy vocals.

This might be hard to do, but can we define "shouty" and "raspy"? What is the exact difference between the two?

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

The raspiness (or gruffness, if you prefer) refers to the actual timbre of his voice. "Shouty" describes the way he is actually singing."Walk the Line" from BW88 is a good example of the latter.

[Wirestone]

Yes ... this is a particularly odd point about Brian's voice. In the 15BO/BBLY era, he was both gruff and shouty. In the 80s, his tone cleaned up considerably (Landy), but he still often shouted. Toward the end of the 90s and toward the present, his tone has coarsened, but he sings in a far more laid-back manner.

[Mr. Cohen]

What do you all think about the other bonus tracks on Ultimate Christmas? "Bells of Christmas" is less offensive than "Belles of Paris". Perhaps not a memorable track (the "Belles of Paris" rewrite might actually edge it out, simply because it's so goofy it's hard to forget), but it's serviceable. "(I Saw Santa) Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" is a real oddity, it has a Brian Wilson writing credit, and it certainly sounds like a BW production, with that fuzzy Love You synth bass all over the track. I kind of like it, actually, and the children singing gives it an off-kilter vibe. It rocks at points, in fact it actually reminds me, in terms of production and even compositionally, of a cross between "Roller Skating Child" and Al's cover of "School Days". "Winter Symphony" is a nice track, a heartfelt song from Brian. "Morning Christmas" is beautiful, a moody ethereal Dennis song that is just unbelievably evocative of winter. "Santa's Got An Airplane" and "Kona Christmas" are pure Velveeta, but they're not horrible songs. Hell, throw in some seasonal cover songs and you have an album that's about as good as anything the BBs released after Love You (I'm aware that those songs were part of an aborted BB Christmas album, but the other songs they used to round out that proposed collection were baffling).

[MBE]

Alone On A Christmas Day is kind of overlooked and better then a lot of what did come out on the comp.

[Amy B.]

IMO, the best Christmas music Brian wrote was on his solo Christmas CD a few years ago.