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#holidaymusic

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1001 Other Albums

Frost and Fire, Part 3 – Canadian Edition

Technically, yesterday we completed our mini-series of spotlights on albums from The List that share the title Frost and Fire. Today’s spotlight does not share that title, but this artist is my go-to for non-Xmas* Xmas music, and there’s a lyric in the last song that is close to the title – “the ice and the fire” – so, I say it’s close enough.

Loreena McKennitt – The Book of Secrets (1997, Canada)

And so, today’s spotlight is on number 550 on The List, submitted by zm1.

I believe it’s not a stretch to say that many Canadians have a soft spot for this artist, you might even say she’s royalty around here. While in university, studying to become a veterinarian, McKennitt got into Canadian folk music (including Joni Mitchell and Neil Young) and then Celtic music. This led her to change career paths, performing at Winnipeg’s first Folk Festival in 1974 and busking in Toronto and elsewhere to scrape together enough money to make her first album. In 1985 she did just that, released through her own record label, Quinlan Road. McKennitt has continued to release all of her albums through her own label, including the one we look at today, her sixth.

Many of McKennitt’s songs are interpretations of traditional folk tunes from Celtic nations and other cultures, and some are based on classic poems. The lyrics of this album in particular are almost all written by McKennitt, as is the music, which has McKennitt’s distinctive magical touch that makes the songs sound like they have been around for generations, if not centuries. The last track, for example, which has the aforementioned ice and fire lyric, is about one Dante Alighieri, who of course wrote the 14th century masterpiece, Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy). To me at least, hearing this song – and this album as a whole – transports me to another time, another place. It’s simply beautiful.

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and the fire

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Wishing you all a peaceful, tranquil day.

*Note McKennitt does have a number of Xmas albums (studio and live), if you do want to follow this up with actual Xmas music.

The cover art is a sepia photo of the artist, a white woman with long red hair and bangs, wearing a dark dress or jacket, looking off into the distance. The photo is surrounded by an architectural frame pattern. The artist's name in white font along the top, and the album name is in smaller font directly below.
#1001OtherAlbums#1990s#Canada
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1001 Other Albums

Frost and Fire, Part 1 – SpaceAce Sunday Edition

When I sat down to search for a streaming link for our next SpaceAce Sunday, I realized that we, in fact, have two albums on The List with the title Frost and Fire: The Watersons’ 1965 folk debut, and Cirith Ungol’s 1981 proto-doom/heavy metal debut. Given that (a) The Watersons’ album contains a few Xmas/Xmas-adjacent songs, and (b) I, like many of you, am rather ambivalent towards the holiday season at best, I wanted to offer up both albums at this time of year as if they were both Xmas albums, even if one is only partially an Xmas album and the other can essentially only be considered an Xmas album due to proximity, or, say, in the sense that Die Hard is an Xmas movie because it takes place on December 24.[1] In doing so, we can each choose for ourselves what level of holiday music we want to expose our ears to. And, because SpaceAce Sundays are clearly limited to Sundays, we will first spotlight SpaceAce’s Frost and Fire, i.e., The Watersons’ album, and then, on December 24, we will spotlight Cirith Ungol’s take on the title.

The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)[3] (1965, UK)

And so, today we go back to one of the first albums SpaceAce submitted to this project, number 481 in The List.

I think it’s fair to say that SpaceAce must’ve loved this band/family, seeing as this is the third album of theirs we’re looking at thanks to him. As noted in the liner notes by A. L. Lloyd[2] (who we met in a previous SpaceAce Sunday), this album collects traditional ceremonial songs, not just from around the winter solstice but from each season:

Seasons of anxiety, seasons of joy. The common people had their rites of propitiation and triumph, older than the rituals of the Church and closer bound to their daily lives. This record takes us through a year’s calendar, displaying songs that accompanied these ceremonies, season by season…

When the Christian church arose, it ranged itself against the beliefs and customs of the old nature worship, and prudently annexed many of the seasonal ceremonies. Thus the critical time of the winter solstice, a rich period for pagan ritual, became the season of the Nativity of the new god. The season of the great spring ceremonies became the time of his slaughter and resurrection. So it happens that in many songs on this record pagan and Christian elements are inextricably tangled…it’s necessary to recall that behind most of these calendar customs and the songs attached to them lies nothing more mysterious, nothing less realistic, than the yearly round of work carried out in the fields…For it’s due to their relation with economic life, not to any mystical connection, that the song-customs have persisted right up to our own time.

That’s the sort of Xmas songs I can get behind.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and, if you wish to listen to this Frost and Fire, let’s take a listen together. Otherwise, let’s meet back here Tuesday for a more metal take.

[1]To be clear, Die Hard is most definitely an Xmas movie. I will not be taking any questions at this time.
[2]The liner notes are reproduced in full here.
[3]Note the cover of the US pressing that I’ve included here doesn’t include the subtitle found on the original UK cover, but this one is so much cooler looking (and, I believe, is the version SpaceAce owned).

The cover art is mostly a black and white photo of the band, four young white people all looking directly at the camera, very serious expressions on their faces, with long dark hair and bangs in their eyes. A horizontal black rectangle is across the top with the title in blue ("Frost"), white ("&"), and yellow ("Fire"). A slightly thinner green rectangle is underneath that, with the band name in smaller black font. A larger blue rectangle that matches the font color of "Frost" is underneath the photo, taking up the rest of the cover.
#1001OtherAlbums#1960s#BritishFolk
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Roy Adams

Not to be missed is the classic _Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer_ by Elmo & Patsy. A funny warning about how dangerous it can be to venture out on Christmas Eve.
"incriminating Claus marks on her back" indeed.
youtu.be/MgIwLeASnkw
More thanks to @ariaflame for reminding me of this family favorite which fell out of our holiday playlist at some point.
10/
#NowPlaying #Music #Christmas #ChristmasWithATwist #HolidayMusic

YouTubeElmo & Patsy - Grandma Got Run over by a ReindeerBy ElmoPatsyVEVO
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