Not posting, although that too, but second time — not surprising — that the local classical station has run a chunk of the Messiah. Actually the whole thing, this time. I walked into the living room just as the chorus was bouncing into the inordinately cheerful rhythms of what my father always described as his favorite part: “O We Like Sheep!”
(That was how he always sang it. Just those four notes, and a smirk.)
So it was devastating to me just now, when I looked it up, to realize that the text is actually all we like sheep, which doesn’t parse nearly so neatly.
I think the Choir of Kings’ College, Cambridge, has kind of got the feel of it here though. Or at least YouTube user ABakker307 does.
At this joyful season of the year, in this context, I am glad to note that someone revived a site that for a while ceased to exist: to wit, Adult Sheep Finder. (It used to be based in New Zealand.)
And the Lord hath laid on him…
Crap. The Christmas music will go on for another week, and I’m already starting to babble. I cross to the other side of the street to avoid meeting mothers and infants, and for a month out of the year, the whole nation goes insane singing about them.
I really want to just let music roll over me without having to keep changing CDs, so I tried to tune in an Internet channel called Radio Free Klezmer, which sounded 100% safe, but there was a problem with the connection. Oh well. Hooray for Youtube playlists:
So this goyish chick can tap a foot, look around this bizarre world we live in, and say with the old Lubavitcher rabbi in the Norman Spinrad story: “You can look at this mishegaas and tell me that the Messiah has already come?”
I’m just counting down.
I feel your pain 🙂
It’s impossible to even go in stores at all. The horrible crooner Christmas songs on the P.A. systems. At least a classical arrangement of Silent Night is, well, wordless.
I was singing Oh! We like sheep! to myself all morning… Thanks!
I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that anymore. I worked retail for a few years… still have nightmares about the ONE SONG the owner played on repeat all day. Don’t even know what it was – some obscure C&W tune. Horrid.
If there’s anything worse than traditional Christmas carols beat to death it’s pop Christmas songs.
I disagree. Every rock song that has a repeating sample of a fuckin’ crying baby, or has a woman pretending to have an orgasm, would be worse.
I do like some holiday music – the humorous and/or snarky sarcastic ones like ‘merry motherfucking Christmas’ and ‘the 12 days of Kwanzaa’, for example.
Crying baby? Another reason why I don’t listen to rock songs, I guess.
(needless to say NSFW, and almost NS4me)
Oh yes! I know that one well 🙂 My sort of holiday music completely! I’d recommend a station, but they play too much ‘normal’ stuff inbetween the fun ones 🙂
Oh, and I played this at work the other day – my work is safe for just about anything!
I kind of figured you would. Not sure about this blog’s other readers…
Oh, um – yeah…
I always heard it as “For we, like sheep, have gone astray.” And it seemed like so much fun to go astray. Very jaunty.
Bubbly even. They seem to be having so much fun. (Why do Scotsmen wear kilts?)