Christmas makes classical music OK

From this week's Brentwood Home Page column:


“Burl Ives is beast,” I heard one of my 14-year-olds say the other day.

For those who aren’t living the good life with 14-year-old boys in your house, if someone is “beast,” they are so good at something that they have exceeded human capabilities.

As you can imagine, I was surprised to hear one of my sons put Burl Ives and “beast” in the same sentence. I guess I should thank Music Choice.

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Music Choice channel 433 on my TV because it is the Sounds of the Season channel. It plays classic Christmas music nonstop, with no commercials and lots of Christmas trivia.

It’s a nice change from the zombie zone the kids usually enter when they watch TV. Plus we get to hear a variety of music that we don’t usually hear. In fact, I realized this week that Christmas carols are the only time my kids hear orchestral music of any kind. They’re the only songs they hear where the fiddle is not a fiddle but a violin.

As a creative person, music means a lot to me. I try to expand my children’s listening library whenever possible.

Of course, it’s about as easy as driving down Mallory Lane on the Saturday before Christmas.

If I ever stray from their preapproved radio stations in the car, they squawk. I persist, though, because a woman can only listen to so much Eminem.

If I just try to listen to a little of MTSU’s jazz station, they talk over every song and spout off about how “weird” it sounds.

If I catch a moment of WPLN when it’s actually playing classical music, my kids whine that the “lullabies” are “putting them to sleep.”

Christmas music is the only exception. If we’re listening to Music Choice, they can hear Johnny Mathis, Doris Day, Andy Williams and Perry Como for hours and never complain.

They get a little Beegie Adair in when they’re not even thinking about it. I try to explain that Bing Crosby was more than just the guy who sang, “White Christmas.”

In fact, some artists may even reach the “beast” category, as in the case of Burl Ives. I’m pretty sure it was “Holly Jolly Christmas” that catapulted him to “beast” status. That and the fact that ol’ Burl sang it as the Snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Everybody knows Rudolph is beast.