Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the album ‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories’

As the All Music website helps clarify here, “Trans-Siberian Orchestra is…not a permanent musical organization. Rather, it is the trade name for the session orchestras assembled for a number of symphonic rock cross-over albums produced by Paul O’Neill.” O’Neill was from Queens, New York City, New York, offering a series of rock cross-over albums that we begin looking at today. The Christmas Eve and Other Stories album was released on October 15, 1996.

(Presented is the album cover for Christmas Eve and Other Stories. This Trans-Siberian Orchestra album was released on October 15, 1996).

An Angel Came Down opens with a distinct piano open accompanied at times by thundering guitars and drums that offer alternating movements within the composition later interwoven with bells hinting at the song Silent Night as composed by Franz Xaver Gruber of Hochberg, Austria with lyrics by Joseph Mohr of Salzburg, Austria.

O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night follows the album opener with a more pronounced piano with guitar introduction to two songs eventually fused with drums into a clear harder hitting rock sound than typically heard from either song. This song is presented in strictly instrumental form.

(Adolphe Adam of Paris, France set O Holy Night to music with the song’s original composition in 1847).

A Star to Follow begins with pronounced adult male singing and supporting instrumentation at first to God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. The presented composition moves into pre-teen children singing to the expected joy of the Christmas celebration. A third movement returns a chorus of the men singing the words Merry Christmas with the kids singing harmony. An appealing effect follows with an adult choir adding lyrics for the Ukranian folk chant Carol of the Bells. The song ends with the children singing their willingness to follow into the magical joy the holiday promises.

An acoustic guitar introduces First Snow for a few seconds before giving way to a clear electric guitar melody with accompanying drums. Following A Star to Follow, I felt the evocation of satisfied revelry for adults and children. Hinting at a notion of Christmas with snow does not hurt, either. The song plays as a full instrumental without lyrics.

The Silent Nutcracker plays to a more fully throated acoustical instrumental performance. Hints of Silent Night are again made in strictly instrumental form for a more extended playing in what proves to be another song presented without lyrics.

A Mad Russian’s Christmas opens with piano playing in solitude an authoritative electric guitar riffs accompanying. A series of explicit rock melodies follow in instrumental succession, invoking classic orchestral rises and falls of mood to tunes sure to be recognized by most. Of all the songs on Christmas Even and Other Songs, A Mad Russian’s Christmas perhaps best exemplifies why the word orchestra belongs in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

With The Prince of Peace, the reintroduction of singing proves welcome and as emotionally uplifting as the reason for the season sung about. An adult female sings of Jesus Christ‘s birth, explicitly invoking Hark! The Herald Angels Sing just beyond minute and a half into the presentation.

(Hark! The Herald Angels Sing first appeared in the 1739 book Hymns and Sacred Poems).

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 begins with a few seconds worth of traditional instrumentation introducing God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. A fully instrumental presentation continues from here with a different rocking sound, evoking anticipation, discovery and magic coming with the next day. The birth of Jesus with the celebration indicated with A Star to Follow earlier in the album come to bear again. The band Savatage, who played a significant role in bringing this song to life, were formed in Tampa, Florida in 1983.

(Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 was released as a single by Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Trans-Siberian Orchestra a side project of several members of Savatage).

Good King Joy raises the octave level on every song that preceded it on Christmas Eve and Other Stories by announcing the birth of Jesus with a bright introductory verse of Joy to the World. Heavy piano and guitar follow in furtherance of the Jesus‘ birth. Switching to a rhythm and blues theme three minutes into a song that plays more than six minutes with lyrics invoking the nativity story with the Magi in Bethlehem works magic.

(First published in 1719, English minister and hymnist Isaac Watts of Southampton, Hampshire wrote Joy to the World based on a Christian interpretation of Psalm 98 of the Old Testament of the Bible).

Ornament brings us back to a raspy blues singer view of a young lady separated from her family leading up to Christmas. We find that the viewpoint is that of a father desperate to have his daughter call a truce to whatever ails the relationship. A specific ornament between the two stands in as the token of hope, memory and joy to bring the two together again on this pending Christmas day.

The First Noel is presented in an acoustic and quick interlude of instrumentation. The song itself reminds of the birth of Jesus and the first nativity in less than a minute of song.

(Of Cornish origin, the song The First Nowell was published in its present form as early as 1833 in the book Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern by William Sandys, though the song seems to have been around longer).

A sympathetic and acoustic, storytelling vibe brings the song Old City Bar. The bluesy father from Ornament continues the story of the disconnected daughter who couldn’t get home on Christmas Eve. The song is a sad tale that turns unexpectedly happy with cab fare to JFK Airport in New York City to get home to her father.

Promises to Keep opens with distinct piano playing that quickly opens to the singing of children in chorus taking upon themselves the seeking and the keeping of the promises of love represented by Christmas. The wishing upon stars give way to keeping the spirit and goodness through the season, the years, the lifetimes. The sweetness is meaning like a music box invoked through the song.

This Christmas Day brings the optimism and feeling of Christmas in stringing together Ornament, Old City Bar and this song with bright strings of lights, ribbons, and the returning home of the daughter to her home, accompanied by the joy of her father. With the promise of desperation giving way to promises delivered now and forever, the feeling resonates through repetitions of the lyrics of “Merry Christmas, merry merry Christmas!”

An Angel Returned frames the album with the opening song of Christmas Eve and Other Stories, An Angel Came Down. In referencing Kyrie (Lord) and at least partially calling upon the “Kyrie, eleison,” or “Lord, have mercy” prayer, this song with new lyrics (An Angel Returned) set to essentially the same music (An Angel Came Down), the Christmas spirit as embodied by faithfulness expressed in song has transformed people through the joy felt in the hope of the savior’s birth on the night of Christmas Eve as told through the songs of this album.

(Pictured here is Paul O’Neill, the founder of Trans-Siberian Orchestra).

O Holy Night was presented as a bonus song beyond the original album, with an instrumental version of the song that varies from the second half of O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night earlier in the album. This presentation feels like it was played on guitar, though a dobro might have been the primary instrument.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen adds an additional bonus of 75-seconds of an exclusively acoustical presentation of the song.

Matt – Saturday, December 24, 2022

Heart and the self-titled album ‘Heart’

It was Saturday, July 6th, 1985 when the eighth studio album for the band named Heart was released to the world. The self-titled album Heart came on the heels of when many had thought the band washed-up. I was ten-years old when the album was released, thus granting me what felt like a fresh new band to hear. It was only later that I came to appreciate the band’s fuller catalogue more completely. Join me with this look back at the Heart self-titled album.

(Pictured here is the cover art for the self-titled album, Heart, by the band named Heart).

If Looks Could Kill opens the Heart self-titled album as the fifth song released from the album. The album rock, arena rock band flexed more of their hard rock muscle with this song about the importance of personality rather than looks in a relationship.

(Heart‘s remake of If Looks Could Kill was the fifth and final single released in support of the band’s self-titled album, Heart).

What About Love charted tenth in the United States and fourteenth in the United Kingdom. The song “marked a turnaround for the band, which after a triumphant run of hits in the ’70s got off to a rough start in the ’80s with a decline in sales and little airplay for their new material on radio or MTV,” as noted here by Songfacts. Music Television (MTV) was still playing music videos in the mid-1980s.

(The Heart remake What About Love was the first single from the Heart‘s self-titled album).

Never topped the music charts at #4 in the United States and #8 in the United Kingdom. Never “is an empowerment song with a very vague storyline but a seriously catchy chorus,” as indicated here. The theme of the chorus is to experience the love that has developed while never running away from the risk of a heartbreak.

(Never was the second single released from Heart‘s eighth studio album, Heart).

These Dreams charts at #1 in the United States and #8 in the United Kingdom. Bernie Taupin of Lincolnshire, England wrote the lyrics to this song as Martin Page of Southampton, Hampshire, England wrote the music. Nancy Wilson sang the vocals for the song, rather than her sister, Ann Wilson. As for Heart, the song “became their first #1 hit,” as confirmed here.

(Released as a single on January 18th, 1986, These Dreams was the third single released to support Heart‘s self-titled album, Heart).

The Wolf aspires for a rock & roll sound with a message to a male counterpart singer that is into a fast and loose lifestyle that doesn’t work for the perspective of the song’s singer, Ann Wilson.

All Eyes addresses the notion of intimate physical attraction based strictly on looks. The song is aspirational in feeling and expectation. The perspective takes the rejected male perspective of The Wolf and affirms it from a feminine, even hopeful perspective here.

(From left, the primary musicians for Heart in 1985 were Mark Andes of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Denny Carmassi of San Francisco, California, Ann Wilson of San Diego, California, Nancy Wilson of San Francisco, California and Howard Leese of Los Angeles, California).

The song Nobody Home plays as a ballad of warning and disappointment. The song’s perspective is of the jilted lover singing to the dreamer in a relationship that is looking for more outside the relationship, thus leaving the romantic relation behind.

Nothin’ at All is the last hit on the self-titled album, Heart. The song peaked at #10 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #38 in the United Kingdom as late as 1988. As the lyrics go, the song describes new love that came about with little in terms of effort or conflict.

(The fourth single from Heart‘s self-titled 1985 album was Nothin’ at All).

What He Don’t Know returns to more of the melodic contemporary pop/rock sound about what gets communicated in romantic relationships. The song specifically gets into the intimacy that singer Ann Wilson is seeking with another man outside of her main romantic relationship.

Shell Shock offers guitar driven riffs with a parting mixture of stunned hope for the audience listening to the album. That the song raises the notion of physical intimacy and the immediacy of unexpected success in such matters. The experience is a wink of an eye of sorts, inviting a shell shocked feeling to the adolescent male listening to this album while the singer herself professes the self-same feeling.

Matt – Wednesday, July 6, 2022