As it is the beginning of December, and with it the full bloom of Christmas marketing being planted and fertilized upon and around us, I think that it is a fitting time to praise a few songs from the Christmas music genre—songs that are not only masterpieces of the genre itself, but that are also singular accomplishments within the general atmosphere of modern music as a whole.
And for my money the perfect song to start with is “Linus And Lucy” by the jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. Obviously, the picture above is not of Mr. Guaraldi—it is Schroeder from Peanuts (if you would like to see real pictures of Vince go here). But the picture of Schroeder playing piano is in many ways a fitting salute to Guaraldi as he composed the score for sixteen Peanuts television specials and movies before dying suddenly at age 47.
Even though “Linus And Lucy” is sometimes used in advertisements for Peanuts specials other than A Charlie Brown Christmas it is, to me, a seminal Christmas song. The movements of Guaraldi’s piano combined with the drum brushes that rain gently in the background make me think not only of Charlie Brown and his friends running around or dancing in front of a tree (how could it not?), but of Christmas in general.
Despite our collective groaning about how radio stations change to an all-Christmas format earlier and earlier, how Christmas or Holiday catalogs arrive just after Labor Day, or how the mall Santas seemingly appear the day after Halloween, we mostly like (but will not outwardly admit) to see and hear this stuff earlier and earlier. Because for most of us December was a terrific month when we were kids. Between Christmas break, the first snowfall (depending on where you lived), and the presents (depending on your family’s denomination), December was most likely the best month throughout your childhood. And for the most part we like things that re-capture that feeling. Enter: Christmas music being played before you have had the first bite of stuffing on Thanksgiving.
For me, “Linus And Lucy” instantly gets me thinking about all of the unequivocally fun things about Christmas both past and present. This song is like an auditory cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows, or a Candy Cane Frango. It is a sugary and candy-coated pleasure that somehow fits perfectly within the rigidness and geometry of jazz. Even when the song downshifts into an almost ballroom dance-style tempo on a couple of occasions one cannot help but to imagine putting ornaments on a tree while doing the Snoopy dance. (Or at least this is what comes to my mind.)
Christmas means different things to different people, and anyone is certainly entitled to view Christmas as either an over-commercialized orgy of consumerism, or a sacred day that should first and foremost celebrate the birth of Jesus. And I think, in some way, “Linus & Lucy” cuts through the hearts of both extremes: it should pacify the seasonal rage of the angst-ridden adult while also reminding the Orthodox follower to loosen up every now and then.
Or if nothing else it should remind us that waving your arms wildly near a tree will result in ornaments being put up nicely, and that the Snoopy dance is something that should be done by everyone at least once during the holiday season.
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