Thursday, December 02, 2010

Québec disco Christmas kitsch














In the spirit of Christmas from the 1970s of my youth, here are French translations of Christmas music gone disco and as a medley, the latter of which usually makes me break out in a rash, but hey, it's Christmas.

Picture an old skool record advertisement on television (like K-Tel records) with a man's booming voice-over, complete with polyester clad white people around a bright Christmas tree and you'll have jumped into my snowed-in Québécois past without even knowing it. Add to this playing board games on the floor in the spare room with my cousins, that one drunk uncle the grown-ups make excuses for, a grandmother that stuffs us with all those Christmas cookies and oranged-filled chocolates, and a tall pine tree with so many decorations that it droops, while baby Jesus below in his manger is wondering what all the fuss is about. If you think this picture is a bit over the top, well that's standard modern fare nowadays in the suburbs. You're lucky to not see the whole thing lit up at night.

It's almost as if the band gave up singing in the end, but threw in a 'Vive le vent d'hiver' '('Hurray for winter wind') to show that the singers were still in the studio.

1. Au royaume du bonhomme hiver (Winter Wonderland)
2. Promenade en traîneau - (Sleigh Ride)
3. Vive le vent - (Jingle Bells)
4. A cappella, Jingle Bells rock
5. Instrumental, Frosty the Snowman


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