Being Well When We're Ill

There are so many good things about Marva Dawn's book. Her writing is deeply theological and profoundly practical. As someone who has and does suffer with a whole host of ailments and disabiltiies, she displays genuine empathy but eschews sentimentalism. She writes good prose and chooses helpful qoutations, wheter from scripture or other writers. The closing prayers to each chapter are more than decoration.

It's a book for those who suffer and for those who stand with them.

Losing God

Losing God is a great read. Matt Rogers walks his readers through the doubts and depression that once filled his life with darkness with real understanding and compassion and godly wisdom.

the very best christmas song - ever

Well, here we are - no voting shenanigans like Strictly Come Dancing; this is purely one person's choice. And a choice one at that it is too. In my opinion, the best Christmas record ever is:

I wish it could be Christmas every day by Wizard.

First released back in '73, it has become a perennial favourite and I think I know why. It's the combination of a sentiment that every child immediately agrees with, a great tune and an over-the-top delivery by Mr Wood. Oh, and not forgetting the presence of a children's choir ("OK you lot - take it!").

Wizard had had quite a year - they had a fair enough start in late '72 with Ball Park Incident but what followed in '73 was pure pop genius: See My baby Jive and then Angel Fingers. We lapped them up and bopped to them merrily at the juniors party (I was in what they now call Year 6 when Roy Wood graced the charts with his brand of pop perfection.

Our teacher that year in (what became) Ysgol Cymerau was Mr Elfed Griffiths who later became Headmaster at the school. His wife - before their marriage - had been my teacher in infant school (in Year 2). I remember very clearly the time when my brother Robert was home on leave (he was posted to Hong Kong with the British Army) and was walking back from town along Penrhydlyniog with me and my sister Mary. We saw my teacher and I said hello. Robert asked who she was after we'd passed her and then feigned turning round to follow-her, mesmerised by her beauty. She was indeed a lovely lady.

Hearing the song in Tesco's a week or two ago brought all those memories flooding back, memories of happy days and of simple joy.

the second-best xmas song ever

For many years this would have come top of my list - maybe it's a sign of age.

My nomination for second-best xmas song ever is Happy Xmas (War is over) by John & Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band. Released back in '72, I first remember this song from Xmas '76 when I recorded it off the radio onto a Waltham cassette recorder, via a plug-in microphone (the Waltham was my xmas pressie that year)

Of course it's a supremely naive suggestion, that war could be over simply by unilateral choice and without genuine heart transformation, but it's still a laudable desire.

The song harks back to John & Yoko's famous bed-in in 1969 and the subsequent poster campaign that Christmas which ran the slogan War is Over (If you want it). The song picks up that slogan in its closing coda. By 1972 John & Yoko were living in New York and had entered their most stridently political phase; this song doesn't sit so easily with their other offering that year, the double album Some Time In New York City.

The NY provenance also accounts for the presence on the song of the Harlem Community Choir. The next (& final) time a choir would feature in their work would be the Yoko song Hard Times Are Over on Double Fantasy, the album that was in the charts when John died. They join Yoko for the chorus of the song. As that song opens, members of the choir can be heard calling out 'We thank you, Jesus, thank you, thank you right now' just spontaneously after a recording session; John was in the studio for the recording and got the engineer to capture their praise and used it to open the song.

One of the great delights of this particular xmas release was the b-side, a Yoko song 'Listen the snow is falling'. Perhaps her sweetest and most pop offering to date when the song was released (passing over 'Remember Love' which was the b-side of the Plastic Ono Band's Give peace A Chance). It's a romantic, lyrical and deeply moving song, narrating the personal & cultural gulfs she and John had navigated in their relationship:

Listen the snow is falling all the time
Listen the snow is falling everywhere...
Between your bed and mine,
between your head and my mind...
Between Tokyo and Paris,
between London & Dallas,
between your love and mine;
Listen the snow is falling everywhere.

It also comes complete with its own snowstorm effects which you don't have to pay extra for, always a nice bonus.

So this is xmas....so there you have it. Next time: the all-time number one (in this tiny mind).

The third-best xmas song ever.....

OK, let's talk about Last Christmas by Wham!

No, let's not, let's get on with the job in hand. The third best xmas song ever is...

David Bowie & Bing Crosby singing The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on earth.

I must confess my liking of this ditty is now somewhat marred by the Children In Need offering by Terry Wogan & Aled Jones. But at least their efforts underline the great job that David & Bing did. Don't ask me why I like it but I do - it felt somewhat different when it was released. Maybe it was the strikingly-odd combination of Bowie & Bing - the jagged-edge meets the silky-smooth; the thin white duke meets the Troubador. It was pipped to the post of the Xmas 1982 no.1 spot by, of all people, Renee & Renatta's 'Save your love' (actually, it made no.3 so was pipped by another song too, possibly Phil Collins' version of You Can't Hurry Love).

The previous year, Bowie had had a no.1 with another collaboration (hitting no.1 just before Christmas) - the superb 'Under Pressure' with Queen. Those who predicted an assault on the 1983 Christmas no.1 slot by a Bowie/Cliff Richard pairing were proved sadly wrong.

Crosby had died back in '77 so this was a posthumous hit, presumably recorded separately. A few weeks after his death, Alistair Cooke recalled an interview Bing gave to Barbara Walters in which she asked him to sum himself up. In Cooke's words:

He allowed that he had an easy temperament, a way with a song, a fair vocabulary, on the whole a contented life. And she said, 'Are you telling us that's all there is - a nice, agreeable shell of a man?' Bing appeared not to be floored. After the slightest pause for deep reflection, he said, 'Sure, that's about it. I have no deep thoughts, no profound philosophy. That's right. I guess that's what I am.'

I scarcely think Bowie would say the same of himself.

The best Christmas songs...ever

(Not carols, I hasten to add...)

Thought I'd post my thoughts on the best 3 Christmas songs ever released. Well, in my lifetime anyway, which isn't very long in the grand scheme of things but it does at least have the merit of spanning most of the pop era.

So to begin...I thought I'd mention in this post some of the songs that are definitely NOT the best Christmas songs ever. Like (Simply having) A Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney. I love the guy (kindof) but he has released some dross in his time, mainly hidden on albums but, now & again, sneaking into the light of the singles charts. This song probably heads that list (yep, even worse than the Rupert song).

Honourable mention ought also to go to Shakin' Stevens - he's Welsh, which is a good start, and enjoyed some worthy success in the early 80s for his hard work but Merry Christmas Everyone must have happened during a slack moment or three.

This list could be endless. I won't mention the numerous Cliff Christmas efforts, mainly because, to be fair, they're ok. Honourable mention probably ought also to go to Johhny Matthis and Boney M (not a collaboration but for their two efforts) which, again, were OK.

Did someone shout out 'Slade!'? A stomping singalong for every party...but is it? Yes, we bopped to it at the school disco in 1972 but it seems to me it's been rather degraded since then, perhaps through overexposure. Some songs can take the exposure, others can't. I think this is one of the latter.

Anyway, enough of the dross. There are 3 songs I think ought always to top the list. I'll post about them in turn over the next 3 Wednesdays (10th, 17th, 24th) in reverse order.

So stay tuned, pop pickers!