That the Barenaked Ladies, of all people, might resurrect the original meaning, tempo and feel of a five hundred year old traditional Christmas carol seems an utterly ridiculous notion. And yet, curiously, this is exactly what the Canadian power-pop group has done with the commercial success of their mid-90s version of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.
Of all the traditional carols, none has been more misunderstood than GRYMG. None has been the victim of such periodic shoddy scholarship. None has so had its original joyous and raucous intent replaced by such somber plodding. Not that all of this ever detracted from its status as one of the most beloved and ubiquitous of all the season’s carols.
How ubiquitous is GRYMG, you ask? Let’s jus say this: you know that Charles Dickens’ story, A Christmas Carol? The actual carol that the site refers to is GRYMG. Which means GRYMG isn’t just a Christmas Carol, it’s the Christmas Carol.
Like most folk songs, the precise lineage of GRYMG is largely unknowable. Most music scholars agree that its earliest seeds came from England (though speculations of French origin are not uncommon), and that it most likely evolved into the tune we recognize today somewhere between the 15th and 17th centuries. There is little doubt that the song was one primarily enjoyed by the lower classes, and further was sung in the kinds of taverns where respectable people did not go. GRYMG was, in other words, the kind of festive ditty very inebriated people would sing at the top of their lungs while dancing jigs and reels. And it had true staying power. It was still quite popular in the early 19th century, when the the recording to paper of lowly folk songs by noble gentlemen was all the rage in Great Britain.
The Anglican Church took notice, and decided (surely correctly) that the song’s original inspiration was Luke 2:8-20. The song was eventually incorporated into its official hymnal. Within a few generations the hymn had pushed the folksong aside, as GRYMG slowly became “respectable.” Indeed, for the next century and a half, whenever you encountered the piece it was most likely arranged to sound something like this:
Interestingly, shoddy scholarship was eventually introduced to both strengthen the hymnal’s hold on the song and separate it from its plebeian roots. It’s still fairly common to find people note that the title, translated from the archaic, should read God Makes You Mighty, Gentlemen. This translation, obviously, relies on Rest and Merry having once meant Make and Mighty, respectively. The problem with this pervasive theory is that there is no record that either word was ever commonly used in anysuch a way; that they might have seems to have been a fiction created specifically for making this carol respectable.
In fact, the phrase “rest you merry” was somewhat common vernacular in the time GRYMG was evolving. Shakespeare uses it often in such plays as As You Like It, Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and The Tempest. The phrase is actually defined in Bishop Thomas Cooper’s Bibliotheca Eliotæ in 1548:
“Aye, bee thou gladde: or joyful, as the vulgare people saie ‘Reste you mery’.”
The song, therefore, is a call to be joyful. Further, it was originally meant to be a call to be joyful with a drink in one hand, a loved (or lusted) one in the other, and one’s feet moving. GRYMG the hymn is a reverence; GRYMG the folksong was a celebration.
All of which is to say that when the Barenaked Ladies released their version of GRYMG with both Sarah McLaughlin and a dose of We Three Kings thrown in for good measure, it captured the original spirit of the delightfully “vulgare” folksong. (Mind you, the Canadians still managed to make it their own. Their replacing the traditional straight, marching quarter-note rhythm with a playful dotted-quarter/eighth swing is clearly a thoroughly modern pastiche.)
Which version you prefer — reverent or celebratory — is a matter of taste, and I must confess that I prefer each at different times. Wynton Marsalis’s reworking of the song’s somber, hymnal period through an Ellington-esque arrangement borders on melancholy, but is quite brilliant nonetheless.
And since the commercial success of the Barenaked Ladies’ version, a lot of other artists have been trying their hand at attempting to recapture the song’s original spirit to great success. It’s entirely possible that five hundred years ago people performed the song closely to Martha’s Trouble’s version (you can here a sample here), or even Ceud Miles Failte’s jig (below). Regardless, each is terrific.
The Virtual Musical Advent Calendar
Follow Tod on Twitter, view his archive, or email him. Visit him at TodKelly.com
As a Jewish person, this time of year is always interesting to me. There is some Christmas music I like (example: Little Drummer Boy as sung by David Bowie and Bing Crosby)* and I do have some fond memories of this season. When I lived in New York, this was the time of year hailed farmers from Vermont coming down and setting up shop with very small pine trees. I used to walk by one street seller at night on the way home from grad school and loved getting hit with the scent of pine. Thanksgiving-New Years Eve is also the time when winter is good in New York. It gets cold but not too cold and it is nice to walk briskly outside and then step inside to a cafe or apartment and have it be nice and warm and toasty**.
But I never quite understand how my non-Jewish friends start chomping at the bit for Christmas sometime between Halloween-Thanksgiving. I see facebook updates that are about trying to not listen to Christmas Music until Thanksgiving or put up decorations. It sometimes seems like a lot of people try to jam pack this time with all their happiness for the year. I loved Hannukah as a kid and lighting the Menorah and Latkes but it was not something I waited for with super eager anticipation.
*The other songs I tend to like are a bit ironic like Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and Father Christmas by the Kinks. White Christmas is one of the most misunderstood songs of the 20th century. You have to understand that it was written by a poor Jewish immigrant (Irving Berlin nee Israel Isidore Beilin). He spent his childhood in the tenaments on the Lower East Side during a time when open anti-Semitism was an outright acceptable activity. Any New Yorker can tell you that snow does not stay white in the city for a long time. It quickly becomes a depressing, gray mush. Think of that biography when listening to the song.
**January and February are the worst in the Northeast.Report
I don’t think it’s that we save up our happiness for this time of year. It’s more that this is sort of the culmination of the whole year.Report
As a Jewish person, you should know the Allan Sherman version, God Bless You, Jerry Mandelbaum.Report
That was really fun. Thanks for sharing
Report
Great start, Todd. Last year I bought hours worth of Christmas music on ITunes so we could listen to Christmas music all day on Christmas without hearing any dreck (as subjectively defined, of course). I’ll be adding some new selections this year, based on you introducing me to some versions I’ve not encountered before. (Although I’m not sure I can tell my mom that particular band’s name.)Report
WHY?!?!
And don’t give me…
Because that’s like saying “I want to watch only the quality episodes of Touched By An Angel.”
(Bah, humbug.)Report
OK, Will, the good news is that you’re forewarned. If I mistakenly invite you over for Christmas, you should respectfully (or disrespectfully, depending on just how much you hate Christmas music) decline. Maybe Thanksgiving or New Years would be a better option.Report
You started with one of my all-time favorites (specifically the BNL version – those swung eighth notes have a long high school jazz band arrangement tradition, although my friends who are band directors tell me the BNL version quickly eclipsed all others
). Love the jig, too!
In Atlantic Canada, where I grew up, GRYMG *always* sounded more like Martha’s Trouble (which I just purchased, thank you!) and not like the hymn arrangements… even in church. Whatever pretense of Orderly Respectability, and imprecations of the choir director to the choir/band, might’ve been veneered over the first verse were thoroughly demolished by verse 3 or 4 – the lilting / thumping of the actual tune, and people’s experiences of singing it at home, always won out. That was especially fun in the huge, vaulted-ceiling basilica…Report
Tod, if I may make a humble suggestion. On December 12th, you should write about “The Twelve Days of Christmas” just because its the 12th. Thank you kindly in advance if you decide to do so.Report
That BNL version is awesome! Here’s one that’s also in the joyous spirit that’s even more uptempo, even surfy. This tune has made the cut on the annual Sherlock musical Christmas card.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH9t36JidZwReport
Tod this is a great series and I am looking forward to the next eleven posts. In Oklahoma the first day of Christmas is when you hear this http://youtu.be/5LJBB65r-9oReport