I am now going to indulge in a little misty-eyed gaze into the crystal ball. Til Tuesday's album Voices Carry came out in 1985. I was living in an apartment in southern New Hampshire. What I remember about "Voices Carry," the song, is that it played several times a day (if not at least once per hour) on MTV. I can remember Aimee Mann's shock of spiky blond hair and perfect face. Her voice had that catch in it that made it distinct from many of her female contemporaries. Looking back over all of those years, I can recall more details of that voice than I can about my wife at the time. Hey, that's how memories work. Sometimes they pop up with what seems like no reason. I guarantee you that my wife at the time was more important to me than a Til Tuesday record, and imagining a time when that would be reversed was just out of the question.
Just about as out of the question as Aimee Mann putting together a Christmas album. I mean, what Christmas character would she have been playing? Santa's freaky new wave niece?
Sure, I never would have thought a Mann Christmas record would come to pass. It also never occurred to me that I would forget details about my prime relationship while still being able to recall the little footpath between the apartment complex and the local record store.
This of course has nothing to do with Christmas. And everything. In my house we get together every year to enjoy each other's company, exchange a few gifts, and eat some extremely unhealthy food. I look forward to it simply because the end of the year is approaching and it very often has the feel, on a larger scale, of each week's end. That is, I feel like I'm falling into it. Saturday morning comes around and there's a feeling of "what happened?" The year comes to a close and it's more than a little disconcerting that so many events have come to pass. The details are kind of fuzzy too. Weird.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I still haven't picked this thing up yet.
2 - Mark Saleski
you need to fix that. today. ;-)
i'm totally hooked on that "Whatever Happened To Christmas" tune.
3 - Bliffle
Sorry you have mixed feelings about your musical choice.
Personally, I am listening, at this moment, to the PBS broadcast of the Beaux Arts Trios performance of Beethoven which I recorded a couple months ago on my HDTV DVR. Outstanding! The high quality of the digital sound augments the visual effect of this performance beautifully. I must say that I rather prefer the Beethoven piano trios over the more famous string quartets.
Beaux Arts Trio, 50 years playing great music! With the same piano player!
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Mark--I trust you on this of course, but in addition: Mann is one of those artists with the right instincts, whose albums I pretty much routinely buy before reading reviews, etc. That would include Christmas albums, too.