Robert Earl Keen Merry Christmas From the Family Lyrics
| "Merry Christmas from the Family unit" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Song past Robert Earl Neat | |
| from the album Gringo Honeymoon | |
| Released | 1994 |
| Recorded | 1994 |
| Genre | Holiday song, alternative country |
| Songwriter(s) | Robert Earl Not bad |
'"Merry Christmas from the Family" is a holiday vocal written past alternative country creative person Robert Earl Peachy. The vocal was offset recorded for Keen'southward 1994 album, Gringo Honeymoon. A live version also appears on his 1996, No. 2 Live Dinner. The popularity of the song led Swell to write a sequel vocal, "Happy Holidays Y'all", for his 1998 album Walking Distance, and to publish a book, Merry Christmas from the Family unit, in 2001. The original vocal, the book, and the sequel all center around the same cast of characters in Neat's humorous vision of a Texas style Christmas.
The song [edit]
Growing up in Houston, Texas, Robert Earl Cracking didn't ofttimes encounter snow at Christmas time. He says "I didn't even know what a anecdote looked like until I was 30 years old and saw information technology in a picture book… It was a different kind of Christmas. Every Christmas song I had ever heard didn't have a lot to do with growing up in Houston where information technology was well-nigh likely 85 degrees and 95 percentage humidity."[1]
"Merry Christmas from the Family" describes the Christmas gathering of a fairly dysfunctional Texas family whose merrymaking—which includes drinking booze, carving a turkey, watching a televised brawl game and smoking cigarettes—seems to exist punctuated with Christmas music and the need to run to convenience stores for additional supplies such every bit simulated snow and cigarettes. Various family members and events are described throughout the verses. No i is sure how to react to a younger sister bringing her Mexican beau to the political party, but equally soon as he sings "Feliz Navidad" he is welcomed into the fold. Brother Ken arrives with five children from 2 of his previous marriages. Ken's new wife, Kay, chain smokes and "talks all about AA." Extended family likewise appear. Fred and Rita—whose human relationship to the narrator appears to have been forgotten—make it from Harlingen in a motor home, which when plugged in, overloads the electric arrangement and knocks out the family's Christmas lights. The family unit so waits on the front lawn and joins together in singing "Silent Night" when cousin David flips the breaker that brings the lights back on.
The "Linen Rule" [edit]
Keen calls the song the "Rocky Horror Pic Show of Christmas songs" saying that whether singing before a group of i,000 or 6,000 the unabridged audience sings along. And in item shouts out the line, "Mix Bloody Marys 'cause we all want one."[one]
Due to the immense popularity of the song amongst Robert Earl Cracking'south fans, as well every bit its seasonal nature, he had to create restrictions limiting the time of year during which his band will play the song:
"Well, it's a existent pop vocal with us, I have ix records out and this song but sort of cropped up and became a existent favorite and we get requests for it all year round. And then, I had to create this rule, I call information technology the 'Linen Dominion', where we don't play the song as long as yous tin can article of clothing linen. So information technology saves it and makes it fresh for the holiday flavor. And so we start playing information technology around Labor Mean solar day and we play it on through the holidays. It's the big number specially in December that we close with." –Robert Earl Keen[i]
Covers [edit]
Cover versions of the song have been performed by artist such as Jill Sobule, Rosie O'Donnell with the Dixie Chicks, and Montgomery Gentry.[2] Montgomery Gentry's version also charted at #38 on Hot Country Songs in 2001.
Sequel [edit]
Swell's 1998 album, Walking Distance included a sequel, "Happy Holidays Y'all". Keen states, "I vowed when I actually started writing songs that I'd never write a sequel. But I idea, well, y'all know, why not."[1]
Co-ordinate to Keen the second song fills in some of the gaps on the characters and brings them a niggling farther along into their holiday celebration: "The song 'Merry Christmas from the Family' is set in the present tense. This song is set in the present tense, simply lilliputian further in the future—say like afterwards the party when everybody's packing up and leaving on the 26th of December."[ane]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d e "Holiday Coping" past Neal Conan from NPR's Talk of the Nation Dec 18, 2002 (Swell's in-studio performance/interview starts at about 32:30).
- ^ list of recordings from Allmusic [ dead link ]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Christmas_from_the_Family
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