I Been Living the Blues

by Brendan Cavnagh

I apologize for not creating my regular Thursday post, but I've been so bogged down on an insurmountable amount of homework. I had to read three novels in around one week! I wasn't able to keep upon my reading assignments because of a combination of genuinely reluctant apathy and lack of time. While I've struggled to keep my head above water (I thought one of my many resolutions for 2012 was to avoid using cliches in my writing), what's gotten me through a plethora of admittedly good books- Jane Eyre for British Literature, The Rise of Silas Lapham for American Literature and The World to Come for my privileged Midrash class.- has been my recently renewed interest what I've quickly dubbed through multiple explanations as "primitive, African-American, finger-pickin' blues," played by the likes of Robert Johnson, Leadbellly, Mississippi John Hurt and the like. I only name-drop the latter three because they're pretty much all I know about right now, though I'm steadily enhancing my repertoire. To be fair, my interest in the genre has extensive, close ties to other musical tastes of mine- namely. Norman Blake, the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack and even Bob Dylan or Joan Baez.

Seeing as I'm posting my Thursday post on a Friday night / Saturday morning (depending on how you look at it), I'll save the time of writing brief, informative biographies of the aforementioned three blues guitarists and simply post a link to my current favorite song from each (and I mean current).

Mississippi John Hurt - "Pay Day" (1964?)

Leadbelly- "Pick A Bale Of Cotton " (1940)

Robert Johnson- "Kindhearted Woman Blues" (1936)

(Honorable mention, hailing from the Gangs of New York soundtrack) Sidney Stripling "Breakaway" (1941)

(Another honorable mention, revealed unto me through the movie Sounder) Lightnin' Hopkins - "Needed Time" (1950)

Follow the links. Educate yourselves.

You Shouldn't Let Other People Get Your Kicks For You

by Brendan Cavanagh


This is a post I wrote for a blawg my friends from college and I have. Enjoy.


One night two summers ago my cousin approached me with a serious look on his face. He gripped my arm tightly and vehemently expressed his concern that perhaps one is entirely unable to watch a movie or read a book or listen to a musician without first hearing about it from a reputable source- be it a friend, relative, magazine or website. He said, "Would we have watched Dr. Strangelove last night if it hadn't been named one of the greatest films of all time?"

At the time, I understood what he meant, but his qualms have stuck with me and influenced me to retain as much autonomy and individual interest as possible when encountering unexperienced aspects of media. So when I flipped through someone's copy of the latest Rolling Stone this weekend and discovered an article listing, in depth, the "70 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs," I experienced an amalgamation of several feelings: elation at seeing many of my favorite songs on the list, confidence that just like Rolling Stone writers and Dylan-worshipping musicians, I knew what made these songs great, disgust with certain songs I felt should have made the list but didn't as well as the ones included that I felt shouldn't have been, and inspiration to listen much closer to songs I may have previously ignored or misunderstood.

Obviously, everyone has different taste. But when it comes to Dylan's greatest songs, it's understandable that many people would share the same favorites. I think it's important to have this sort of mutual understanding, but I am really proud to have my own choices in my own order, be them on The List or not. So I'll list here my five favorite Dylan songs to give you a taste of how I view Dylan's work, but keep in mind my favorites vary depending on my mood,. the weather, the time, where I am, what I'm doing and blah blah blah blah blah. The following is the most enduring Top Five:

1. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right [Demo-Recording] - No Direction Home Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7) - 2005

The studio recording was the eighth track on 1963's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but I prefer the demo because although it excludes the bluesy harmonica, its stripped-down and mournful sound more accurately paints a picture of desolation and leaving a relationship.

2. Santa-Fe - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1 (1991)

The lyrics are indecipherable and don't match up to their written documentation, but from what I can understand, they detail a life of endless wandering, the thoughts of a man who can't e tied down to a single place or person. It was recorded in the basement of Big Pink with The Band before they were The Band, so of course, the musical accompaniment is richer and upbeat. The seemingly comforting line "Don't feel bad, no no no no don't don't don't feel bad" kills me every time.

3. Like A Rolling Stone - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Honestly, this is one of the most important songs of all time, so it would make sense that it would be Rolling Stone's number one pick (though the fact that it is the magazine's namesake and that it was already chosen as their pick for the greatest song of all time eased any anticipation). Over time the song takes on added significance, and I find myself singing it scornfully and acidly in my head to certain girls I hate to love. Bruce Springsteen has rather articulately expressed his first encounter with the song, in a way speaking for most people, saying "The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind."

4. Idiot Wind [Alternate Take] - The Bootleg Series. Vol. 2 (1991)

Dylan haphazardly recorded most of the material on 1975's Blood On The Tracks without much help from a backing band in Minneapolis before revamping his songs and releasing them. This song is notable because it features simply Dylan on acoustic guitar and harmonica, desperately whining a depressing nine minutes of heartbreak and anger with a past love who done him wrong. In the end, though, Dylan places the blame not only on his ex-lover, but on himself, too, stating, "We're idiots babe, it's a wonder we can even feed ourselves." However, the lyrical imagery is overshadowed by the minute-and-a-half harmonica solo at the end of the song, a solo which most vividly relates Dylan's pain.

5. Chimes Of Freedom [Live] - No Direction Home Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7) 2005

In my opinion, maybe the greatest of Dylan's folk-protest songs, and perhaps the greatest protest song of all time. Though instead of pointing fingers Dylan describes a truly epic thunderstorm whose violent lightening and thunder clang out the unjust derogation of all types of people and which is seen by everyone in a strange experience of global unity- from the outcast, the mistitled prostitute and misdemeanor outlaw to the poet, the lonesome-hearted lover and ultimately, "every hung-up person in the whole wide universe." I don't often listen to the original studio version on 1964's Another Side of Bob Dylan, instead favoring the live concert version recorded in 1964 at the Newport Folk Festival.

I love Bob Dylan. And you should, too.

Hanging with my taste buds

What's that you asked? You want to know my top ten favorite songs?

Sure. Others here at Classic Brian would flip out at the concept of narrowing their gigantic iTunes libraries down to ten distinct favorites, but I realized the other day, I know my favorites. And I thought that was pretty cool. I actually put them in order too, so, without further ado, my top ten fave songs. Then I'll talk about why. It's like a list! I don't do those so much. Here you go.

The following views are my own, and if you disagree, great. It means we're different people.

10. Impossible Soul — Sufjan Stevens
Frankly, most of me is just happy that someone did this. At first when you look at iTunes and realize that one of the tracks is a ridiculous 25 minutes, 35 seconds long, you're initial thought is "I will never ever have time for that." But, knowing the reputation Sufjan Stevens has, I wasn't really worried as I ventured into the colossal track.

It starts out so simply, and quickly gains layer after layer, evolving into a boisterous struggle for melodic prominence amid a rhythmic clusterfuck that hardly ever provides solid ground for the song to roll along on. Meanwhile, Sufjan divulges a tragic tale about a love that simply cannot be. He is really good at using instruments more rhythmically than melodically, and having a thousand rhythms going on at once. From the live video I've seen, it seems the rhythms play out even better in person. In the style of Age of Adz, all kinds of electronica come together to make the song abide by Sufjan's unique sound, and over the course of 25 minutes, the effect is awesome. There are several "movements" within the song, where the vocal rhythms, rhythms and instrumentations change. All of them flow together pretty seamlessly, with the exception of the final movement, but that is a purposeful move.

I am quite fond of classical music, and to see an indie artist ask you to shut the hell up and listen to him for 25-plus minutes is really awesome to see. And to boot, it's pulled off awesomely. My favorite part of the song occurs at 12:12, because I heard that on a pair of Beats headphones and actually lost my breath. Yeah, whatever.

9. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright — Bob Dylan
I'm generally not a huge Bob Dylan fan, but he does a hell of a job capturing the essence of bittersweet in this song. Lyrically, it's basically "Impossible Soul" cut down to three and a half minutes. Something like that. He puts his heart into his guitar here and his soul into his harmonica. Whenever this song catches me in the right mood, it sounds absolutely fucking brilliant. If not, I can still enjoy it. In order to make this list it has to be enjoyable even when I'm not in just the perfect mood.

8. 1901 — Phoenix
When I first heard this song, I diagnosed it as "alright." The chorus of it kind of threw me off, and hit me the wrong way, but eventually those feelings subsided. Then I listened to it more and it grew on me a ton. The beginning is really something badass, and the chorus is actually really fun to sing along to.

Especially when you're seeing them live in the second row at freaking Lollapalooza. Yeah, that boosted the value of this song significantly, and rightfully so. Whenever it comes on now, I can't help but think of those three days and how great they were. I know it's an associative reason for liking it, but it still makes me enjoy the song more. Enough said.

Even with Lolla, however, this song still wasn't top ten material. That status was crystalized Feb. 6, 2011. Some of you may remember that day as (Sometimes) Friday Conor's birthday, but others may remember it as the Super Bowl. I have, as you damn well know, been a Packers fan since I was RILL young. Finally watching a team in my sentient days actually get to and win the Super Bowl was one of the greatest things I had ever watched. Then, after the game was over, Fox threw this thirty second cherry on top of my holy-fuck-this-is-an-awesome-sundae. Some of you may watch that and think it is corny, lame, or even be mad that they cut the entire verse out. (They had thirty seconds!) But after watching those guys shown fight on 20 separate occasions to make me a happy camper (and succeeding in all of them — even the defeats [and yes, this is because they won the Super Bowl]), I was just processing the idea of having won the title, and this really made it sink in. We were all that. Every time I hear 1901, I think back to winning the Super Bowl. That's as much help in winning my heart that any song (or any thing, really) could have. So, yup. Hell yeah, Phoenix. The song that brings back all that memories and stuff.

7. Get 'Em High — Kanye West (ft. Talib Kweli and Common)
Uhhhh whaaaat? Yeah, I know, this seems weird, but I just love this song. It's the only rap song on my top ten by the way, making it, I guess, my favorite rap of all time. Yeah, this is tough to defend.

Well let's start with the beat. Totally underwhelming. So willingly repetitive. The song tells you pretty much up front that it's not about production or "strings for the dramatic" or whatever, but just that you're going to hear some effing rap. Kanye, Talib and Common proceed to rip that simplistic beat apart for just under five minutes. They don't really have much to say. Kanye says "I'm the shit," then he says "this girl wants me," then Talib says "Kanye, I'll help you get that bitch, and I'm trying to smoke," then Common says "other rappers suck." And that's the whole song. But the vocal rhythms cover just about every single thing you could look to get out of the beat, which I just counted, covers four notes. That's the extent of the melody.

The chorus is catchy, and somehow gets dropped at all the right times to add another element of awesomeness. Also these are three of the rappers I respect the most, and they do the summit justice by all  slicing and dicing and dissecting and shredding the beat with awesome flow unlike any other song I've heard. Yeah.

6. New Born — Muse
I had a phase my sophomore and junior years where Muse, was like, the only band that mattered. Those were very high anxiety times, mostly because I was listening to pretty much just Muse. I loved their sound. I loved their intensity. I loved how loud they were for having just three members. I liked that they were super nerdy. I liked that they put on probably the best show ever in the world.

This song starts with some kinda haunting piano, then adds in some bass and alto piano (is that a thing? it's higher, on the note scale thing) to add to the distress, then Matt Bellamy comes on to tell us the situation. The song goes along with this groove for about a minute, before stopping.

Then it's picked up by just the ruggedest guitar riff in all the land. I can tell those notes, when put together, have an awesome beard. And then the drums come in, ruthlessly loud, perfectly syncing with the melody and providing copious crashing cymbals, and the song gains its legs. Then a swift chording guitar part comes up, accompanied by a driving bass riff that adds to the sense of urgency of the song. Anyway, yeah. A song happens. The intensity is not to be fucked with, and this song has one of the awesome climaxes of all time. On my deathbed, play this song, and I will have the temporary ability to beat up at least a fourth grader.

5. Casimir Pulaski Day — Sufjan Stevens
As different as this song is from the Muse song I just ranted about, it is equally different from the other Sufjan song I posted at No. 10. Whenever I need to mellow outt, or if I'm really super depressed, this song will put me at peace in five and a half minutes. Lyrically, it's one of the better-constructed songs I've ever heard, painting a series of scenes documenting a relationship that no longer exists because the other party in said relationship is now dead.

When some bullshit happens to good people, it puts me in a crappy mood. I wonder why things happen. I wonder why it couldn't have happened to some shmuck I didn't know. I thank God that I've never had a close friend or immediate family member die. I've never had serious obstacles in my life I needed miraculous assistance to help overcome. I've had it, relatively, easy. So earlier in the year when I was just in a moody mood where it seemed like everything was just the other shoe waiting to drop and eventually all the shoes I knew would be on the floor and nothing would be left to care about, I listened to this song a ton. It really paints a sad, sad picture, then picks you up off the floor by offering a perfect-fitting melody that just reminds you of everything you have. Somehow. It blows my mind, really.

But my favorite part about the song is the ending. After this uplifting and emotionally packed part in the song the song lands on one note and sticks there for a while. For a long while actually, then you realize that what you're listening to at the end of this song about death sounds an awful lot like a flatline. And just when you become really sad, Sufjan drops this heavenly chord that just lets you know that dying isn't the end, and that shit's gonna get better. Tell me I'm reading way too damn much into the song, but you can't take away the satisfaction I get from listening to it.

4. Keep Yourself Warm — Frightened Rabbit
An organ plays four notes in succession. The song begins, a guitar chimes in, still mostly rhythmic in construction, then a fucking bagpipe drops on top of the instrumental. Oh wait, excuse me, that's just Scott Hutchinson's incredibly Scottish voice. It's hard to discern at first what exactly the song is about, then he sings "No you won't find love in a, won't find love in a hole/ It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm." You're initial thought is that this would be funny, but the band totally pulls it off. And the whole song comes off beautifully.

At the start of this song, Hutchinson sounds pathetic. He sounds like he's trying to talk himself off a ledge as he's trying to talk a girl into the bedroom. Then as the song builds and builds, so does Hutchinson's self-respect. It seems like by the end of the song he is content with himself, to a degree, whereas before it seemed like he wanted to fucking bottom out.  I think this song plays out perfectly, and in a city filled with sorostitute hunting frat guys, it feels good to know that it "takes more than fucking someone you don't know to keep yourself warm."

I'm not a huge fan of Frightened Rabbit (for example, the lead singer who I referred to by name three times, I had to look up his name), but this was the first song of theirs that I heard and it immediately grabbed my attention in the best of the ways. Yay Scottish people.

3. Wake Up — Arcade Fire
At first, I was like, "hey, I kinda like this song." Then I listened to it a bunch more, and at some point it just hit me how epic it was. Yeah, it's about "the kids" and "growing up" (seemingly all Arcade Fire ever wants to damn talk about), but hey, that was a huge deal in my life for a while. Also, one of the iconic songs of the summer of 2010, despite being like, six years old. This song needs little explanation, as it is obviously really fricking great. I love every second. The rock-ass guitar, combined with the sentimentality of the violins, and the simplistic atmospheric sound to it. It seems grand, and oh yeah, I saw this live in the front row at Lollapalooza. I liked that very much, if you've forgotten.

The ending is awesome, also. Dance parties are the best.

2. When the Levee Breaks — Led Zeppelin
This song is a raid. The drums immediately kick the door down. The harmonica and guitar come in, killing everyone in the room. Then Robert Plant's voice (did NOT have to look that one up) carves LZ's into everyone's foreheads to let whoever finds 'em know who did it.

The song was originally a blues piece by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie (just a guitarist, she was a female blues guitarist in the 1920s; pretty cool, eh?) recorded in 1929. Led Zeppelin gave the song a badass makeover and recorded it in 1970.

I was one of those kids, you know the ones. In middle school I discovered classic rock and was set in my ways for years. Led Zeppelin was my favorite band, and I still don't have a reason to knock them from atop that list. Every song they made kicked someone's ass, and they had four musical legends at the helm of each of their instruments. My favorite song of all time used to be Stairway to Heaven, but then I realized how much goddamn sense that song failed to make, and this song was actually one I really got into around the beginning of eighth grade. You know, August? 2005? Hurricane Katrina. I thought they were prophetic gods.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxMDwlxxJUM — This fuck won't let me post his vid. Chunt.)

Obviously not, but the song still kicks ass and is the only one to which I can lay down a seven-minute freestyle rap and feel totally badass whenever I want. It's a damn great one.  But it's not quite my favorite song of all time.

....

"This was just about the time of that Woodstock festival, which was the sum total of all this bullshit."

 Alternate title: "Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can't possibly like, they can't relate to."

by Brendan Cavanagh

Well, with finals coming up and the semester wrapping up before summer break, I've had plenty to do.  Over the course of the next week, I'll be writing a couple English papers about William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and James Joyce's "Araby," then a full ten-pager comparing a couple Irish films and how they exemplify themes that have arisen out of the Irish experience, followed by an education philosophy, an epic poem relating my experience shadowing an English teacher earlier this year and a handful other looming projects that I don't seem to have track of right now.

Instead of doing all this I've been exceptionally apathetic, trying to find any reason not to get some much-needed work done.  For instance, yesterday I went to CVS with a friend, came back to my dormitory and immediately got in someone else's car and went to another CVS.  I mean, a guy can only buy so much Kleenex and sweet tea, you know? So to alleviate my pain while attempting to complete the monumental amount of homework I have in store, I've made it a point to keep easy-going music playing on my iPod, in particular focusing heavily on an oft-overlooked period of Bob Dylan's career, from about 1969-1970.

After suffering a debilitating motorcycle crash in 1966, Dylan experienced an epiphany of sorts and realized how much bigger than himself he had become.  Tired of being the poster boy for the generation, he tried to fade into temporary obscurity in order to be with his family and focus on music he liked making at the time.  At this point, Dylan had sort of extricated himself from the cryptic rock n roll he became known for in the late 60s and instead decided to try his hand at country.  In 1969, he released Nashville Skyline, which despite the new, crooning voice he had picked up to match his music's sound, is actually quite good. 

 Nashville Skyline (1969)

Among the thirty-odd minutes of Nashville Skyline stand a few key tracks:

1. "I Threw It All Away"

A bittersweet song about a love he once had, and about how he took his love for granted and subsequently lost her due to carelessness.  Dylan stresses to the listener not to do the same because "love is all there is, it makes the world go 'round."

2. "Lay Lady Lay"

Dylan's big single from Nashville Skyline. As the title suggests, the song is very sexy. Unlike "I Threw It All Away," Dylan actually has a woman of his own here that he loves very much, and he pleads with her to stay the night with him and spoon a little bit. "His clothes are dirty, but his hands are clean," he comfortingly tells her, humbling himself to her beauty. To me, the song is an auditory representation of that feeling you have on a lazy summer morning, when you simply feel good without needing a reason.

The rest of the album follows in the same tradition, featuring a healthy dose of finger-picking and ragtime piano-pounding, with a nice "twang" playing throughout. In a similar fashion, Dylan's 1970 follow-up, Self Portrait, features him crooning his way through a double album of pop and folk covers and identically mellow original creations. The album was heavily lambasted by fans and critics alike (a reviewer for Rolling Stone opened his review with the line "What is this shit?"), and even Dylan has never seemed to express any profound appreciation for it.  Instead, he's argued, he was sick and tired of everyone expecting so much from him, so he scrounged together all the warm-ups and outtakes from Nashville Skyline and the later 1970 release, New Morning, and threw it on a double album ("I mean, if you're gonna put a lot of crap on it, you might as well load it up!"). 

Self Portrait (1970)

However incoherent or sloppy, more than a few tracks really appeal to me because of the down-home, easy-going sound he embraced at the time.  These have been on repeat lately:

1. "Let It Be Me"

A cover of the Everly Brothers classic (or the breath-taking Jerry Butler & Betty Everett cover). Like it does on a number of other songs from Self Portrait, the guitar in this song is smooth beyond belief. The song is so honest- the singer simply wants to be with the woman that makes him happiest.

2. "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know"

The best example of crooning I can provide. Dylan sings somberly about a man who stole away his lover. As time has passed, Dylan's learned to move on and forget her, but the amount of pleasing mannerisms, idiosyncrasies and sexual benefits he's had to forget infinitely surmount what the new guy will ever learn about her. An easy song to relate to- you don't get the girl you want, but you know you're the right one for her, that no one else could ever possibly know about or love her as much as you do.

3. "The Boxer"

An initially laughable, but surprisingly catchy cover of Simon & Garfunkel's hit single. Dylan double-tracks his voice on this song, essentially harmonizing with himself. A must-listen.


A couple songs on Self Portrait have a few women harmonizing the backing vocals, noticeably on "Let It Be Me." Presumably, the same women are featured every now and then on Dylan's subsequent release, New Morning, which followed a more traditional approach to the construction of an album, garnering more tolerable reviews from critics and fans. The album is striking because it is stripped down, with much less fanfare than Dylan's previous albums. Simply boasting some guitar, piano and earthy vocals, it takes some listening to to fully appreciate its simplicity.

New Morning (1970)

Two favorites:

1. "The Man In Me"

Perhaps recognizable to any fans of The Big Lebowski, as it was used several times throughout the film. While the lyrics are humble and show Dylan achingly acknowledging that this one woman is the key to bringing out his true self, one of the strongest portions of the song is when the aforementioned female harmonizers take over at the end and fade out with a repeated "Ahh-ahh-ahh" over a clanging, albeit subtle guitar riff.

2. "Day Of The Locusts"

You see, even if he tries to escape the music of his past, Dylan still contains the same feelings he once had. Instead of ragging on the self-satisfied girl in "Like A Rolling Stone" or "Positively 4th Street," Dylan's vindictive fury is released upon people that try to put him in a box, man. Specifically, when Dylan was presented with an honorary doctorate at Princeton University in June of 1970, he became aggravated by the impositions made of him- like having to wear a cap and gown in order to receive his award- and the implications of his celebrity status- like taking a limousine to the ceremony. Though his severe paranoia may have been induced by the two joints he smoked in the limo on the way there with David Crosby of The Byrds/Crosy, Stills & Nash. Either way, Dylan smartly decided to relate his feelings of being overwhelmed to the 17-year cicada infestation plaguing Princeton at the time, and came up with this song.

A lot of people tend to focus on Bob Dylan's golden period- albums like Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde on Blonde- but I think that just because his quieter, country period wasn't as popular at the time doesn't mean it isn't warranted a listen. Anyway, without all those drums and howls and harmonica solos, I find it easier to concentrate on my homework...which I will begin...nowwwwww.

Not Your Average Christmas List

16 reasons I like Christmas...

...because I couldn't come up with 25. Conveniently for me, there are 16 days until Christmas.

by Brendan Cavanagh

Of course we all appreciate Christmas for a variety of reasons- family, friends, togetherness, presents, food, the usual. I'm going to try to stray away from those aspects, focusing instead on some of the more tangible facets of Christmas present in pop culture. Here are 16 songs, movies, and television programs about Christmas that give me that warm, fuzzy feeling during the frost-bitten month of December:

16. Jingle All the Way (1996) - I'll admit, this is not a holiday classic for many, and it's pretty cheesy. I mean, it's a family Christmas comedy starring Ahhnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad and that kid who played Anakin Skywalker in the Phantom Menace. But it's a movie I grew up with, and I honestly think it's pretty funny, especially a scene in which Terminator dukes it out with about a hundred Santa Clauses. Arnold is actually not bad at comedy (think Kindergarten Cop ["IT'S NOT A TUMAHH!], and a lot of his action movies are kind of laughable today).

15. Stereomood - A buddy of mine just pointed this site out to me a couple days ago. It has a plethora of playlists designed to match a specific mood, such as "It's Raining," or "Just Woke Up" or "Afrodesiac (sexy African rhythms?)." But it's not necessarily a bunch of Bing Crosby and Irving Berlin and all that jazz, rather favoring more independent and lesser-known artists. For instance, on the "Christmas playlist," one may find original holiday songs by Canadian songstress Feist, masters of suburban ennui Arcade Fire or even hip-hop group Run D.M.C.

14. Target's Christmas Playlist (2010) - I noticed early this year that Target's decided to market much more independent music, explaining why Vampire Weekend can be found littered along the shelf among Garth Brooks and Mariah Carey. So it is with Target's annual seasonal playlist celebrating the magic of Christmas, targeting (so to speak) the little things in particular. Notable appearances are made by Best Coast/Wavves, Guster and Coconut Records- a moniker for actor Jason Schwartzman's solo project.

13. Tift Merritt, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" (2010) - Tift Merritt is a laid-back, female singer-songwriter in the same vein as 60s/70s folk artists Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris who has recently come to my attention. A burned copy of her latest studio album, See You on the Moon, was presented to me a while back with a bonus Christmas track included. It fits in really well with the general atmosphere of her record- a mellow approach to the holiday standard that gives it a little bit more of a somber, real feel. "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams."

12. Holiday Inn (1942) - An old black-and-white musical film about two guys, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, who decide to convert Bing's farm into a concert venue only open on holidays. It's a feel-good story with plenty of romance and charm, and it features the song "White Christmas," classically mistaken to originate in the subsequent film, White Christmas. The movie is one that I distinctly recall appreciating as a kid, and it's definitely one to revisit at Christmas time, as it is a very seasonal movie that practically demands to be watched alone on a late winter night.

11. The Band, "Must Be Christmas Tonight" (1977) - It's always fun when I discover that a favorite band of mine has a Christmas song out there somewhere. This one in particular was included on The Band's final studio album, Islands, but it has an even better an alternate take appended as a bonus track to the end of Northern Lights - Southern Cross. It's simply a fast-tempo description of Jesus' birth in the stable from the point of view of a mere shepherd, featuring Rink Danko on vocals, lending the song a little more sincerity and soul.

10. Home Alone (1990)/Home Alone 2 (1992) - A lot of people forget amidst all the comedic sabotage and hijinks set up by the movies' lonely and haunted protagonist, Kevin, that these movies are centered around Christmas. Not only do they depict how Kevin's family accidentally desert him on two Christmases in three years by traveling to another country, but they also focus heavily on commonly-experienced familial themes like love, unity, forgiveness and comfort. Take the scene in Home Alone when Kevin walks around his neighborhood and wistfully observes other families enjoying their night together, or in Home Alone 2 when Kevin prays to God under the giant tree on Rockefeller Square that all he wants, if nothing else for the rest of his life, is to see his mom and tell his family he's sorry. The first two installments of the Home Alone series are, as one Youtube member described, "touch warming" accounts of the importance of family, though personally, I always related more to Kevin's younger cousin Fuller.

9. It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - Yeah yeah, I know everyone always lists Frank Capra's holiday masterpiece as an essential component of Christmas, but hey, it's a wonderful movie, and it takes place on Christmas. But what's brilliant is that, although it's hailed as a Christmas classic, most of the movie doesn't even take place on Christmas! It features a suicidal Jimmy Stewart and his guardian angel, Clarence, revisiting scenes in Jimmy's past that proved to be crucial, demonstrating how drastically they would be different if Jimmy had never lived. At the end, though, Jimmy breaks down and realizes how important he truly is and rushes home on Christmas Eve to find his family and friends all gathered together to celebrate the festivities as well as their appreciation for him. The final, almost heart-rending scene features Jimmy's brother leading the crowd in an anthemic recitation of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," followed by the movie-closing "Auld Lang Syne." Can we do that sometime, guys? I want to sing that song with a group of people.

8. Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Canon" - I don't know if I have such a strong attachment to this song because it's a beautifully haunting amalgam of children singing over an adult orchestra, or because Pachabel's "Canon in D" is the best song I've ever played and memorized on the piano. In any case, I always strain to hear this song played on the radio between Thanksgiving and Christmas because it's so rarely played and it's so pretty. I used to have visions of performing this song as a student body at my grade school's Christmas program, settling instead on bizarrely doing White Christmas in the spring, which we really did.

7. Bob Rivers, "The 12 Pains of Christmas" (1988) - Now here's a song that never fails to be played at least ten times a day on any given Christmas radio station, but I love it anyway. Bob Rivers is a bit of a comedian when it comes to creating music, and here he takes a modern, pessimistic spin on the traditional "12 Days of Christmas." Who doesn't relate to frantic adults dreading dinner with their in-laws, or to the people who are driven mad by countless charities, or to their dad, literally and figuratively, blowing a fuse trying to hang festive lights? "FINE *whack* YOU'RE SO SMART *whack* YOU RIG UP THE LIGHTS!"

6. The Office Christmas episodes (2005, 2006) - The Office is not one for spicing up typical daily office life with a few holiday-themed episodes sprinkled into the schedule. Seasons Two and Three in particular featured incredibly funny Christmas specials that are, at times, difficult to watch. In Season Two, for instance, Michael Scott is frustrated after receiving a hand-knit oven glove Phyllis makes him for the office's Secret Santa, so he proposes a "YAN-kee SWAP" instead, although each gift was picked out for a specific person. Season Three took things to a more depressing level, as Michael brings a pair of waitresses from Benihana to the office Christmas party, attempting to make one of them his girlfriend. The problem is, he can't tell which one is which (as he claims Asians "all look alike"), so he tags one of them with a permanent marker. What's great about the Office's Christmas specials is that, though they may start out sad and miserable, they always end with a raucous drinking party that allows the staff to let loose and learn to appreciate each other.

5. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - This movie focuses on a sexy, young Judy Garland and her family living in St. Louis as they anticipate the opening of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair. The children soon learn that the family will be relocating because the father's job to New York City, causing them to miss out on the Fair, as well as new found romances and friends and their familial roots in St. Louis. On Christmas Eve, Judy Garland's character, Esther, encounters her younger sister, Tootie, sullenly waiting for Santa Claus to arrive, to no avail. They begin discussing the upcoming move to New York, which has Tootie in tears of reluctance, so Esther attempts to comfort her by singing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," which immediately became popular after the film's release. This only further depresses Tootie, who runs out sobbing into the yard to bash in the heads of all of her snowmen in a distressed rage. It's enough to make you cry your eyes out, you feel so bad for her.

4. Bing Crosby and David Bowie, "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (1977) - In one of television's most bizarre collaborations, David Bowie appeared on Bing Crosby's last annual Merrie Olde Christmas special in 1977 to sing a song with old Bing. Apparently, he hated the song "Little Drummer Boy," which is what Bing ended up singing, so he co-wrote "Peace On Earth" with Ian Fraser, which he wound up singing over Bing's part. The song turned out quite lovely, and you'll find yourself singing Bowie's part over Bing's because the music swells and makes it so damn pretty. I can recall countless Christmas mornings watching this video in wonder as I simultaneously creamed my dad in Battleship.

3. The Jackson 5 Christmas Album (1970) - This is my favorite collection of Christmas songs of all time. It catches the Jackson 5 right in the middle of their insane popularity and success, and Michael on the very cusp of his beginnings as a solo artist with Motown Records. The album contains eleven songs, all of which are good, I believe, and some of the 5's renditions of popular Christmas songs themselves became standards, such as the energetic take on "Up On The Housetop," which has Michael listing all the things he and his brothers would like for Christmas. Others are a little slower and more conventional, featuring brother Jemaine on lead vocals, but are memorable nonetheless- one of my favorites being the album's opener, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."

2. ABC Family Harry Potter Weekend - It seems as if every other week is Harry Potter weekend these days. I believe, in all honesty, that I've experienced three of them while I've been away at school. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Although Harry Potter weekends are usually sporadic and arrive unpredictably throughout the year, Christmas is the one time of year that demands one to be included in ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas. Harry Potter, though admittedly a bit of a favorite of mine, like the aforementioned movies on this list delves heavily into commonly-understood themes of family, friendship, and affection, feelings typically evoked over the holidays. The movies even feature some memorable Christmas scenes, like the first time Harry gets real presents, or that time Harry and the Weasleys celebrate the holiday and Mr. Weasley's health at 12 Grimmauld Place. Unfortunately, none of these scenes are found on Youtube, so help yourself to a deleted scene from the Christmas portion of the Sorcerer's Stone.

1. Bob Dylan, "Must Be Santa" (2009) - Yes, Bob Dylan, a Jewish-born folk singer well-known for his late 70s/early 80s born-again Christian zeal, released a Christmas album last year! I actually went out and bought it, not only because I'm a fan of Dylan, but also because all of his royalties from the album's sales would go to Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK and the World Food Programme. I don't actually own a lot of his albums, so I figured I could make a little contribution here for a worthy cause. And you know what? To be honest, it's not half bad. It just sounds like an aging musician singing a bunch of popular Christmas carols, nothing outrageously jarring about the vocals. Although Dylan took a rather traditional approach to these songs (they sound more like they came out of the 50s than the 2000s), he decided to turn "Must Be Santa" into a frenetic, fast-paced polka, and it's pretty darn catchy (what other song blends a list of reindeer with a list of past presidents [both share Nixon]?). But then shortly afterward, Dylan released a video for the song- his first video in about ten years- and it's insane. Throughout the entire video, which takes place at the uproarious, drunken Christmas party you wish you could attend, Dylan awkwardly dances in and out of frame, even defying the laws of physics at times. Interspersed is a short sequence of a man inexplicably trying everything- throwing vases, swinging on chandeliers, jumping out windows, etc.- to evade a group of guys. At the video's close, as the man sprints past the front porch to freedom, Dylan and Santa, side by side, exchange shrugs and knowing glances that seem to say, "Some guys can't handle Christmas." It's the zaniest Christmas video out there, and it's one of the main reasons I'm excited about the holiday's imminent approach.