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An unlikely single, from an even more unlikely artist, yet perhaps exactly the kind of tune the world needs right now, Kaye’s “Christmas Is a Wonderful Time” is an uplifting acoustic ballad of an outsider awakening to finally feeling included with something that everyone else seems connected with.
Kaye ruminates, “Aside from the fact that I grew up in a Jewish immigrant family, so we only celebrated Chanukah, I’d had an awful experience when I was 8 years old at my first ever Christmas and kinda loathed it for most of my life.”
Kaye said he always felt that Xmas was for others and he didn’t feel included.
Tongue in cheek, he continues, “So for years I’d deride it as a period of anxiety that most of us were forced into by hegemonic consumerism, with a white-bearded, red-coated mascot tripping so hard he thinks he’s flying on reindeers & squeezing into billions of chimneys. hehe. But one year a Christmas miracle happened!” He exclaimed with a hint of cheekiness in his voice.
“You see, I was at my partner’s family’s house experiencing a wonderful family Christmas surrounded by generations of Indians and their multicultural partners.”
The multi-instrumental virtuoso then picked up his twelve-string guitar and penned the song in a matter of minutes.
“I was in such a heightened state by the good vibes that the tune just flowed out almost in an instant. That’s when I realised that Christmas no longer belonged to one religion or culture, but was an opportunity for us all to belong.”
Opening with a haunting middle-eastern melody into a celtic-like scale, which is a tilting of the hat towards the Abrahamic & Pagan cultural roots of this celebration, plucked from the timber and steel of a 12 string acoustic guitar, until a trip hop beat-laden groove makes the foundation for the catchy vocal chant.
It’s sonically reminiscent of the mystical explorations of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page merged with the feel-good melodic sensibilities of Coldplay.
This is that good-vibed tune that you’ll gladly put on repeat this festive season.
lyrics
Aye, Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny,
Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny it's true,
Christian, Muslim or Jew,
Buddhist, Atheist,
Tonight,
it doesn't matter if you
Are black or white.
Aye, Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny,
Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny this day,
Whether you do or do not pray,
To be right of to be wrong,
It doesn't matter anyway,
We all belong.
Aye, Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny,
Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny it's true,
Christian, Muslim or Jew,
Buddhist, Atheist,
Tonight,
it doesn't matter if you
Are black or white.
Aye, Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny,
Aye, Christmas is a wonderful time,
I cannot deny,
Aye, Christmas is a wonderful time,
credits
released December 10, 1974
Written, Produced, Recorded, Engineered, Mixed & Mastered by Nathan Kaye
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