Not so Cold

The Glee Christmas album came out yesterday. I’m rather in love with it. How could I not be? However, I’m even more enamored than I anticipated. When asked what my favorite Christmas song is, I reply ‘Oh Holy Night.’ Partly because when sung by the right person, it is one of the most haunting and beautiful song ever sang. Plus, when I was a kid, there was this Folger’s commercial where this little boy (or girl, don’t remember) is staring out the window, sad and forlorn, as the rest of the family sings Christmas carols. Then, miraculously, the older brother that he/she was missing comes back from war just in time to walk in the door and sing the solo part of ‘Oh Holy Night’ much to everyone’s amazement. No one is more thrilled however, then the little sibling. Even as a kid, the commercial made my cry, and it has stuck with me, I can’t hear that song without experiencing that emotion. However, that song has been overdone by too many people. I don’t think you should be allowed to sing that song unless your voice is registered at the appropriate quality. Due to stupid people who think they can sing, that song has lost most of its glimmer to me. All this to say, despite what I tell people, my true favorite Christmas song is “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Let’s not think too deeply about what that says about me…
This is one of the songs on the Glee album. While this song too is overdone, it is easier to sing, so it has yet to be tainted (hehe, just said taint) to such as sour degree. I was afraid Glee would change it too much or make it all artsy and lose the simplistic cadence and harmony that I love so much. They didn’t. The song was nearly half over when I realized, that I couldn’t place who was singing the songs. The rest of the songs I’d heard, it was pretty easy to tell which character was singing, but this one, I couldn’t tell. The male part had a beautiful voice, but I couldn’t bring up a face. The female voice was perfect for the song, but different than any girl I could come up with from the show. It was rather masculine, smoky maybe. My all time favorite person to sing this song is Lauren Becall. While I think she is one of the most gorgeous women of all time, let’s face it, her smoker’s voice makes her sound like a trucker on steroids. However, I find her voice so sexy on that song—go figure, I’d let a trucker ‘sing’ to me. I digress. As I listen to Glee’s version of the song, I realize that the reason I can’t place the female’s voice is that it isn’t a woman (at least I assumed—I doubted they called Lauren to come assist). As I listened as they warbled about delicious looking lips and how one of them has a vicious aunt (LOVE this song, come on, it doesn’t get better than singing about foreplay and family drama), it crashed upon me who is singing: Kurt and his boyfriend (the couple I blogged about last week) were singing one of the few Christmas love songs in existence. I couldn’t quite accept that thought. Glee is pretty progressive, sure. But turning a classic, a Christmas classic into a gay love/lust duet? Surely they knew better than to cross that line.
After research, I found out my ears hadn’t deceived me. I know these are little battles to most people. Things that are small and trivial. To me, they seem like gigantic mile stones. Moments that give me hope—both for what may lie ahead in my future—but even more for the next generation of gays following. Of course, I haven’t been able to stop listening to it. It was probably the best Christmas gift I could get. Well, outside of The Return that will never happen, all my debt getting paid, and a publishing contract. You know, outside of that.