Author: Tony

Christmas in the Air
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
The Christmas Attic (1998)

There comes a time when we’re on our own

Some times in life such a thing must be

But such a thing should not be known

This night

Continuing a theme that runs through many of the songs and stories presented of Christmas through Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s music, Christmas in the Air highlights how the Christmas season works with us and through our actions as we seek salvation at the end of the year.

There is a collective feeling that Christmas is about family and about coming together and about giving to those who are less fortunate. In the northern hemisphere this coincides with the time of year when the weather grows colder and the nights grow longer. A time when the darkness and despair overwhelm some of us. The darkness of the night, the darkness of the weather, the darkness of being far from the ones we love.

When the weather grows cold, we feel Christmas in the Air.

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

Mephistopheles
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Beethoven’s Last Night (2000)

THE GRAVEYARD IS FILLED WITH IMPORTANT MEN

WHO COULD NOT BE SPARED BUT WERE IN THE END

AND SO I WHISPER NOW IN YOUR EAR

In 2000, Trans-Siberian released their third album and first non-Christmas album, Beethoven’s Last Night, that supposes what it might have been like if Beethoven, on his last night on Earth was visited by Mephistopheles and his minions to collect his soul. Wanting to avoid eternal damnation, the bargaining begins, as does the story.

In this song we learn of the great deceiver and the argument he makes as to the legacy of all men. Death comes for us all, even the greatest of men who ever lived end up in the graveyard.

I absolutely love the relish of the role that Jon Oliva, original lead singer of Savatage takes in embodying the role of the Devil throughout the album.

Most people only know TSO for their Christmas music, but this story is just as magical in the way that it handles the last hours of who the mind behind TSO, Paul O’Neill describes as “the world’s first Heavy Metal rock star.”

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

Believe
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Night Castle (2009)

I wasted my time

Till time wasted me

Never wanted to go

Always wanted to stay

‘Cause the persons I am

Are the parts that I play

So as part of this little experiment, I’ve decided that, and the timing works out right, on each weekend day, I’m going to include a song that’s not from one of the Christmas Trilogy. This song is from Night Castle, though not part of the story of the album.

This song is a cover of a Savatage song, one from Streets (A Rock Opera). Part of me wanted to just post the lyrics to the song and leave that as my only statement. There is a lot of power and imagery to this piece and I think that there are so many ways you could take the meaning behind it.

Is it a song about faith? Is it a song about someone watching over you? Is it a song about a part of yourself that you’re trying to get back to. I think at different times in my life I’ve looked at this song in so many of these ways and more. We all have to grow up and sometimes we do it faster than we want to or faster than we should. That’s certainly part of the original story that it’s from.

I’ll be right there

I’ll never leave

All I ask of you

Believe

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

The World That She Sees
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
The Christmas Attic (1998)

Caught in this night

Pieces of light

Glitter and play for you

I first heard this song four years before I became a father and nine years before I had a daughter. I think I’m finally at about a point where I can say that I’ve only teared up about 50% of the time that I’ve heard this song because before I had them, this is how I dreamed it would be, and after I learned that it’s pretty much exactly how I still think of it.

The magic of the awareness of the first snowfall that they can really see and understand. The magic that they still feel because there is that waiting and wishing for a snow day.

There is something really special about a first snowfall. The first one you see, the first one of the year, it doesn’t matter. Little bits of ice floating through the sky and catching the light holds and alure to it, especially in the eyes of the young or young at heart.

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

Three Kings and I (What Really Happened)
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
The Christmas Attic (1998)

Now you all heard the story about Bethlehem

How the child was born and the three wise men

Heard the preacher tell it like the preacher does

But let me tell you, children,

That’s not how it was

The story of The Christmas Attic is one of a young girl who sets out to prove the truth of Christmas after being confronted by everyone around her, older children, even her parents, telling her what they believe to be the truth. At bedtime, instead of sleeping, she climbs into the attic to get a better view to see if she can spy the visitor that she believes will be visiting that night.

While there, she is gently nudged by an angel to investigate a trunk that was left in the attic. What she finds there weaves together many vignettes that are presented through the album.

I imagine that here she finds a child’s theme written about the story of the Three Kings. There is so much fun and joy in hearing about this child’s version of the events, likely translated from a story told to the child by their Grandfather, or some Great-Grandfather.

The late Daryl Pediford’s voice is so rich and magical in the telling that you get sucked in to this familiar, if slightly different, story about the child’s Great-great-great-great-great-great-grand dad and his role in saving the Kings on their way to Bethlehem. It couldn’t be the same though, they just couldn’t tell the story the way that it was, considering copies of the story would all had to have been written by hand.

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

An Angel Returned
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Christmas Eve and Other Stories (1996)

Hoping that we’ll all understand

Every dream is there in our hands

And for every bell

May they ring all through your life

The final track in the story that is Christmas Eve and Other Stories is a complementary piece book ending the album that began with An Angel Came Down.

The song steps through the stories and describes the things that the angel has brought back. The glow of a light, the heart of a song, the tear of a child, the wish of a soul… all things that we can’t just capture and hold on to. But we aren’t angels. And the angel brings them and presents them to God.

The story ends and bells ring in the new day, Christmas Day. And quite literally the angel learns, and we learn through him that every dream we want is within our hands, as he holds our dream and wishes in his hands.

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

Promises to Keep
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Christmas Eve and Other Stories (1996)

Yet another track from the first TSO album. There is a magic and a hope in each of the stories, but there is also a bit of darkness. As sweet and as precious as the voices that sing this song are, the lyric also speaks of the real truth of hope and dreams.

Are our dreams just a manifestation of the lives we already live? Are we just pretending to be kind because it’s Christmas? Are we more noble, more kind, more giving, more charitable because it’s Christmas? And even so… so what? Maybe the kindness and charity will rub off and make us all a bit better in the rest of our lives and for the rest of the year.

Do we only now see the kindness that is always there because we are looking for it now at this time of year more than any other time?

Christmas promises that the world is about to reset at turning of the year. Maybe it’s just the time for us to balance the scales of the things that we’ve done through the year. Or maybe Christmas really is magical. Does it matter?

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

An Angel Came Down
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Christmas Eve and Other Stories (1996)

And as he looked towards the earth

For the source of this sound

On that cold winter night

It was pulling him down

This song is the first song on the first Trans-Siberian Orchestra album. While Sarajevo 12/24 pre-dates this album, this song really sets the stage for the story of Christmas Eve.

Quite literally, an angel comes to Earth with a mission from God to find out the worth of everything that humanity had done since the birth of the son of God.

In the magic of this world, angels have the ability to hold onto things that no human can touch.

The tender majesty of the song sets the stage for the weaving together of a variety of stories that take place through the course of the album culminating in the book ending song, An Angel Returned, which, spoiler, I’ll be sharing here in a few days.

I love the idea that not only is this a mission, but also something that he becomes drawn into, being pulled down by the sounds that he hears from humanity below.

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO

Sarajevo 12/24
Savatage
Dead Winter Dead (1995)

I’m going to jump right in with day one and fill in the impetus for this along the way in the upcoming three and a half-ish weeks.

I’ve got a lot of love for rock and metal and progressive/melodic rock. As such, I was a fan of Savatage for quite a few years before their rock opera Dead Winter Dead was released in 1995.

The story of the album takes place amidst the Bosian War which was ongoing at the time the album was released. It tells the story of a Serb boy and a Muslim girl on opposite sides of the conflict, all from the point of view of a gargoyle on a belfry of a medieval church in the town of Sarajevo.

One of the through lines of the album is that there is an old man who sit in the square in front of the church and plays his cello. On one fateful night, December 24th, he’s in the square playing Christmas music…

I won’t say more about the fate of the boy, the girl or the cellist, but this song represents that moment in time, with war raging around them.

This song, and this part of the story crossed-over into Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s first album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories.

This was the first hit for the band and most people’s first introduction into the music of TSO. I thought that it was a fitting beginning to my little experiment in sharing 25+ songs from a band that I’ve enjoyed for more than twenty years.

To hear the full Twenty-Five Days of TSO Playlist on Google Play Music, click the link below.

Twenty-Five Days of TSO