Wednesday, December 27, 2017

THE TWELVE CLIPS OF CHRISTMAS - DAY 3: FRANKENSTEIN VS. SANTA

It's time to say those two little words that will most likely cause at least half of you to immediately run screaming for the hills. It's time to we said... Prog Rock!


For those of you who stuck around, I'm sure you noticed the strains of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel sneaking in there at some point. You know, most people can toss off the first verse of that old carol with no problem. Usually by the third verse, though, it's a good idea to have a hymnal around or someone's bound to get completely lost. It goes like this:

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave

Rod of Jesse is something of an obscure reference. It comes from older translations of Isaiah 11:1 where it states, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root." The verse is referring to a savior who will come from the line of Jesse, the man who would go on to father King David. From there, it doesn't take much to connect the dots from David to Jesus. So, basically, the Rod of Jesse is a reference that draws attention to how Jesus, through his family tree, fulfilled yet another Old Testament prophecy.

What does any of that have to do with Santa fighting Frankenstein to the strains of Prog Rock? Absolutely nothing that I know of. But hey, when you listen to Prog Rock, the mind, much like the music, tends to wander, so cut me some slack.

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