1001 Other Albums<p><strong>Frost and Fire, Part 1 – SpaceAce Sunday Edition</strong></p><p>When I sat down to search for a streaming link for our next SpaceAce Sunday, I realized that we, in fact, have <em>two</em> albums on <a href="https://1001otheralbums.com/the-list/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The List</a> with the title <em>Frost and Fire</em>: The Watersons’ 1965 folk debut, and Cirith Ungol’s 1981 proto-doom/heavy metal debut. Given that (a) The Watersons’ album contains a few Xmas/Xmas-adjacent songs, and (b) I, like many of you, am rather ambivalent towards the holiday season at best, I wanted to offer up both albums at this time of year as if they were both Xmas albums, even if one is only partially an Xmas album and the other can essentially only be considered an Xmas album due to proximity, or, say, in the sense that <em>Die Hard</em> is an Xmas movie because it takes place on December 24.[1] In doing so, we can each choose for ourselves what level of holiday music we want to expose our ears to. And, because SpaceAce Sundays are clearly limited to Sundays, we will first spotlight SpaceAce’s <em>Frost and Fire</em>, i.e., The Watersons’ album, and then, on December 24, we will spotlight Cirith Ungol’s take on the title.</p> <p><strong>The Watersons – <em>Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)</em></strong>[3]<strong> (1965, UK)</strong></p><p>And so, today we go back to one of the first albums SpaceAce submitted to this project, number 481 in The List.</p><p>I think it’s fair to say that SpaceAce must’ve loved this band/family, seeing as this is the third album of theirs we’re looking at thanks to him. As noted in the liner notes by A. L. Lloyd[2] (who we met in a <a href="https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/08/11/spaceace-sunday-ewan-maccoll-a-l-lloyd-blow-boys-blow-songs-of-the-sea-1958-uk/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">previous SpaceAce Sunday</a>), this album collects traditional ceremonial songs, not just from around the winter solstice but from each season:</p><blockquote><p>Seasons of anxiety, seasons of joy. The common people had their rites of propitiation and triumph, older than the rituals of the Church and closer bound to their daily lives. This record takes us through a year’s calendar, displaying songs that accompanied these ceremonies, season by season…</p><p>When the Christian church arose, it ranged itself against the beliefs and customs of the old nature worship, and prudently annexed many of the seasonal ceremonies. Thus the critical time of the winter solstice, a rich period for pagan ritual, became the season of the Nativity of the new god. The season of the great spring ceremonies became the time of his slaughter and resurrection. So it happens that in many songs on this record pagan and Christian elements are inextricably tangled…it’s necessary to recall that behind most of these calendar customs and the songs attached to them lies nothing more mysterious, nothing less realistic, than the yearly round of work carried out in the fields…For it’s due to their relation with economic life, not to any mystical connection, that the song-customs have persisted right up to our own time.</p></blockquote><p>That’s the sort of Xmas songs I can get behind.</p><p>In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and, if you wish to listen to this <em>Frost and Fire</em>, let’s take a listen together. Otherwise, let’s meet back here Tuesday for a more metal take.</p><ul><li><a href="https://album.link/ca/i/1617141594" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Songlink: The Watersons – <em>Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)</em></a></li><li><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/241473-The-Watersons-Frost-And-Fire-A-Calendar-Of-Ritual-And-Magical-Songs" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Discogs: The Watersons – <em>Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)</em></a></li></ul><p>[1]To be clear, <em>Die Hard</em> is most definitely an Xmas movie. I will not be taking any questions at this time.<br>[2]The liner notes are reproduced in full <a href="https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/records/frostandfire.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.<br>[3]Note the cover of the US pressing that I’ve included here doesn’t include the subtitle found on the original UK cover, but this one is <em>so</em> much cooler looking (and, I believe, is the version SpaceAce owned). </p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/1001otheralbums/" target="_blank">#1001OtherAlbums</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/1960s/" target="_blank">#1960s</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/british-folk/" target="_blank">#BritishFolk</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/christmas-music/" target="_blank">#ChristmasMusic</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/folk/" target="_blank">#folk</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/folk-music/" target="_blank">#folkMusic</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/holiday-music/" target="_blank">#holidayMusic</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/listen-to-this/" target="_blank">#ListenToThis</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/music/" target="_blank">#music</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/music-discovery/" target="_blank">#musicDiscovery</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/musodon-2/" target="_blank">#Musodon</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/spaceace-sunday/" target="_blank">#SpaceAceSunday</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/the-watersons/" target="_blank">#TheWatersons</a></p>