Thursday, November 26, 2015
Enter Into His Gates With Thanksgiving
I've posted during several other Thanksgiving seasons on The Mouse and the Mayflower. The finest legacy of this classic Rankin-Bass TV special (first broadcast in 1968) is the wonderful songs by Maury Laws and Jules Bass. You can read a report on the only recording of these beautiful songs ever released —and it was a promotional recording, at that, never released to the public—by Greg Ehrbar as part of his not-to-be-missed weekly Animation Spin column at Cartoon Research. (The record was only released to employees of the Gas company, which as you can see below, was the sponsor of the premiere broadcast of the "delightful new musical tale" on NBC.) Two of the most The Mouse and the Mayflower beautiful songs are mashed up for the big climax, for in telling of that first Thanksgiving feast, the animated special showcases the lovely "November," leading into a reprise of the majestic "Mayflower," all richly sung by the always excellent Tennessee Ernie Ford. You can see and hear that part of the special here. The special also incorporates Psalm 100, proclaimed by Tennessee Ernie Ford in his rich, expressive voice. Much has been made of the inclusion of a scripture reading in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and rightly so, but The Mouse and the Mayflower does it too. Here is what Ernie proclaims, a perfect "joyful noise unto the Lord" for Thanksgiving Day: Make ye a joyful noise unto the Lord. Come before his presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
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1 comment:
11/26/15
RobGems.ca Wrote:
Apparently, NBC wasn't so uptight about bible verses back in 1968 as the CBS executives were back in 1965 with the Charlie Brown bible passage recited by Linus Van Pelt. However, Charles Schulz insisted through and through firmly with the CBS brass about including that bible passage as well as including Vince Guaraldi's jazz music (the CBS brass wasn't too keen on that idea either. Schultz firmly kept putting his foot down with CBS to include the music. I'm glad he did.) Rankin and Bass may have not had too much trouble with NBC's board of directors for including bible verses in 1968, as NBC was conservative in those days, but today, unfortunately, NBC is so far-left with their politics that any cartoon company wanting to include bible verses in the dialogue would have a real hard time, due to meddling politically correct standards. What a difference 47 years can make with politics for a television network.
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