Picture this. It’s 2002. You went to the Scholastic book fair earlier tht day and rode the bus home to an empty house. You sit on the floor in front of your huge, 20 inch box TV and switch it to channel 3. Your favorite Nickelodeon sketch comedy, All That, is about to start. Life is good.
Some of y’all reading this weren’t born yet but that was my reality back in the day. On one particular day, there was a special musical guest at the end of the episode that I’d never seen before. I was seven years old so it’s not like I watched MTV music videos or had ever even been to a live concert. The internet was barely around too. So for years I never knew what any of my favorite artists looked like.
He was a boy
She was a girl
Can I make it anymore obvious?
Those words echoed throughout my living room and changed my life forever. The grunge, the necktie, the heavy music. I loved it all. I wanted to jump around. I wanted to punch a wall. I wanted to be a Sk8r Boi. But I was nowhere near coordinated enough to ride a skateboard. Plus I lived out in the woods so there was nowhere for me to ride even if I had a skateboard.
I just stuck with Tech Decks. They were mini finger skateboards. I think they still sell them at Walmart but I haven’t laid eyes on one since middle school. My favorite brand was of course Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse brand.
I figured if I couldn’t be a real skater or grunge dude, I could at least copy their attitude. Mostly that meant I went around not smiling ever and listening to bunch of alt-rock and Eminem CDs while I was in second grade. None of that will be surprising to anyone who knows me. I was kind of a weird child. But I grew out of it.
I think.
Anyway, as you can tell, I grew up listening to Avril Lavigne. There were a few years between her CD releases but each one had absolutely timeless hits. Complicated? I’m With You? I could go ten years without hearing those songs and still know every word.
After her first few hits, I didn’t hear much from her until about the end of high school when she came out with Wish You Were Here. Years later, a conspiracy was floating around that she was actually dead and had been replaced by a clone or something named Melissa. Slightly more believable than the flat earth theory. But just barely.
The reason I’m writing this post is because eighteen years after first hearing Avril Lavigne sing about rebellion and teen angst, I was surprised to find out that she recorded a song praising Christ the Lord. It’s a cover of What Child is This? and it’s so freaking good. A Christmas song! From Avril Lavigne! It’s not really a festive kind of song you can play to get the party started, though. It’s more of a song for when you’re chilling around the fire and drinking hot chocolate. It’s a song you can vibe to and get lost in.
But it sounds so good. The background static noise, the chains and bells, the choir. All that coupled with Avril’s beautiful voice makes this song the newest addition to my Christmas playlist on Spotify. And after you listen to it, it’ll probably be yours too.
The Christmas spirit is alive and well and so is Avril Lavigne. Sorry, Melissa.
Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira or on Instagram: @Death.Of.Hemingway
Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.
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