Saturday Flashback: Gregorian – A Spaceman Came Travelling

“You remember Gregorian.”

Tim: You remember Gregorian – they’re from Germany, and typically do covers of songs in a medieval chanting style.

Tom: For once, I actually do remember them. They… left an impression.

Tim: You’ll be ASTOUNDED to hear that they’ve made a Christmas album, cunningly entitled Christmas Chants. It’s hard to pick a stand-out track, largely because most of them are tedious and forgettable.

Tom: Like almost all Christmas songs. And almost all novelty Gregorian chant covers.

Tim: Cynical, but very true. However, there are a couple of gems on there. Try this.

Tim: It’s safe to say this has always been a somewhat ridiculous (albeit excellent) track, what with the whole reimagining of Jesus being from space, and the idea that something weird like God aliens impregnating a woman does indeed happen every couple of thousand years (genuinely, it came from a poem and everything).

Tom: I think my main complaint about this track is the phrase “light years of time”. Light years are a distance, damn it.

Tim: Top marks for pedantry. Reimagining the song as a Gregorian chant (which it definitely is and I won’t have you convince me any other way) doesn’t really do anything to change the ridiculousness – in fact, the ah-ah-ah-ah-etc almost sounds more suited here than with Chris de Burgh’s original, which basically amounts to yelling.

Tom: If you ignore the lyrics, it almost sounds like a genuine religious chant. I’ll give them that. But aside from that: just no.

Tim: Either way, though, guess we need to start preparing for those aliens.