I mentioned on Saturday that this year I’m trying to be more inclusive in my Advent celebration, so I’m going to the Caribbean for the source material, and the Staples Singers for the performance.
I’m more familiar with
a different version of this song—last year I gave you Harry
Belafonte singing “The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy”. That take is quite
upbeat; you can almost feel the soft sea breeze brush your cheek on it.
By contrast, “The
Virgin Mary Had One Son” is decidedly minor, and the R&B group here takes
that to its logical melancholy extension. In that, it reminds me a bit of “Mary
Was the Queen of Galilee”, which I gave you a few years ago.
It’s as though they’re reminding us that the journey begun under a star in Bethlehem will climax on a cross in Golgotha.
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