Silly Christmas Lyric Meme: Silver Bells

Last year I started a silly Christmas lyric meme and thought I would give it another shot with a different song to analyze because, well, just because, I heard a Christmas song that I've heard a thousand times before and it made me think . . . (feel free to play along and share your own silly thoughts about Christmas lyrics on your own blog)

The Rules: Pick a Christmas lyric that you've always had a question about and discuss it. Then either tag one or more people or either tag nobody and invite your readers to tag themselves and enjoy discussing the subject on their own.

The Song: Silver Bells (written by Ray Evans & Jay Livingston, sung by countless others . . .)

Lyrics In Question: "And on every street corner you'll hear: Silver bells, silver bells, it's Christmas time in the city."

The Comment: I know that there's a medical condition in which people perceive one sense as another, so they can perhaps smell colours, see sounds or hear physical stimulation. But apart from this rare disorder, I've always wondered how, in this song, you can hear "silver bells" on every street corner.

I mean, you should easily be able to hear sleigh bells or just some sort of bells in general -- but how, upon hearing them, does one know that they are silver?

Now I have a buddy with a specially trained and very sensitive ear. We'll call him Steve. He can detect subtle nuances in audio stimulus; so I'm considering doing an experiment and taking let's say 3 or 4 of the very same bells that give the exact same ring and painting them different colours, one of those colours being silver, of course, and seeing if he can tell the difference. I mean, if anyone can, Steve will be able to and will thus be able to put a rest to my pondering of these Christmas lyrics.

Tagging: Anyone who wants to play along. (Go ahead, don't be shy. Tag yourself. It feels good.)


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