This One's About Cowbells, Not Sleigh Bells, But It's One of the Best SNL Sketches Ever
Every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, we open the vault to share a classic Saturday Night Live holiday-themed sketch to bring some fun and laughter to your holiday season. With Christmas now over and New Year's Eve just one day away I tried to find a funny SNL New Year's sketch, but there aren't any. Maybe that's because the show is typically on mini-hiatus from mid-December to sometime in January. Anyway, rather than run yet another holiday bit, I thought I'd share what to me remains one of the best SNL sketches of all time, the fabulous "Behind the Music" spoof of the recording of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" from Season 25 (2000), more commonly known as Christopher Walken's "Cowbell" sketch. It stars Walken as fictional music producer Bruce Dickinson, who repeatedly prods band member Gene Frenkle (Will Ferrell) for "more cowbell." Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon are also featured. Enjoy!
From my earliest memories, December 26 has been a day of decidedly mixed emotions. Sure, there are new toys and presents to enjoy, as well as a generous spread of leftover food and drink. And of course there are warm memories of the fellowship and fun of the preceding days. But there's also the let-down that invariably follows any big celebration, and for many of us age 16 and over the reality of the deferred costs incurred.
In many parts of the world, December 26 is celebrated as Boxing Day, which extends the merriment and postpones the inevitable. At this address we've chosen to mark the day in a more realistic if not sadistic fashion by sharing some of the very worst holiday movies available in what we call out annual Boxing Day Horror Show. Think of it as a bucket of ice water to the face after a warm night by the fire.
This year's selection is a Canadian flick with a space-age theme called "The Christmas Martian." It takes place in a small town in Quebec province, where bizarre things have been happening. Residents have been seeing strange objects in the sky at night. A local shopkeeper sees an odd-looking character stumble into his store, wolf down a bunch of snacks and run away. A taxi driver sees a funny-looking woman come out of a phone booth and fly off into the air. As the grown-ups begin to investigate, Frankie and Kathy discover strange looking tracks in the snow while out looking for a Christmas tree. The tracks lead them to a spaceship and a visiting Martian wearing a fishnet stocking on his face who tempts them with candy and introduces them to a world beyond our own. As Frankie and Kathy get to know their new friend, the adults in town make a muck out of everything — and on Christmas, of all days!
The story is bizarre, the dialogue is tacky, the special effects are awful — it's just the sort of thing you'd expect of our Boxing Day Horror Show!
The full video is no longer available on YouTube, but you can catch it for free for a limited time on Tubi, right HERE.
To set the stage, here's a review of what you're in for. Don't say we didn't warn you!
I hope everyone had a pleasant Christmas and that we've managed to prepare you for the necessary return to reality with another miserable holiday movie. Want some further punishment? Check out some of our previous Boxing Day Horror Shows by way of the following links:
It's Christmas Eve, and I imagine Santa and his helpers have begun their annual mission to bring joy and laughter to children around the world. Of course, Santa can't make it to every house in a single night. Let's hope the rest of us can do something to fill the gap and spread a bit of happiness as best we can.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Alec Baldwin Reprises His Famous Sales Role Motivating Elves in Glengarry Glen Christmas
Every Saturday from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day we like to crack open the video vault to share a vintage holiday clip from Saturday Night Live. This week's clip is from SNL Season 31 (2005) and features Alec Baldwin reprising his role in the powerful 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. In the movie, Baldwin plays a sales pro who was brought in to motivate a group of salesmen played by Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris. Here, he plays "an elf from the home office" sent by Santa to motivate a group of surprisingly lackadaisical elves. Watch for the moment when Baldwin mistakenly repeats one famous line from the original movie instead of the Christmas line in this holiday adaptation. The film was based on a successful play by David Mamet but despite boasting one of the most incredible ensemble casts ever assembled, was a commercial disappointment. Today, however, it's widely regarded today as a truly first-rate work, and this SNL sketch really measures up, too. Check back next week for our final SNL Flashback of the 2023 holiday season!
For the past few weeks we've been posting just a bit of background on each of the 37 tracks on my 19th and most recent holiday holiday mix, Christmas Cheer. Today, with two shopping days left to go before December 25, I'm proud to share some information about the final three tracks on the mix. I believe this is the earliest we've ever completed this task, and because we started early we were able to proceed at a pleasant and leisurely pace with nobody getting upsot. There's a lesson in the somewhere, though I'm darned if I can figure out just what it is!
Track 35 Yonder, The Sisterhood (1974)
Track 35 is the last of the song-poems on this year’s mix, and while it
appeared on an M.S.R. Records album titled "Christmas Album," the lyrics don't seem to have anything to do with December 25. Frankly, it’s not
immediately apparent just what they are about:
Yonder with a
village view sits a village queen
And around all
reading through planted with all colors of green
A little boy far
traveled,
Might also care to
travel back
With a seaboard,
crates and masts
He is educational,
years of more track
Towards yonder,
where all work is done
With harvest
enduring years
And more of
distribution begins where all reading is shown by far and nears
[Repeat both stanzas]
Where all reading is
shown by far and nears
Far and nears
The song is credited to The Sisterhood, a group of several female
singers who worked for the M.S.R. label. The lyrics are by a fellow named Thomas Jackson Guygax, Sr.,
a Springfield, Missouri resident who wrote at least ten sets of lyrics that
were ultimately set to music and released by M.S.R.
To say Guygax had an unusual style would be an understatement.
Many of his efforts read like a jumble of random words that tumbled out of a high-speed blender in no particular order — and yet . . . there’s a certain
weight, even majesty, to some of them.
The Sisterhood
Song-poem enthusiast Phil Milstein has speculated that English may not
have been Guygax’s first language, which would certainly explain the jumbled
syntax. Or maybe he just wrote to the beat of a different drummer.
In any case, I’ve grown rather fond of “Yonder” over the many years
since I first heard it. I guess I never really paid too much attention to the
lyrics, however, for it was only recently that I figured out that this isn't a Christmas
song at all. All M.S.R. had to do is include the tune on one of its several holiday releases and that was apparently all I needed to park it in an honored spot on this year's mix.
Before we bid adieu to M. Guygax, allow me to share another set of lyrics from one of his ten M.S.R. releases:
Thomas J. Guygax
A POET
(Thomas J. Guygax,
Sr.)
as recorded by Dick
Charles
A poet once sat
among his papers
Letters from here
and far across the sea
He scribbl'd with
his pencil a moment
Saying, "My!
what's happen'd to me?"
"Should I wrote
poetry or prose?
Heaven only knows!
I wish I had
something to write about
Then I wouldn't have
to sit here and pout
So let's call Jerry
and dance about."
I think that pretty much says it all, n’est-ce-pas?
Track 36 Happy Holidays, Robbie Robertson (2019)
I surprised myself by finishing this year’s mix in early September, roughly three months ahead of my typical schedule. The way I have to assemble
these things today makes it very difficult to make any changes to the mix once it's complete, so I really figured it was done until the first weekend in November when I happened upon this song on YouTube.
I knew instantly that I had to include it, so I removed what had been the
penultimate track (“The True Meaning Christmas,” by
Ambulances) and stuck this one in its place.
Robbie Robertson has long been one of my favorite artists, and news of
his death this past August cast a long shadow over 2023 for me — a year that
started off on a sour note with the January 18 death of another of my all-time favorites, the legendary David Crosby. I used to try to include tracks by those artists I really liked who’d passed each year but discontinued the practice because the lists of
departing celebrities were beginning to get too long. But I certainly wanted to
honor Robertson and this is a terrific and appropriate track to do it with.
Recorded during the sessions for his last solo album, Sinematic (2019), “Happy Holidays” is Robertson’s playful attempt at
pointing out the yin and yang of the modern holiday season.
“We love Christmas and the holidays,” Robertson said in statement
quoted in Rolling Stone. “[They] brings good cheer, and also stress and
depression, so I wanted to do a song that celebrates both sides and have a
little fun.” This is evident from the very first verse:
Please don’t leave
Old Saint Nick
Too much milk and
cookies
’Cause by the time
he gets round to us
He won’t be able to
get
His fat ass down the
chimney.
Proceeds from the song were donated to the American Indian College
Fund. Robertson himself had indigenous roots, as his mother was part Cayuga and
part Mohawk, and two of his six outstanding solo albums focus on Native American themes.
I was familiar with Robertson’s work as a member of The Band but became a really big fan with the release of his first self-titled solo album in 1987. I loved the video for the first single off the album, “Somewhere Down the Crazy River,” which was directed by Martin Scorsese. I was also wowed by Robertson’s appearance on Saturday Night Live around that same time, which featured the rock song “Testimony” that he recorded with U2.
He
also worked closely with Martin Scorsese, scoring a series of the famed
director’s biggest films. Shortly before his death, Robertson completed the
score to Scorsese’s latest release, Killers of the Flower Moon.
Robertson was one of a kind, and he’ll be sorely missed.
This year's mix goes out pretty much the same way it came in, with an excerpt from the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. This track features Cher singing her version of the 1969 song "One Tin Soldier," written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter and originally recorded by the Canadian pop group The Original Caste. It was later recorded by the group Coven for the 1971 Warner Brothers film "Billy Jack." Cher's version begins with her singing an excerpt from the classic carol "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," followed by Cher singing Coven's version of the song over a
video created by animator John David Wilson:
I remember loving this song as a child, although I recall it took me a few listens to understand its principal message. It's profoundly sad to think that 50 years later we're no closer to world peace than when the song was first released.
Well, that's it, folks. I hope you've enjoyed many of these tracks and that you have a most enjoyable holiday with family and friends!
President
and Mrs. Barack Obama Record a Holiday Greeting to the Nation to Mark Their
First Christmas in the White House
I guess Donald Trump misspoke when he alleged that neither President nor Mrs. Obama ever said "Merry Christmas" during their tenure in the White House.
There's one cherished holiday tradition I've really missed over the past nine years, and it's the one that ended when The Late Show with David Letterman went off the air in 2015. For a span of 28 years, from 1986 until 2014, Darlene Love appeared on the final Letterman show before Christmas 21 times to sing her classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." Recorded in 1963 for the iconic album "A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector," it's my favorite Christmas song of all time.
Well, it's not quite the same, but Letterman reunited briefly just the other day with Love, his former band leader, Paul Shaffer, and executive producer Barbara Gaines, to share their memories of this former holiday tradition:
Love first appeared with Letterman in December 1986, when his show was on at 12:30 a.m. on NBC following Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. She returned in 1994 after Letterman moved his show to CBS and appeared every year of its CBS run save for 2007, when a writers' strike preempted most original programming. I didn't watch much late night TV during those years, but I always tried to watch Letterman's final broadcast before Christmas to see Love perform.
There were two other traditional components to the last pre-Christmas show each year. First, Paul Shaffer regaled folks with his story of the appearance of William Conrad, the star of TV's Canon, on the Sonny and Cher Christmas show. Next, Jay Thomas was usually on hand to tell his famous Lone Ranger story. Sadly, Thomas died several years ago and therefore missed this week's reunion. Shaffer did tell his William Conrad story at this year's get-together.
For those others who loved this late night Late Show tradition, super fan Don Giller has created a lengthy tape featuring all of Darlene Love's appearances and other related material that's well worth watching.
Be sure to check out Giller's written description of the video on its YouTube posting page HERE.
Thanks to Don Giller and to all who are responsible for this wonderful tradition and for this year's reunion!
It's almost time for one of our favorite holiday traditions — the annual Sound Opinions Holiday Spectacular, featuring offbeat holiday music expert Andy Cirzan. Andy's been making his annual holiday mixes for even a good bit longer than I have; in fact, it was Andy's work that inspired me to attempt my own pale imitations. Each year in December, Andy's the featured guest on the weekly radio show Sound Opinions to unveil his annual mix and talk about unusual holiday music.
As luck would have it, Andy's latest mix and the corresponding Sound Opinions Holiday Spectacular both focus on holiday song-poems, which is also the theme of my latest mix, Christmas Cheer. In fact, the first song featured on the Sound Opinions show is "Snowman," which can also be found on Christmas Cheer. A preview of this year's Spectacular appears below, along with links to hear or download the entire show.
Sound Opinions is a weekly show where people who love music
can come together, make discoveries, debate, learn about pop culture, engage,
have fun and find new ways to further enrich our lives through music.
Whether you're an expert, or just a casual fan, Sound
Opinions is your source for smart and engaging music criticism and
conversation. Each week on the show, nationally respected rock critics Greg Kot
and Jim DeRogatis interview artists, talk about pop culture and music industry
news, review new record releases and give trends a historical context. And,
because on Sound Opinions, "everyone's a critic," listeners are
invited to join in the debate.
Sound Opinions is distributed nationally by PRX. Sound
Opinions can be heard on stations across the country and online at
SoundOpinions.org.
Christmas music continues to dominate Billboard's Hot 100 again this week, capturing eight of the Top 10 spots on the latest chart. Unfortunately, Mariah Carey has returned to the #1 spot with her hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You." I admit it's popular, but I don't like her and I don't like her song. Not much I can do about it, unfortunately.
On a brighter note, "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)," by Darlene Love, has moved up three spots to #18. If this were a just world, Darlene would be sitting at the top of the chart!
I'm back with the next three songs from this year's mix. The end is now in sight!
Track 32 Snowman, Bob Gerard (1978)
Track 32 is another song-poem called “Snowman,” which was released in 1978
on the Tin Pan Alley label. The song is performed by Bob Gerard, who seems to
be competing with his bass player to see which one could sound the flattest.
The lyrics don’t win any prizes either; in fact, it’s hard to imagine anyone
paying to have these words set to music:
I made a little
snowman,
He was cute as could
be,
I made him by the window,
So he could look at
me.
Next morning when
the sun came,
And he took a little
peek,
I saw the snowman
wink at me,
And tears ran down
his cheeks.
[Instrumental]
[Repeat earlier
verses]
Bye, bye, snowman!
See you again!
Goodbye!
Mercifully, the song lasts for only 93 seconds. That doesn’t sound very
long. But try playing it with your eyes closed while blocking everything else
from your mind. When you’re truly being tortured, a minute and a half can seem like an
eternity.
The
final celebrity holiday greeting on this year’s mix is from Tony
Bennett, who died this year at the age of 96. Providing a complete biography
or even an appropriately detailed appreciation is really beyond the scope of
this blog, but I sure know he was an extremely talented singer
and performer who also seemed like a thoroughly decent man. He was certainly a
prolific recording artist. Bennett released 61 studio albums in his 69-year career,
including at least three Christmas albums:
Snowfall:
The Tony Bennett Christmas Album (1968); Christmas with Tony Bennett
and the London Symphony Orchestra (2002) and A
Swingin’ Christmas (2008). Each of these offers music with Bennett's signature sound, and all three are likely to brighten up any holiday gathering with memories from times gone by.
Track 34 The Day Snowflakes Were Born, The M.S.R. Singers (1978)
This year’s mix contains a number of song-poems, and, as a result, I’ve
had several people ask me about my interest in this particular oeuvre. One
friend asked bluntly, “Aren’t you just trying to make fun of the poor folks who
wrote these awful lyrics?” Actually, that’s not it. Some of the lyrics are
pretty awful, but many of them aren’t bad at all — and most of them offer a
glimpse of real life that commercial releases miss altogether. If I had to
guess, I’d say most song-poem fans are more contemptuous of the companies that
churn out the typically half-baked arrangements than of the poets who put their
souls into the words of each song. Track 24 is one of those rare offerings where
the tune is every bit as appealing as the message. This is a song-poem I truly
love, and while there are elements that are slightly amusing I’ve been
listening to it for years and genuinely enjoy it each time.
This song was originally released in 1978 and achieved considerable
recognition some 20 years later when it was featured in the 2003 documentary “Off
the Charts: The Song Poem Story,” which was broadcast multiple times on
many PBS stations. It was also recorded and frequently played live by the
Boston band The Weisstronauts. There aren't many song-poems that were recorded and or played by other bands, although as Christmas music collector Andy Cirzan has pointed out, another is the classic "Rudolph Pouts," which was recorded by Mary White (the original) and Israfel's Son (the remake). Which version is more enjoyable? Darned if I can say. They're both awesome.
Only three more tracks to go, and just five more shopping days until Christmas!
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Weekend Update's Stefon Offers Tips for a Thrilling New York City Holiday
This week's Saturday Night Live Holiday Flashback features popular Weekend Update City Correspondent Stefon (Bill Hader) with tips for holiday travelers looking to have fun in the Big Apple. Host: Seth Meyers.
With only nine days to go until Christmas, we're getting into the shank of the holiday season. I guess it's only fitting then to discuss several tracks that represent the kind of material I had in mind when I first started putting these mixes together during the first few years of the current millennium. My earliest collections were filled with the tackiest and most grating stuff I could find. Most of the evidence of those original efforts has been destroyed, thankfully, but they didn't include many tracks you'd willingly listen to twice. Over time, I've come to include a more balanced mix of material, but I still sprinkle a little dreck in each mix for flavor, and today we're going to look at three of the dreckiest cuts from Christmas Cheer.
I’ve written before about WFMU-FM, which for around ten years
offered a treasure trove of internet oddities on its wonderful Beware of
The Blog website. I discovered this tune via the first iteration of WFMU’s
365 Days Project, which offered up a unique and typically
bizarre aural track each day throughout 2003 It was sufficiently popular and
successful that they ran another series in 2007.
Longtime WFMU contributor Dancin’ Dave offered the following introduction to “Merry Christmas,
Elvis” back on December 23, 2003:
We all know that
Nashville is a music town and Nashville kids get into music early. They have
"been playin" since they’s babies, get work before they’re two.' For
singers, it seems to be about age nine when the urge to perform kicks in.
(Although it’s probably the parents who have the urge and not their kids.)
Yes, there’s nothing
they like better in Nashville than a tiny little girl who sings country music.
She doesn’t actually have to sing well. After all, she is only nine. But she
gets up there and sings her little heart out, God bless her.
I have collected a
half dozen singles by these "Little Girls From Nashville' and each one is
a crime against nature. (See also "Happy Birthday Jesus” by Little Cindy
on November 2nd, number 306, and anything you can find by Rita Faye.) The girls
don’t have good voices, the songs are sickeningly treacly, and the lyrics often
involve God or the Easter bunny. It all adds up to a perfectly insufferable
record.
The gem I present
for you now has been hand-picked as the worst offender, perhaps the awfullest
45 I own. Released in 1978 on the Safari label, just a year after the passing
of The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, this one has it all: Cloying sentiment, a message
to a recently deceased celebrity, and a holiday theme! All wrapped up in two
minutes and 31 seconds of pure joy.
You may be tempted
to listen to the first minute and say "Okay, I’ve heard enough.' But I
implore you, listen all the way to the end. There’s a spoken-word section that
sends the Cringe-O-Meter to 11.
Interestingly,
there’s a phone number listed on the label. Is it the number for Safari
Records? Or is it Michele Cody’s home number? I must admit, I looked it up.
It’s not listed as either. Besides, even if I could track down Michele she’d be
about 34, and she’s probably lost that adorable quality that you can only find
in only a talentless nine-year-old from Nashville.
Track 30 I Want Kristy for Christmas, Craig Malon (1979)
I’ve got
really mixed emotions about this track, friends — and I’m still conflicted
about whether I should have included it in this year’s mix. On the one hand,
it’s the kind of tacky period piece that I usually love. The first time I heard
it I felt like I’d been magically transported right back to 1979. I suddenly
wanted to flip on an ABC Afterschool Special or catch an episode of Battle of
the Network Stars. On the other hand, this song is creepy as hell. I have no
idea who Craig Malon is and while I don’t mean to sound judgmental, what kind
of man would actually record a song about having a crush on a teenage TV
actress? Sometimes it feels like today’s standards are going to hell, but I’m
guessing this song would raise an awful lot more concern today than it did back
then — and that’s a good thing. So far as I can tell, this is the only tune
Craig ever recorded, and that’s probably OK, too.
Kristy McNichol
For younger
readers who likely have no idea who she is, Kristy McNichol was a popular child
actress in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s best known for her work on the ABC
series Family. This show was intended to be an honest depiction of a typical
upper-middle-class, suburban family with realistic characters and relatable challenges
and struggles. McNichol played the family’s youngest daughter, Buddy, and she
earned strong reviews for her work. She won Emmy nominations for Best
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series three years in a row and won in 1977 and
1979. In 1980 she was nominated for an Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
She appeared in over 20 movies from 1978-93 and had roles in more than a dozen
other TV shows. As this song suggests, McNichol was also a favorite in the teen
and celebrity press.
During the
1990s, McNichol stepped away from acting a couple of different times amidst
reports that her busy schedule and career pressures had taken a toll on her.
She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Sometime later she acknowledged
that a key cause of her difficulty was the stress associated with hiding her
sexuality. McNichol came out as a lesbian and said she hoped doing so would
help others who were afraid or being bullied. I suspect Craig Malon did not
celebrate McNichol’s announcement, but I wish her a very merry Christmas and
hope she’s finally comfortable being herself.
Track 31 I Want a Hee Haw Honey Under My Christmas Tree, Boxcar Willie (1978)
Finally, we’ve got one more track to share today that is — as a friend
of mine used to say — top-heavy with class. This one is something of an homage
to that classic down-home variety show Hee Haw, and while
there are a number of different versions of the song in circulation, I chose to
use the one by Boxcar Willie.
Minnie Pearl
I never really cared for Hee Haw much myself. I thought it was pretty
corny, the jokes seemed tired and I’ve never been all that crazy about most
country music. There was one thing about the show I did appreciate, and that
was the friendly sense of community and camaraderie found in the show. Co-hosts
Buck Owens and Roy Clark were as friendly and welcoming as they could be, and
the rest of the cast seemed to be relentlessly upbeat and gracious (if not
always funny). Minnie Pearl always stuck out most to me, no doubt because she
always seemed to wear a hat with the price tag still hanging from it.
I’m told the show was loosely based on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,
only with a country slant. Even as a kid I preferred Laugh-In, which seemed a
lot more topical and relevant. Growing up outside of Boston, the cornfield of Hee
Haw seemed pretty remote and foreign to me, and the cast struck me as dull and
dowdy compared to the quick-witted and “with it” folks who did the Frug at the
crazy Laugh-In parties. I even had a poster in my room featuring Arte Johnson's
character, German soldier Wolfgang ("veeeeery eeenteresting!"). I
couldn’t see myself hanging a poster of Minnie Pearl anywhere in the house.
I guess the other common element that both shows had was pretty women.
Owens and Clark surrounded themselves with good looking younger woman on most
episodes of Hee Haw, which is really what this song is all about. This is
another song that really wouldn’t get too far today, as it’s out of fashion to think
of women as sex symbols. I don’t think women ought to be objectified myself,
but I can’t pretend that it doesn’t happen or that men used to openly celebrate
that it did. In other words, I think of this song as a period piece that
reflects the different sensibilities that were prevalent 30 or 40 years ago.
Network television in the 1950s and ‘60s looked a lot different than
what we’re used to seeing in many respects. One of the key lines of demarcation
came with the “rural purge” of the early ‘70s largely orchestrated by Fred
Silverman, who was in charge of programming at CBS at the time. Data showed
that viewers of the many country-style shows on CBS were less responsive to
advertising than viewers of more sophisticated programs based in urban and
suburban settings. In response, Silverman axed a bunch of successful rural
shows including Petticoat Junction, Mayberry RFD, The Beverly Hillbillies, The
Jim Nabors Hour, Green Acres — and Hee Haw. They were replaced with such shows
as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show and The
Carol Burnett Show, all of which worked more effectively for the sponsors.
Throughout its inglorious 74-year history, the government of the former Soviet Union took a dim view of organized religion. Karl Marx famously called religion the "opium of the masses," and Soviet leaders were smart enough to see that communism would fare better without the church around as competition. Yet don't ever count the church out too soon. Russian churches are drawing larger crowds than ever and there's evidence that even during the Stalin years significant numbers of Soviet citizens continued to worship and celebrate Christmas.
I recently ran across this collection of Soviet Christmas songs, which reminds me of the many horrors the Russian people have had to endure over the centuries. I fervently hope their latest affliction is removed from power soon.
Here's a little background on three more of the tracks from my latest holiday mix, Christmas Cheer.
Willie Nelson at His 90th Birthday Concert
Track 26 Holiday Greetings from Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson celebrated his 90th birthday this past April, and while I
can’t claim to be especially familiar with his extensive catalogue, I really
like a lot of the stuff I’ve heard. Beyond that, there’s no disputing that he’s
a bona fide original — a genuine national treasure. From where I sit, his work
ethic, activism and honesty deserve great respect.
A long description of Nelson's myriad contributions to our culture and politics is probably beyond the scope of this blog, and it would take more time than I have available to do justice to the task. I'm just happy he's still "on the road [again], doing well and doing good.
Track 27 Christmas Time for Sailors, Green Monkey Christmas Chorale (2019)
Forty years ago, a Seattle musician named Tom Dyer started a fledgling
underground record label with the idea of producing and promoting some of his
city’s formidable underground music artists. The label, known as Green
Monkey Records, has never been terribly successful financially, but it’s
a gritty little competitor that sprung back to life after an eight-year hiatus in
2009 and is still releasing new music today (albeit from its new location in
Olympia). The label boasts a number of local bands whose sound has been described
as "post-punk/pre-grunge Seattle" and "indy pop music—good
honest, ballsy, delicate, garage-y, punky, folky, mildly trippy pop music."
Since its resurrection 14 years ago the label has perhaps become best
known for its annual holiday compilations,
proceeds of which benefit MusicCares, an industry-based charity
that supports struggling musicians with health care and other basic needs.
Featured artists include such Green Monkey artists as The Green Pajamas,
Donovan’s Brain, The Queen Annes and, of course, The Green Monkey Christmas
Chorale, featuring Dyer himself. That’s the crew that’s responsible for this
wonderful holiday sea shanty, which, as you can see, comes across even better
on video:
Track 28 We Want the Best for You, Radio Station Jingles
This little jingle comes from a short collection calledHoliday
Radio Station Christmas Jingles, Volume 2, which I found on YouTube. It’s
from the Pirate Radio U.S.A. YouTube channel, which features specific audio files collected over the
years by Pirate Radio U.S.A., a non-profit internet radio station that broadcasts
occasionally on the Mixlr application. The content available on this channel is stated to be for educational purposes
only.
YouTube hosts a wide variety of holiday radio promos, bumpers and
fillers, as well as lengthier tracks such as holiday recordings played in
department stores and shopping centers in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Links
to just a couple of these offerings appear below. If you check them out, be
sure to read some of the comments posted about these nostalgic soundtracks. While
YouTube comments can sometimes be rather mean-spirited (they’ve cleaned them up
a lot in recent years, thankfully), these comments are mostly touching and
bittersweet, pining for the simpler times of 30 or 40 years ago. I can certainly
understand the appeal.
It was good to see Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 again this week, and only a part of my happiness comes from the fact she kept Mariah Carey out of the top spot. Six of the ten top tunes are old Christmas songs again this week, and my favorite holiday song of all time, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," by Darlene Love, is up six spots to #21 on this week's chart!
I'll be back soon with thoughts on the nine remaining tracks on this year's mix. Stay warm and dry and be of good cheer!
It's been about a week since I've posted information about the tracks of my 19th and latest holiday mix, Christmas Cheer, so I'd say it's high time to get back to the task at hand. Here's a little background on three more of this year's tracks:
Track 23 First Snowfall, The Coctails (1993)
I first heard this pretty little tune on A
John Waters Christmas, a compilation of oddball holiday tunes curated by
the infamous director of such films as Polyester (1981), Pink Flamingos
(1972) and Female Trouble
(1974). I went to college in Baltimore, where Waters is a genuine celebrity,
and listening to his holiday collection made me feel like I was an undergraduate again, roaming
the streets of Fells Point and Waverly.
Kitty's Lounge in Baltimore's Waverly Section
I loved Baltimore in the late 1970s. I'd grown up in a beautiful town called Dover, Massachusetts, about 45 minutes southwest of Boston, It was an idyllic community with thousands of acres of protected woodlands and very few major problems. Baltimore was different in so many ways. There was poverty, crime, racial tensions, decay; but there was also excitement and character. The world just beyond our campus offered the promise of adventure and danger, and I resolved to spend as much time in it as possible. It opened my eyes to what was then a whole new world to me.
Along with two friends, I applied for a cashier position at the local Rite Aid pharmacy. Applicants were required to take a polygraph test as part of the hiring process, which I apparently passed. To my surprise, my two friends didn't, but despite my disappointment and a certain amount of trepidation I took the job. I'm glad I did. I probably learned more in the 20 hours I worked at the Rite Aid each week than I did in class, and I wound up making some very good friends among the local community. In my senior year I became an intern for the area's neighborhood council and wrote my senior paper on the role such groups can play in less affluent urban communities. I learned a great deal, and some of the lessons were painful. I once saw a purse snatching on Greenmount Avenue and chased the thief nearly a dozen blocks to retrieve what he'd taken. The pride I felt returning the elderly victim her purse soured a little when she confessed that all she had in the purse were a few Rite Aid discount coupons and around a dollar in loose change. I also befriended another elderly woman who lived in a pitiful single room and often ran through her monthly income well before the end of the month.
Two of my Rite Aid Coworkers, 1979
“First Snowfall” is probably the tamest song on A
John Waters Christmas — a sweet instrumental number that I’m told
features someone playing a hand saw. The Coctails were a Chicago-based band
that formed when the members were all attending the Kansas City Art Institute.
They were active from around 1988 through the mid ‘90s and regrouped several
times after that for brief reunion shows.
The band consisted of members Archer Prewitt, Mark Greenberg, John
Upchurch, and Barry Phipps. While they were often described as a lounge band —
due, in part, I'm guessing, to their name — The Coctails described themselves as a “garage
jazz” band. They were rather prolific during the seven or eight years they made records, and their music actually included songs of many different styles.
The members were also heavily into the visual arts, and they even created a print shop at one point where they made posters, cards and such to promote the band and create other projects. A Japanese company later marketed a set of four action figures depicting the members of the band, and a book was published featuring the album covers and promotional materials created by the group.
This one's another song-poem, from the album Peace is a Song to Cherish, which featured tunes by two different M.S.R. acts: Bobbi Boyle and the M.S.R. Singers and Dick Kent and The Lancelots. M.S.R. was one of the biggest of the song-poem mills that operated in this country throughout the 1960s. '70s and '80s. The company name comes from the initials of its founder, Maury S. Rosen, and it's been estimated that they produced more than 3000 45s and something like 300 compilation albums before winding down in 1983. Boyle, who sometimes went by the name Bobbi Blake, was one of the group of M.S.R. staff who comprised The Sisterhood, M.S.R.'s go-to group of female Singers.
I first heard this song on one of the terrific Mondo Diablo podcasts from Hellbound Alleee, an atheist and song-poem enthusiast from Wenatchee, Washington, whose real name was Alison Randall. I used to love listening to her podcasts, which covered a wide spectrum of issues and included lots of diverse holiday music each year. The Christmas podcasts in particular were exceptionally well-curated, and it's clear she put a great deal of work into each show. Sadly, Alison died of cancer in 2019. Her husband, Francois Tremblay, has been posting her podcasts on her YouTube channel so they can be more readily accessible. You might want to stop in a take a look around. Start with any of the Christmas shows and you'll probably wind up listening to some of the other ones. Allee was outspoken, genuine and fearless, and she's missed by many, including me.
Like so many of the old song-poems, there isn't an awful lot of information available about "Let Us Be Gay." I don't know who wrote the words that M.S.R. set to music, but I'm sure wherever the lyricist now resides, he/she is pleased to learn that we're listening to her work as the world falls apart around us in 2023.
You can hear "Let Us Be Gay" in the player, below, starting at around 1:09:49. Thanks to WFMU-FM for providing the player and its content, which features a collection of nostalgic and offbeat holiday tunes from Bill Mac's show The Zzzzzero Hour from December 25, 2010. Enjoy!
Track 25 My Christmas Dream, Dian Rosamond (1975)
I can't remember where or when I found this holiday song-poem and the only information I have to offer is that it was released on the Halmark (sometimes spelled "Hallmark") label.
I did discover that there is a woman named Dian Rosamond who apparently wrote a short story titled "Obsession," that looks to me to be rather odd. I have no idea whether there's any connection to the singer of "My Christmas Dream," but who knows?
Here's the song, for your holiday enjoyment:
I recently learned of another Halmark song-poem that marries a different set of lyrics to the same tune and arrangement as "My Christmas Dream." It's called "The Christmas Message" and is credited to Raymond Spence, which is interesting because the vocalist is a female who sounds exactly like the woman singing "My Christmas Dream." I discovered the second of these two songs courtesy of Bob Purse's excellent blog titled The Wonderful and the Obscure. I sure hope they didn't charge full-price to both lyricists for the same tune.
That's all for now. I'll be back with more sometime soon.
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