Bells Will Be Ringing, Mark's Holiday Music Blog: Christmas Cheer

Friday, December 1, 2023

Christmas Cheer - Part 5

Each year in late November this blog rises from its slumber to present some basic information about the tracks on my annual holiday mix of songs and other ephemera. We do this over a period of about four weeks, typically covering several tracks each day. This year's holiday mix is called Christmas Cheer, and we've already discussed 13 of its 37 tracks, which leaves 24 more to go over the next 24 days. Today's post will examine Tracks 14 and 15. Let's get started!

Track 14
Christmas Messages from President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963)

This track is perhaps one of the most fascinating and troubling clips I’ve ever included in any of my mixes. It’s a short piece comprised of excerpts from two different recordings of our 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson, each taped within several weeks of his ascension to the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

The first excerpt is from Johnson’s formal remarks at a memorial service for the late president held at the Lincoln Memorial on December 22, 1963, exactly one month after the assassination. (Johnson suggests at one point that he was speaking on Christmas night, but that seems to have been inaccurate.)

Johnson’s remarks drew parallels between the lives and tragic deaths of Presidents Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, noting that both men made significant and lasting contributions to our nation that will be felt for many years to come. It was a very touching presentation.

The second clip shows a different side of Johnson. It’s an excerpt from a recording of a phone call Johnson placed to President Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline, on December 21, 1963 – approximately one month after her late husband’s assassination. Johnson called Mrs. Kennedy numerous times during December and January, and at least six of the calls were recorded. In this call, he seems to either be flirting with the former first lady or condescending to her as if she was a young child.

	Mr. Johnson:	You gonna come back and see me?
	Mrs. Kennedy:	(giggles nervously) Someday, I will . . .
	Mr. Johnson:	Someday?
		Give Caroline and John-John a hug for me? Tell them I’d like to be their daddy?
	Mrs. Kennedy:	I will.
	Mr. Johnson:	Goodbye
	Mrs. Kennedy:	Alright. Goodbye.

I’ve always found Johnson to be one of our most complex and confounding presidents, and this short conversation reminds me of the inner conflict and duality that defines his remarkable personality.

Raised in poverty in rural Texas, Johnson turned himself into a powerful and highly skilled political leader through hard work and force of will. When he agreed to join the Democratic ticket as John Kennedy’s running mate in 1960, Johnson was in his eighth year as Senate Democratic leader. Throughout Kennedy’s entire Senate tenure Johnson was perhaps the most powerful Democrat in Washington with far more influence than Kennedy. Yet Johnson envied Kennedy’s wealth, his suave sophistication and the respect he enjoyed from Washington’s elite. The ease with which Kennedy carried himself intimidated Johnson, who felt like a country bumpkin by contrast.

Following Kennedy’s death, Johnson feared he’d never be as loved and respected as his predecessor, so he tried furiously to surround himself with members of Kennedy’s inner circle in the hope their cachet would rub off on him. This was the impetus for the many calls to Mrs. Kennedy, I believe. He wanted to create the appearance that she saw him as a legitimate successor to her husband, and he worked tirelessly to woo her through the first half of 1964.

Unfortunately, Johnson’s clumsy style and lack of sophistication made him come across as horribly inappropriate. Can you imagine how Mrs. Kennedy must have felt hearing Lyndon Johnson volunteer to become her children’s new daddy?

The 1963 holiday season was a difficult one for the nation, but, of course most difficult for the late president’s wife and children. The grace and beauty of Camelot was giving way to something more like The Beverly Hillbillies.

Here's the complete track:

Watch film of the Memorial to JFK followed by the National Christmas Tree Lighting on 12/22/63

Track 15
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, by The Fab Four (2002)

Among the best of the many Beatles tribute bands is one called The Fab Four, formed in 1997 in sunny Southern California. The group includes a rotating cast of a dozen or more regular performers that tour in various permutations that sometimes include two different foursomes at once. In 2013, the group received an Emmy Award for their PBS special “The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute.”

In addition to touring, The Fab Four are known for their unique collection of songs that feature the lyrics of various classic holiday carols and songs in the style of well-known Beatles classics. These are presented largely in the form of three CD albums, two of which were released in 2002 (“A Fab Four Christmas” and “Have Yourself a FAB-ulous Little Christmas) and the third of which includes all the songs from both of these albums with a number of bonus extras (“HARK,” released in 2008).

I’ve included songs by The Fab Four in two of my previous mixes: “Silent Night,” which was featured on my 2014 mix “Is There Really a Santa Claus,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” which appears on my 2016 mix “Let It Snow!”

This year’s mix features the classic holiday carol “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” which is offered in the style of the Beatles’ hit “Baby’s in Black” from their album “Beatles ’65,” released in the U.S. on December 15, 1964. (In the U.K. the song appears on the album “Beatles for Sale,” which had been released one week earlier.) The original carol was written in 1850 by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts.

The actual Beatles have been in the news recently with the release of what’s being described as the final new Beatles release, a song titled “Now and Then.” The song was written by John Lennon in or around 1977 and discovered on a tape with several other uncompleted songs several years after Lennon’s assassination in 1980. The surviving Beatles, including Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr attempted to turn Lennon’s demo into a completed Beatles song in the 1990s, but technological limitations at the time prevented the separation of various components on the recording. Recent advances allowed the two surviving Beatles to create a high-quality version of the song using Lennon’s original vocals and a guitar track recorded by George Harrison before his death in 2001. The music video of the song is remarkable on a number of different levels.