I Wish It Was Christmas Today - Part 11

We're continuing to examine the 41 tracks on my 20th and latest holiday music compilation, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today," and today I have some background on two more tracks, each of which touch on U.S. politics in the 1970s and '80s. 

Track 29
The Night Before Watergate, Rich Little (1973) 

This short track is another clip from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the second of three on this year's mix. It was taped on November 30, 1973, which is just over 51 years ago, and it features a guy whom Carson refers to as "probably the finest impressionist in the business" at the time — Rich Little. I was a big fan of Mr. Little back then, based largely on his impressions of Richard Nixon, whom I actively disliked. While most of my family was Republican, my maternal grandmother loathed Richard Nixon as did the woman who took care of my brother and me after our mother was killed, and these two smart women persuaded me that Nixon was bad news. I avidly followed the Watergate scandal throughout junior high. When I was 13, I won my school's citizenship award and was thrilled to receive a bound volume of the Senate Watergate Committee transcripts as my prize.  Of course, most of the country was following Watergate then, and Rich Little was getting lots of work doing his Nixon impressions. As Little explains in the clip, he used to do a version of "The Night Before Christmas" each year, and with the public's attention focused on Nixon's problems, his Christmas story for 1973 was called "The Night Before Watergate":

I've set the clip (above) to start at the beginning of the selection I chose to include in this year's mix. but I urge you to watch the tape from the beginning to see Little's entrance, get a sense of the in-house NBC Orchestra, and hear about the other guests on that evening's show.

Rich Little is still alive, and recently celebrated his 86th birthday. He was probably at or near the high point of his career around the time this show was taped. Throughout the rest of the 1970s and '80s, he was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show and occasionally guest hosted for Carson. He frequently appeared at various venues in Las Vegas and ultimately relocated there, and maintained active television and touring schedules. Born in Canada, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2010. I was sorry to learn recently that he considers himself a Republican and thought Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

 

I can't help but compare the public's reaction to the Watergate scandal with our current political climate. Back then, reports of the alleged bugging of the Democratic National Committee in June of 1972 received scant coverage at first, allowing President Nixon to win reelection by a landslide that fall. But when evidence emerged suggesting that Nixon may have participated in covering-up Republican involvement in the break-in, Congress, the media, the FBI and others began thorough investigations.  Once Nixon was found to have lied about his role in the cover-up, it was over. His political support evaporated overnight, with even most Republican leaders demanding his resignation. This year, by contrast, we have just elected a twice-impeached, convicted felon who has committed far greater transgressions than Nixon and whose entire campaign was based on lies, hatred and revenge. His recent appointments consist of unqualified, corrupt stooges eager to destroy the departments they are supposed to lead. Yet even as he sets himself up as a de facto dictator, the institutions that should be protecting us appear uninterested or unable to stop the impending madness. I'm heartbroken, and left to wonder how we could have fallen so far so fast.

Maybe we should look to some of our comedians for help, as we did a half century ago. I'm just not sure Rich Little's going to be much help this time around.

Track 30
The Night Ronald Reagan Rode with Santa Claus, Red River Dave (1984) 

"Red River" Dave McEnery

This next track is (or should be) a genuine Christmas classic, for it tells the story of the night Ronald Reagan accompanied Santa Claus as he delivered toys to the children of the United States. I discovered this one on The World's Worst Records, an aptly named website, subtitled "An Arcade of Audio Atrocities." The song was written and performed by a feller named Dave Largus McEnery (1914-2002), a Texas native who became known as "Red River Dave" because he enjoyed singing the classic ballad "Red River Valley."

Described by the Old Time Blues website as "[o]ne of the true blue, larger-than-life Texas characters," McEnery 

tried his hand at just about every occupation that appealed to him at one point or another: prolific songwriter, blue yodeler, rodeo cowboy, television personality, real estate agent, Shriner, ventriloquist, fine artist, truck stop preacher, and many, many more. 

He launched his career doing rope tricks and singing western songs at rodeos in and around San Antonio before migrating to the East Coast. He found work at a series of radio stations singing and playing western music. He started making records in 1940 for the Decca label and went on to become a prolific recording artist, creating dozens of discs of traditional cowboy songs and popular standards.

During the 1950s and '60s, his material evolved to include topical social commentary and tributes to dead celebrities. This is the stuff he's perhaps best known for today. As the Old Times Blues site explains,  

[h]is songs increasingly reflected his patriotic, conservative, and staunchly anti-communist politics, as heard in such numbers as “The Bay of Pigs,” “The Great Society,” and “The Ballad of John Birch.”  For a time in the mid-1960s, Dave turned his attention toward being a “dynamic real estate salesman,” even billing himself on contemporaneous records as “Singing Cowboy Realtor.”  Though sales of his private press 45 RPM singles were usually fairly poor, Dave continued to record and publish his old-time yodeling songs about current events all the way into the 1980s, with numbers like “The Pine-Tarred Bat (Ballad of George Brett),” “The Ballad of E.T.,” and “The Night Ronald Reagan Rode with Santa Claus.”  In total, McEnery penned more than a thousand songs over the course of his life, many of which were never commercially recorded, and are now likely lost to time; in one 1946 publicity stunt, he wrote fifty-two songs in twelve hours while handcuffed to a piano.  Later in his life, he broadened his horizons to include oil painting, usually western landscapes, which he sometimes sold.  

This track was released in 1984 on Beautiful America Records, backed with a song called, "Santa's Watchdog, Archibald," both of which can be heard on and/or downloaded from the World's Worst Records site HERE. 

I suppose any true patriot would be stirred by the notion of Santa and Ronald Reagan joining forces, which is why this track is so powerful. Even a quick look at the lyrics should quicken the pulse of any true-blue American:

It was the night before Christmas at Santa’s abode,

The cold wind was whistlin’ down the old Arctic Road,

Reindeer were prancin’ out there in the snow,

And Santa’s big sleigh was all ready to go.

 

When out from the snow storm there rode a tall man,

The cowboy dismounted, extended his hand and said,

I’m Ronald Reagan, I hope it’s alright,

I’d like very much, sir, to join you tonight.

I’m bringing some presents, some items of truth,

That I want to give to America’s youth,

Oh, ho! chuckled Santa, of course I know you,

I gave you a pony the year you were two.

 

Why, you’re Ronald Reagan,

Of course, it’s alright,

I’m happy to have you on my journey tonight

We’re proud of you, Ronnie. You’re on the right track,

Now what’s in your saddlebag? What’s in your pack?

 

Why you’ve got mementoes of America there,

There’s Washington crossing the Old Delaware,

And miniature replicas of the Liberty Bell,

And prints of the Star Spangled Banner as well.

 

And pictures of patriots long in their graves,

And Abe’s proclamation that freed all the slaves,

And framed constitutions to hang on the wall,

And statues of liberty, nine inches tall.

 

And flags called old glory. Oh, God bless her name,

And little toy Alamos and the Battleship Maine,

And copies of music, well there’s “Over There,”

And “God Bless America,”

And manuscripts rare.

 

Son, you’ve brought some keepsakes more precious than gold,

For they tell the story of our country of old,

America’s creed and the great Declaration,

Of the 4th of July that made us a nation.

 

Why your pack’s a treasure,

I’m so glad you came,

To help me deliver such gifts in the name,

Of honor and liberty and freedom so sweet,

Ronald Reagan, this Christmas will never be beat.

 

Quick Dasher, quick Dancer, quick Vixen of old,

Yes, we’ve got a story that’s worth being told,

Get moving old Rudolph, start leading the way,

This Christmas we’re boosting the great USA!

 

With a dash on the wind they flew into the night,

Ronald Reagan and Santa Claus, holding on tight,

The sleigh bells were playing Yankee Doodle in time,

And here’s what I heard Santa shout down the line.

 

Merry Christmas, America, it’s time to renew,

Your pledge of allegiance to the red, white and blue,

And we found a new spirit in America because

One night Ronald Reagan flew with old Santa Claus.

I'm not sure there's much more to be said about that — at least not until someone finds a way to add Donald Trump to the mix. (If you want a real acid trip. try playing this song at a very slow speed.)

In his later years, Dave leaned real hard into the dead celebrity thing, releasing post mortems on Bing Crosby, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Lee Harvey Oswald, Sharon Tate, Amelia Earhart and Elvis Presley's mother, Gladys. He recorded a tribute to kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst when she was feared dead, but the discovery that Hearst helped her captors pull a bank heist kind of killed the mood for that tribute. He released the song anyway. I believe it's sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." (Listen HERE.)

In the end, of course, McEnery himself was called to follow the celebrities he'd honored in song. He died on January 15, 2002 at the age of 87. All told, he led a rather interesting life.

Hear Red River Dave's "California Hippie Murders"

Hear Red River Dave's "The Ballad of Emmett Till"

Read McEnery's obituary in The Guardian

Hope you're keeping happy and warm and have finished at least some of your holiday shopping. I'll be back now and again over the coming days with background on the 11 remaining tracks from this year's mix.