Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof! - Part 10

My latest holiday mix for 2022 is called "Hey! You! Get Off of My Cloud," and it's available for you to listen to or download on my holiday music website. This year's mix contains 42 audio tracks, which range from short celebrity greetings to fine-sounding holiday tunes to purported songs that sound anything but fine. My aim in creating thee mixes is to assemble a grab-bag of noises that will entertain and intrigue a wide range of jaded and open-minded listeners. The main purpose of this blog is to provide some interesting background on the various tracks. Mission accomplished with respect to the first 28 tracks, and today we're going to look at three more. Let's get started.

Track 31

A Lot of Talk About Jesus Christ and Love, Bill Macy as Walter Finley from "Maude" (1975)

Walter and Maude Findlay

I watched a fair amount of television when I was growing up in the 1970s, and as I recall some of it was pretty good. I especially liked the shows created by famed producer Norman Lear, who is still active at age 100. Remarkably, Lear produced, wrote, created or developed more than 100 different shows, many of which were phenomenally successful. His most iconic series, All in the Family, was launched in 1971 and dominated both the Neilson ratings and awards shows throughout the decade. Moreover, it spawned seven additional shows, including the hit series Maude. Maude starred Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay, Edith Bunker's feisty liberal cousin. I don't recall watching Maude during its original run but in recent years I discovered the show on Hulu and binge-watched a couple of seasons' worth. It's not exactly high-brow fare, but it sure brought me back in time. There were more than a few Walter and Maude Findlay types  in our neighborhood in the late '70s.

Stephanie

In any case, the very short clip I've used as Track 31 this year is from Maude, Season 4 Episode 14, "The Christmas Party," which first aired on December 22, 1975. With Christmas approaching, an old school friend of Maude's named Stephanie is staying with Maude and Walter. Stephanie, like Maude is an ardent feminist, although she insists on injecting her views into every conversation to the point where even Maude is put off. Walter and Maude are hosting a Christmas party for Walter's employees and Walter is worried that Stephanie's dogged determination to push her agenda might put a damper on the festivities. This leads to the following exchange:

Walter:    Tonight's not a soapbox, it's a Christmas party!

Stephanie:    Good, what better place? Don't you realize Jesus Christ was the first feminist? He taught the world that love begins with equality.

Walter:    My employees are coming here to have fun. It's Christmas and that's no time for a lot of talk about Jesus Christ and love!

So many of us have conflicting thoughts about the true meaning of Christmas. Part of this is no doubt because we use the holiday for so many purposes. It's a time to express our feelings for those we love and to separate what's important from the trivia of daily life. We're encouraged to think of the plight of the poor and the needy while at the same time being urged to splurge on lavish and showy gifts and parties. We're told it's a time to be joyful and happy to the point where too many feel the need to find relief in the bottle or by way of other drugs. Walter's misguided frustration is as understandable as it is preposterous, and while I don't have any simple solution to the conflicting pressures so many of us face at this time of year, it's probably worthwhile to remember that you're not alone in facing such challenges. Why not play something awful by Red Sovine and count your blessings?!

Watch the Maude episode "The Christmas Party" (1975)

Track 30

Out on the Road for Christmas, Red Simpson (1975)

Red Simpson

Regular listeners will recall that my previous mixes have featured multiple tracks by a trucker named Red — Red Sovine, creator of some of the most depressing songs in music history. Well, believe it or not there's another guy named Red who sings sings songs about truckers and has his own album of Christmas-themed trucker songs around and his name is Red Simpson. His holiday album includes a song called "Out on the Road for Christmas," which is about a poor guy alone behind the wheel on Christmas with only the promise of a quick meal at some some truck stop to look forward to. While this may sound rather poignant at first, Simpson's song sounds like "Happy Days Are Here Again" compared to Sovine's standard fare. There's none of the exaggerated pathos of Red Sovine here. Red Simpson's got a job to do and while his work isn't always easy he's going to take whatever solace he can from the satisfaction of doing it well.

The youngest of 12 children, the Arizona-born Simpson was raised in Bakersfield, California. He was interested in music from a young age and started playing piano in the local music clubs right out of high school. Country music was all the rage in Bakersfield at the time, and a number of local musicians led by Buck Owens were pioneering a style of music that became known as the Bakersfield Sound. Buck was impressed by Simpson and the two wrote a number of songs together in the early 1960s. In 1965, a Capitol Records producer who was looking for someone to put together an album of songs about truckers was introduced to Simpson and his first album release, Roll Truck Roll, was released the following year.

The truck thing seemed to work for Simpson, who followed up his first LP with another 10 albums of truck-related tunes. He enjoyed the business of making music, and didn't mind the extensive travel that was required. He didn't mind being typecast either, although he acknowledged some frustration at being continuously mistaken for Red Sovine. As he noted in his song "My Name Is Simpson," from the album "I Am a Truck":

My name is Red Simpson, not Red Sovine,

So don't ask me to sing "Phantom 309,"

I don't know "Giddy up Go,"

And I won't change my mind

My name is Simpson

Not Sovine.

Check the links below to hear this track. Here's Track 30 from this year's mix:

Join Merz Mark as he pays "A Visit with Country Legend Red Simpson"

Watch Red Simpson Sing "Runaway Truck" and more on the Buck Owens Show

Hear Red Simpson's "My Name is Simpson"

Track 29
Riding Unarmed in a One-Horse Open Sleigh, Jaston Williams (2010)

Texas is an awfully big state with an incredibly diverse population, and one of the few things bigger than the state itself is its reputation among the residents of the other 49 states. Back in the days when the governor of the state was a liberal Democratic woman, at least a small part of its reputation was built on the work of Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard, creators of a series of comedic plays about the fictional town of Tuna, purportedly Texas' third smallest town. "A Tuna Christmas" was the second of these plays, following "Greater Tuna" and "Red, White and Tuna." The plays have been described as an affectionate look at small-town southern life and feature more than 20 eccentric characters played by two very busy actors.

The plays were performed in cities and towns across the country from 1981 through 2012, and recorded versions of the performances were produced and sold on videotape and DVD. "Greater Tuna" and "A Tuna Christmas" were performed at the White House at the request of President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush, both of whom gave every indication that they enjoyed the shows.

Track 29 is a short clip from "A Tuna Christmas" featuring Jaston Williams as Didi Snavely, owner of Didi's Used Weapons, a store with the motto "If we Can't Kill It It's Immortal." 

You can enjoy "A Tuna Christmas" in its entirety below:

We've got 11 more tracks to review between now and Christmas, so I'll be back soon with more. Stay warm and dry 'til then!

George H.W. Bush Appears Lincoln-esque Offering 1991 Holiday Gift Ideas

This week's clip is a flashback to 1991, when the late George H.W. Bush was in the White House and the economy was slipping into the recession that many observers believe helped Bill Clinton defeat him the following year. Some economists are predicting a global recession for 2019, although one can safely expect that the current President's response will be a good bit less dignified:



I wasn't much of a fan of George H.W. Bush in 1991, but I'd take either Bush, Nixon or James Buchanan over the moronic fraud we've currently got in the White House. Happy holidays, everybody!

Working Alone in the Office on New Year's Eve, Nixon Sends Holiday Wishes by Phone

Nixon at His Desk (notice the buttoned jacket)

I've always been a history buff, and from a very young age I've been interested in reading about our nation's political leaders. Growing up in Massachusetts, I idolized John F. Kennedy, and he and his two younger brothers remain my personal heroes to this day. I've also had a longstanding interest -- a fascination, really -- in their nemesis and contemporary, Richard Nixon. My parents were Republicans for the most part, as was I until college, but by the time he left the White House in 1974 I'd come to detest President Nixon and most of what he represented; in fact, the night he resigned I led a small group of other kids on a celebratory parade around the small Maine island where we spent our childhood summers. Over the years, I've developed a more balanced view of our 37th president. Thanks to his infamous secret taping system, we've all had a chance to eavesdrop on some of his most private White House conversations, and while much of what he said is repulsive and pathetic, it's hard not to feel a certain measure of sympathy for someone who was so awkward and uneasy in his own skin. I've included excerpts from Nixon's White House tapes in at least a couple of my previous holiday CDs, and I was thrilled this year to discover recordings of two telephone calls the President made on New Year's Eve in 1971. Looking back, these calls were made at the height of Nixon's presidency, some six months before the third-rate burglary at the Watergate that became his undoing. Of course, he couldn't have known what lay ahead, nor did he seem to appreciate the relative strength of his political position at the time. These two calls reflect a certain unease and insecurity, wrapped tightly, as usual, in a masque of resolve and bravado. This New Year's Eve found Mr. Nixon alone in the Oval Office, working late, as he told one of the men he called that night, on "the year-end review." 

Nixon's first call was to Elmer Bobst, a former pharmaceutical executive and old friend of President Eisenhower who had become something of a mentor to President Nixon (and one of the very few who could get away with calling him "Dick" in conversation).  It was a touching call in many respects, from Bobst's enthusiastic review of Nixon's performance to the President's awkward assertion that Bobst "still ran with the best of them" when it came to the society circuit.  But despite his able performance as a stand-in presidential father figure, Bobst's public image ultimately sunk well below even Nixon's own.  For one thing, he was later revealed to be a notorious anti-Semite, telling the President later that year that "Jews have troubled the world from the very beginning" and were responsible for most of the country's ills. Perhaps more shocking, Bobst was later accused of repeatedly raping his two granddaughters, starting when the youngest was four years old. Making money and wielding power clearly have nothing to do with moral character. 

Nixon's second New Year's Eve call was to someone far better known than Bobst, and certainly more respected -- future President George H.W. Bush, who held a variety of different posts in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Two years earlier, Bush had given up a safe congressional seat at Nixon's urging to challenge Texas Democrat Ralph Yarborough for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Yarborough had become increasingly liberal while serving in the Senate and it was assumed he'd have considerable trouble getting re-elected in Texas, which was true, as he never made it to the general election but rather was defeated in the Democratic primary by fellow Democrat Lloyd Bensten. Far more moderate than Yarborough, Benstsen had  lots of Texas oil money behind him, and he went on to defeat Bush in the general election. Nixon rewarded Bush for his sacrifice by making him U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a position Bush was still getting used to at the time of Nixon's call.  Bush was viewed as something of a Republican wunderkind at the time, although he was sufficiently modest to take issue with Nixon's strong review of his recent performance and to later tell the President he thought he'd let him down.  It was also interesting to hear the President ask Bush whether he enjoyed "fighting that New York society crowd" (that presumably included Elmer Bobst).  "I don't like that part of it," Bush responded emphatically, before quickly, and wisely, changing the subject.

It's not clear how late Mr. Nixon remained in the office that New Year's Eve, but hopefully he left for the mansion well before midnight and was able to enjoy some quiet time with family and friends.

Tomorrow is Election Day, and the curtain will soon come down on one of the least attractive presidential campaigns in my lifetime.  In some ways, this year's contest makes me yearn for the relative civility of Nixon's day.  This blog is about holiday music, not politics, but my thinking about this Election Day was expressed rather eloquently by the unrepentant progressive rocker who spent much of today traveling with the President on Air Force One:

Don't forget to vote!

For your Election Day enjoyment, here are several moving tributes in song to our 37th president:

Richard Nixon in '76

The Great Richard Nixon

Richard M. Nixon (God's Infinite Wisdom)