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.

Listen to The Fab Four’s 2008 album “HARK” on YouTube

Watch the Fab Four Perform on the Hallmark Channel’s Beatles Christmas Special

That's all for today. Check back for more someday real soon! Only 23 shopping days left until Christmas!

A Comforting Christmas Message from President Kennedy

Comforting words from a great man during a challenging and frightening time:

The older I get and the more I see, the more I understand just how much this world lost on November 22, 1963.

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)

Gee Whiz ... It's Christmas (Again!), Part 1

I finished my 2011 holiday CD shortly before Thanksgiving, and I'm now in the process of sending copies to my holiday mailing list. It's called Gee Whiz ... It's Christmas (Again!), consists of 43 tracks and plays for almost exactly 80 minutes. I'm very pleased with the final product, and I hope you'll enjoy it, too. I intend to post the complete CD on my regular holiday music website for a limited time beginning Monday, December 12, and anyone who's interested can download it from there either as a single .mp3 file or a zipped folder containing all 43 individual tracks.  I probably won't keep it up past Christmas, so if you want a copy, don't delay!

During the next couple of weeks, I'm planning to share some additional information and personal thoughts about many of the tracks on this year's CD. I'll be going through the tracks in order beginning with Track One, but the tracks within each day's individual posting will be listed in reverse to yield a final list in true reverse order.

Ready? OK, let's get started!

Carla Thomas

Track 3
Gee Whiz, It's Christmas, by Carla Thomas (1963)
Memphis native Carla Thomas is perhaps best known for the music she recorded in the 1960s for the Atlantic and Stax Records labels. Back then, she was known as the Queen of Memphis Soul. Her first record was released in 1960 -- a duet she recorded with her father, R&B star Rufus Thomas. This was followed by “Gee Whiz (Look in His Eyes),” which became a smash hit. Unfortunately, Thomas's next several records failed to sell as well, which no doubt affected her decision to release this familiar-sounding holiday tune in 1963. While it’s appeared on a host of compilation albums over the years, “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas” was first released on the same day as Phil Spector’s classic album A Christmas Gift For You – November 22, 1963. If that date sounds familiar, it’s probably not because of either of these records. That was the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Not surprisingly, this tragedy affected record sales and nearly everything else in the United States during the 1963 holiday season.


Track 2
Welcome Christmas, from Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
If you're not familiar with this classic holiday story, you must be new to Planet Earth. Welcome. The Grinch series was launched in 1957 as a book by the inimitable Dr. Seuss. In 1966, Chuck Jones adapted the book as an animated television special featuring the voices of Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscroft. The track I used on this year's CD was taken from this version of the story, which is still broadcast on TV each year. In 2000, the Grinch became a big-budget, live-action film starring Jim Carey. Information about the plot is available in many places on the internet (you might start looking HERE). I'm not sure why I thought of linking this track with the preceding one, but I merged the two together by adding crowd noises and applause to the back of "Welcome Christmas" so it appeared to be part of a single concert following "Deck the Halls." I guess I must have had some subconscious desire to hear the E Street Band do both tracks back-to-back on some upcoming tour. And who knows? It could still happen. They're going back out on the road next year, and everyone used to think my interest in hearing Bruce do The Clash was pretty silly, too, until a couple of years ago.


Track 1
Deck the Halls, by The Max Weinberg 7 (2001)

Perhaps the toughest part of putting each year’s holiday CD together is figuring out the beginning, and this year I really had a tough time of it. By mid-October I’d fooled around with three or four different opening scenarios, including a montage of radio news reports that highlighted our continuing economic woes and the growing gulf between our nation’s richest citizens and the rest of us. The resulting clip told a powerful story, but I decided that not only was the piece likely to turn some people off as “too political,” but it was a little too depressing. Fortunately, I stumbled across a series of bootleg recordings around that same time that features highlights from several of the annual benefit shows that Bruce Springsteen has been doing in Asbury Park in recent years along with a number of his friends and fellow local entertainers. One of the songs was a short instrumental version of “Deck the Halls” that is credited to the Max Weinberg 7 but was apparently performed by Max’s horns section. As you probably know, Weinberg joined Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band in 1975, and he’s served as its principal drummer for most of the past 35 years. When Bruce disbanded the E Street Band in 1990, Max started exploring other options and ultimately formed The Max Weinberg 7, which became the official band on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and for a time, The Tonight Show. Happily, Bruce reconstituted the E Street Band in 1999, and they’ve been more active than ever during the past dozen years, completing four lengthy world tours and, now, preparing for a fifth, which is scheduled to begin in early 2012.  This created a challenge for Weinberg, who was forced to juggle a busy touring schedule with the responsibilities of a nightly TV show. His son, 19-year-old Jay Weinberg, filled in as drummer on the European leg of Springsteen’s most recent tour, and from the videos I’ve seen he did an amazingly good job. In any event, I like this song as the opening track. It seems to get things started on a pretty good note.

More information about some of this year's other tracks next time.