Christmas Cheer - Part 8

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.

I understand that in 2010, during one of the band's several reunions, they recorded a version of Erik Satie's "Gymnopédie No. 1,” probably one of the most beautiful tunes ever written. Try as I might, I haven't been able to locate a copy.

Read a 1993 Interview with The Coctails from a zine called Pure

Track 24
Let Us Be Gay, Bobbi Boyle (1973)

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.

Deck Those Halls, Part 3 (Tracks 7-9)

I'm running behind schedule this year, which is hardly unusual, but it is frustrating. Due to printer problems, I haven't even started making the discs I send to friends and family yet, and with a mere 20 days to go before Christmas, I've only written about six of the 42 tracks on my latest mix, Deck Those Halls! I'd say it's time to pick up the pace a little, right? So without further ado . . . here's the lowdown on tracks 7 through 9:

Track 9
Holiday Greetings from Tito, Marlon and Jackie Jackson

Tito, Jackie and Marlon Jackson

The story of the Jackson family is a truly extraordinary saga that contains just about every element of the human condition. Born into relatively modest surroundings, the children of Joe and Katherine Jackson have experienced unbelievable levels of success and adoration, and yet they also seem have known more than their share of hardship and adversity. I can't say I follow them all that closely, although they've certainly provided us with some great entertainment over the years. I've always felt a little sorry for Tito, Jackie and Marlon -- well, and to Rebbie and LaToya, too, of course. It mustn't have been easy to have been so completely eclipsed by your younger brother. Anyway, it was nice for them to have taken the time to send along their holiday greetings.
Same to you, gentlemen.

Track 8
Fat Daddy, by Fat Daddy (1963)
This is a wonderful old tune that I'll wager is all but unknown to most anyone who didn't grow up in Baltimore. But if you're a native of Bawlmer, the sounds of "Fat Daddy" will almost certainly tug at the heart. You see, Paul "Fat Daddy" Johnson, "the 300-pound King of Soul," was the host of The Fat Daddy Morning Show on WWIN-AM throughout most of the 1960s. His show primarily featured hits from the R&B and soul genres, but its popularity came as much from his oversized personality as it did from anything he played.

In a 2001 tribute by Frederick N. Rasmussen, the Baltimore Sun, described Johnson's style in colorful terms:

His voice and delivery have been described as "precise and sonorous" yet "high-pitched and pressurized." His outrageous monologues rolled forth with a "gospel-like fervor."

"Hear me now," he'd hiss into the mike.

 "Up from the very soul of breathing. Up from the orange crates. From the ghetto through the suburban areas comes your leader of rhythm and blues, the expected one - Fat Daddy, the soul boss with the hot sauce. Built for comfort, not for speed. Everyone loves a fat man! The Fat Daddy show is guaranteed to satisfy momma. I'm gonna go way out on a limb on this one, Baltimore. Fat poppa, show stoppa."

Ringing bells gave way to several pulses of the organ followed by the recorded voice of a young girl saying, "Lay it on me, Fat Daddy, lay it on me."

"Fat Daddy, your king, and I've got soul for you. This is for all the foxes wakin' up this morning. Here's a soul kiss for ya, mmmmmmmh! From the lips of the high priest, from the depth of a fat man's soul. ..."

Here's a taste of the Fat Daddy style from a July 1966 aircheck recording:


Back in the '60s, '70s and early '80s, the most popular radio DJs in any city had sizeable followings and were genuine celebrities in their market. Of course, in those days, each station had its own unique personality, and individual announcers typically enjoyed considerable discretion in choosing what to play on their shows. It wasn't at all unusual for announcers to record various records of their own, sometimes wearing their announcer's hat, and other times performing music of their own. Johnson recorded "Fat Daddy" in 1963, and it became an instant hit in and around Baltimore, where it was played repeatedly throughout every holiday season. In recent years it's enjoyed something of a comeback thanks to its inclusion in the John Waters collection, "A John Waters Christmas." It's a sad and yet wonderful thing to watch the styles and features you think of as ordinary and everyday gradually pass into nostalgic, and this number's pretty much done that on three or four different levels. Here's to Fat Daddy -- the song, the DJ and the recording artist. And here's to a time that will never come again.





Track 7
Holiday Greetings from the Cast of Sanford and Son, featuring Redd Foxx and LeWanda Page (1975)

Redd Foxx and LaWanda Page

Sanford and Son was a situation comedy that aired for six seasons on NBC, starting in early 1972. Based on a British comedy called Steptoe and Son, it was supposed to be NBC's answer to All in the Family. Both were adapted for television by Norman Lear; both deliberately fought prejudice with humor, and both used bigoted, narrow-minded, middle-aged men to do the job -- one black, one white, and each more like the other than either could admit.

One of the most memorable recurring characters in the show was Aunt Esther, Fred's irascible, Bible-toting sister-in-law, played by the one and only LaWanda Page. Fred and Esther were always fighting and trading insults with one another, as in the clip that appears as the seventh track on this year's mix. It comes from the very beginning of the episode "Ebenezer Sanford," which I think is the only Christmas episode of the series. The entire episode is no longer available on YouTube, only the excerpt that appears below. Enjoy!