We're definitely in the home stretch of our review of the 42 tracks on my latest holiday compilation, Hey! You! Get Off of My Roof! Today we look at Tracks 35-37, which leaves just five more to review between tomorrow and Saturday. Believe it or not, I think we might just make it, so do check back as you scramble to complete your own holiday preparations.
Track 37 White Christmas, Patti Smith Group (1978)
Patti Smith
The other day, my Twitter feed included an interesting question among the recent flood of lunatic MAGA posts and increasingly pathetic messages from Elon Musk — namely, what female musician would you most like to spend an hour with over a nice meal? An impressive list of talented and interesting women quickly came to mind, but for me there was one clear favorite: Patti Smith.
I've been a big fan of Smith's going back to at least 1978, when she had her first and biggest hit single with "Because the Night," a song she wrote with Bruce Springsteen. Since then, she's released eight amazingly great albums, completed numerous successful tours (I'm grateful to have seen her on four of them), written over a dozen books of prose and poetry, and appeared in several films, including a cameo in Jean Luc Godard's Socialism (2010). She's also recorded a couple of great Christmas songs.
The track I've included on this year's mix, "White Christmas," was recorded with the Patti Smith Group on December 20, 1978, at Bearsville Sound Studio in Bearsville, New York, while she was recording what would be her 1979 album "Wave." Longtime band member Lenny Kaye first played this song live that year while guest hosting a Christmas show on WNEW-FM in New York.
Smith will continue her tradition of playing a couple of year-end live dates in New York with shows in Brooklyn on December 29 and 30, followed by shows in Germany and Scandinavia next June. Earlier this month she completed a short run of appearances reading excerpts from her latest book "A Book of Days," which included one date performing songs with her band in Los Angeles. Sadly, that show sold out before I could get tickets. I sure hope she'll be back.
Track 36 Deck the Halls, The Dixie Chicks, featuring Sandra Bernhard (2008)
This short track was produced as part of The Gap's 2008 holiday "Merry Mix It" promotional campaign, which included six TV commercials and a series of musical clips that customers could mix, match and send to friends from the store's holiday website. This particular clip featured The Dixie Chicks (now known simply as "The Chicks") who were just finishing a busy few years. In 2003, group member Natalie Maines had sharply criticized President George W. Bush and the planned U.S. invasion of Iraq, which resulted in a sharp backlash against the group, particularly on their home turf in the American south. After a brief hiatus, the group released the album "Taking the Long Way" in 2006, in which they essentially stood their ground. By then, the tide had turned against the Bush administration and their album and its lead single, "Not Ready to Make Nice" were not only top sellers but swept the Grammy Awards, too. Thus, in 2008, The Dixie Chicks were popular enough to star in national ad campaigns.
Track 35 Holiday Greetings, Sandra Bernhard
Appearing with The Chicks on Track 36 and all alone on Track 35 is Sandra Bernhard, one of my favorite entertainers since I first saw her with Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis in Martin Scorsese's 1983 film The King of Comedy. Her 1989 film Without You I'm Nothing, based on her one-woman show of the same name, is an outrageously funny look at American culture. It features an especially funny bit known as "Sandra's White Christmas" in which she imagines herself as part of a traditional American Christian family on Christmas Eve. One of these days I may use it on one of my mixes.
While it's not as well known as it should be, Bernhard wrote and performed a beautiful Hanukkah song called "The Miracle of Lights," which I included in my 2008 mix, "Home for the Holidays." Known primarily for her outrageous comedy and personality, Bernhard has a wonderful singing voice that is on display in the two clips that appear by way of the links below.
I spent part of New Year's Eve Day at the Sheraton Boston before flying back to Los Angeles shortly before the new year dawned. Had I realized that Patti Smith was playing next door at the Hynes Convention Center that evening as part of Boston's annual First Night celebration, I would have gladly delayed my departure – after all, one can walk from the Sheraton to the Hynes without even going outdoors! Patti Smith is an amazingly talented artist who puts on a truly inspiring show, but she usually performs in Lower Manhattan on New Year's Eve and I didn't realize she was playing in Boston until I read about it on New Year's Day. This year, it seems she scheduled her annual New York shows on December 30 and January 1 to be in Boston for New Year's Eve. Well, if we had been at the Hynes for the countdown that night, here's what we would have seen as 2013 gave way to the new year:
The setlist for this and most of her band's other shows is available HERE.
The following clip features the opening number from this week's Boston show, a relatively subdued version of my very favorite Patti Smith song, "Dancing Barefoot":
Incidentally, Patti recorded a rather stunning version of the classic carol "We Three Kings" for the album A Very Special Christmas 3, which benefits the Special Olympics. I've never found the right spot for it on any of my previous mixes, but it deserves a place in any respectable Christmas music collection.
UPDATE (1/20/14): This morning, I happened upon this beautiful version of Patti Smith performing "O Holy Night." I don't read Italian very well, but I believe the video was recorded at a benefit concert at Dall'Auditorium della Conciliazione in Rome.
