There was sad news from the world of music this week with the announcement on Thursday that Shane MacGowan, the longtime front man of the Celtic folk-punk group The Pogues, has died at the age of 65. The announcement was made in an Instagram post by this wife, Victoria Mary Clarke.
Shane MacGowan
"I don't know how to say this so I am just
going to say it. Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and
the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul
and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of
everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his
beautiful mother Therese," Clarke said. "I am blessed beyond words to
have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally
loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and
laughter and so many adventures."
The Pogues are perhaps best known for their 1987 Christmas classic "Fairytale of New York," which has been cited as the most played holiday song of the Century in the United Kingdom. According to legend, the song was written in response to a challenge by Elvis Costello, who wagered the group couldn't write a Christmas song by themselves. The song, written by MacGowan and fellow Pogues member Jem Finer, took two years to complete, but Costello later admitted he was wrong.
I included "Fairytale of New York" in a special bonus mix I put together in 2012 called Christmas Is Cancelled This Year. It is a fantasy collection of particularly dark songs based on the premise that Mitt Romney defeated President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.
News of the passing of Christine McVie today was very difficult to hear and will be even tougher to process. McVie joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970, and while she maintained a relatively lower profile than her bandmates, she wrote many of the band's biggest hits and was in many ways the secret ingredient to its phenomenal success. Her very fine solo records and the album she recently recorded with Lindsey Buckingham are further evidence of her undeniable talent. Christine McVie is surely one of rock's greats and she'll be sorely missed.
I was terribly saddened to learn of Jim Nabors' death this evening. Best known for his portrayal of North Carolinian auto mechanic and Marine private Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show and, later, Gomer Pyle, USMC, Nabors was also a successful singer and recording artists who produced a number of best-selling Christmas-themed albums in addition to a range of popular releases.
In 2013, shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington state, Nabors married his longtime partner Stan Cadwallader at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle. Following the announcement of his death earlier today, Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President and former Indiana Governor Mike Pence, issued a statement mourning the loss. "So sad to hear about the passing of Jim Nabors," she wrote. "We heard him sing 'Back Home Again in Indiana' at the Indianapolis 500 countless times. We will miss his beautiful voice."
Well, we didn't do it in time for Christmas, but at least it's done! Here are a few notes about the final two songs in my latest holiday mix, Let It Snow!:
Track 37 Muhammad Ali (The Meaning of Christmas), by Greg Trooper (2003)
Looking back over the list of public figures who died this past year, the name of Muhammad Ali stood out as perhaps the most widely known and most influential of them all. He's a man I greatly respected — not so much for his boxing skills as for his principled opposition to the Vietnam War and subsequent positions on public issues. I was hoping to find a suitable audio clip of Ali wishing people a Merry Christmas or some such thing, but when I googled Ali's name along with the word "Christmas," many of the resulting links were to this song by singer/songwriter Greg Trooper. I wasn't aware of the song at the time — in fact, I'd never heard of Greg Trooper. I'm not sure why I hadn't because he's been around at least as long as I have and several of his records were produced by Garry Tallent of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, but them's the facts. So I listened to it on YouTube, and instantly liked it. In fact, I thought it would be a great way to end this year's mix, as it's the kind of thoughtful, quiet and reflective track that I like to use to close out each CD. Yet if I had to explain the meaning of the song from Trooper's point of view — just what is he trying to say? — I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to do it. I'm not even sure I have a valid interpretation of what it means to me. Clearly, Trooper was a fan. He seems to admire Ali for defying the odds and remaining true to himself regardless of what anyone else believed.
Muhammad Ali (The Meaning of Christmas)
I saw Muhammad Ali Talking to me From the TV Teaching me The meaning of Christmas.
Float like a butterfly Sting like a bee How could this be? Him teaching me The meaning of Christmas?
His hands were shaking His knees were weak But listen to this old warrior when he speaks I am the greatest he said with a grin But he was talking about you Not about him And he was teaching me The meaning of Christmas.
I remember they called him a clown But then Sonny went down In no more than six rounds And he was teaching us all A new day was coming.
And I remember this Louiseville kid Wouldn't do what they said Found his own God instead And he was teaching us all The meaning of Christmas.
There are kings in the east There are kings in the west There are kings all around But not every king knows The meaning of Christmas.
It seems clear that Trooper's references to Christmas are to Christmas in the broadest sense of the word — not only to the day of Jesus' birth, but to the spirit of the holiday and the rich and diverse group of qualities and ideals people ascribe to it. Still, it's not the most comfortable fit. The Ali brand of bravado and trash talk might be a useful model for someone lacking in confidence or self esteem, but it's hardly the kind of quality we associate with Christmas. To an awful lot of people, Ali's abandonment of Christianity and his adoption of the Muslim faith should disqualify him from a seat at our holiday table. He did more than change parishes, he "found his own God instead," a rather clear violation of the First Commandment. Yet still somehow this song sounds appropriate. Perhaps because here on earth, each of us is free to set our own moral compass and to worship the God of our own understanding, and because tolerance for these truths, so long as others are not disrespected or hurt, is indeed part of the holiday spirit. Ali refused to be drafted at a time when the majority of the Christian people of our country were probably quite opposed to his position. The power establishment certainly was. And whose position turned out to be the more moral stand? I don't know, I can see where Muhammad Ali could teach me a thing or two about the meaning of Christmas. The whys and wherefores will likely come, as all things inevitably will, in time.
I was a big Prince fan going back to his very first commercial releases. I was amazed by the brash openness of his third album "Dirty Mind," and his flaunting of conventional morality on his follow-up release, "Controversy." His 1982 album "1999" hardly left my turntable for the first five or six months after its release, which is quite something considering it came out around the same time as Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I was blown away by the song "When Doves Cry," even though it kept Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" from reaching the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100. I didn't care too much for the movie "Purple Rain," but the soundtrack was awesome, and I remained a big fan of Prince's music throughout most of the 1980s. I didn't follow him too much after that, although I was lucky enough to see him close up at NBC's Burbank Studios in 1999 and to attend special performance of his at the Key Club in Hollywood that was just incredible. His death this past April came as a real shock. I had no idea he was in such pain and so close to the end of his endurance.
I confess that this song was never one of my favorites. The lyrics are beautiful and sobering, and they always struck me as a message to enjoy each day to the fullest. I would have preferred to include something else of his, but I'm not sure Prince ever recorded anything else about Christmas. In the end, he seems to have been a very private and possibly lonely soul. I can identify with that. Many people are. He certainly left a rich musical legacy behind, and he did a great deal of good while he was here. Those things, too, reflect the meaning of Christmas.
Three days left in 2016 and five songs left to examine from this year's holiday mix, so let's have at it!
Track 35 The Christmas Song, by Natalie and Nat "King" Cole (1998) We seem to have lost an awful lot of entertainers and cultural icons this year; in fact, I'm beginning to brace myself each time I look at the news for fear of hearing about another death. Singer George Michael died on Christmas Day, followed by Carrie Fisher yesterday, and, remarkably, Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, this afternoon. It seems kind of odd sometimes to feel so affected by the passing of some celebrity we never met and know so little about, especially when so many very special unsung heroes and non-celebrities die without any fanfare nearly every day. But many of the popular entertainers whose deaths attract wide notice have become a common point of reference whose works serve as mileposts as make our own clumsy ways through life, "I remember seeing her first movie in college," we might think, or "I remember listening to her music when we drove up the coast that summer." Well, we've lost too many this year, and I'm afraid we'll need to get used it with so many from the post-WW II generation entering their 70s and 80s.
Natalie Cole died on New Year's Eve of 2015 at the age of 65. As the daughter of popular entertainer Nat "King" Cole, Natalie's career got off to an easier start than many, and I remember her best for her first several albums, which included hits like "This Will Be," "I've Got Love on My Mind, and "Our Love." After several years of great success, however, Cole apparently become heavily involved in drugs and her career hit the skids. In time she was able to recover somewhat, although she seemed to have to struggle each step of the way. In 1991 she released an album of duets with her late father, which became her biggest record ever. This track, released in 1998, is in that mold. "The Christmas Song" has been released by hundreds of different artists, but it will always remain most closely associated with Nat "King" Cole, which is a big part of the reason this version is so special.
Track 34 O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Tyler Joseph (2013)
My friend Eddie turned me on to Tyler Joseph and his band TWENTY ØNE PILØTS shortly after the release of their first major label album last year, and they quickly became one of my very favorite groups. The band originated in Columbus, Ohio in 2009 as a collaboration between Joseph and two college friends. In 2011, the two friends were replaced by drummer Josh Dunn, and it's remained a two-person operation ever since. After self-releasing a variety of material and touring for several years, the band signed with Fueled by Ramen, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. They've released two albums for the label thus far, the first of which, Vessel, was well-reviewed and attracted considerable notice. Additional interest was generated by the group's busy touring schedule, so that by the time they released their second major studio effort, Blurryface, in May 2015, it debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200.
This track is an excerpt from a program found on Vimeo titled "Christmas with the Stars," which appears to have been produced by the Five14 Church in New Albany, Ohio. The program is cast as old fashioned variety show, with some kidding on either end of the song between Joseph and the master of ceremonies. But there's nothing funny about the performance of the song itself, which showcases Joseph's fine voice, a quality that's sometimes overlooked in his work for TWENTY ØNE PILØTS:
For those who aren't familiar with them, here are several songs by TWENTY ØNE PILØTS:
Track 33 KJR Rock and Roll Christmas, Ric Hansen and Julie Miller (1975)
From one of my favorite songs on the mix we turn next to the one I probably dislike the most. This is a promotional track put together in the mid-1970s for Seattle radio station KJR, featuring two of its former DJs: "Rockin'" Ric Hansen and Julie Miller. I certainly don't mean to be critical of Ric and Julie personally, but this whole business of radio stations creating "morning teams" to "entertain" listeners with crappy jokes and talk about what they did over the weekend has always struck me as one of the lamest acts around — and schlock like this, which is about as edgy as a ball of yarn, simply underscores how far from its moorings commercial radio has slipped. There were lots of good independent radio stations around in the mid-'70s with announcers who had genuine personalities and playlists that reflected the popular tastes in their communities, and for all I know KJR was one of them. In fact, I've read about some of the fallout following Clear Channel's acquisition of the station several years later that suggests Hansen was a good guy with a considerable following during his tenure at the station. But I have an instinctive negative reaction to anything involving business marketing and commercial radio these days, and this track makes me gag every time I hear it. So why in the name of God did I include it in this year's mix, you ask? Well, life involves a certain amount of suffering, and why should I have to endure this on my own? When I first started these mixes at least half of the tunes I included were dreadful monstrosities a normal person could barely stomach and now we're down to only a couple of them per disc and I pulled the other one of those intended for this year's disc* at the last minute so please just listen to this, cringe with me for a moment, and be grateful for the progress we've made. Listen to "A KJR Rock 'n Roll Christmas," by Ric Hansen and Julie Miller _______ *For those masochists among you, my last-minute deletion this year was "Christmas Season" by the inimitable Little Suzi, and you can listen to it HERE. Good luck to you.
Our goal, as it is every year, is to offer a comment or two about each of the tracks on my latest holiday mix, and after the two we take care of today we'll have commented on 32 of this year's 37 tracks. Hang in there for just a few days more, my friends, and we'll all be better off for having made the effort.
Track 32 White Christmas (3:00 Weather Report), Steve Baron as "Bobby the Poet" (1967)
Political parody, satire, and comedy have always attracted sizeable and enthusiastic audiences in this country, going back almost to the earliest days of our Republic. Of course, the form in which it's presented has evolved over the years — from printed essays, newspaper cartoons and sheet music to Saturday Night Live sketches on YouTube — but the aim hasn't changed too much. Americans like to see powerful people taken down a peg or two now and then. We detest hypocrisy, and we like to see how our would-be leaders react to the occasional sharp elbow or smart jab.
The right to poke fun at public figures in this country is solidly grounded in our Constitution, thanks, in large part, to the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1988 case titled Hustler v. Falwell. Hustler is an adult magazine that likes to include shocking material in its pages, and back in 1983 it ran a parody ad that suggested that the ultra-conservative religious leader Jerry Falwell lost his virginity to his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued, claiming Hustler was guilty of the intentional infliction of emotional distress. However, the Supreme Court, in an 8-0 decision written by conservative Chief Justice William Rhenquist, held that the magazine was engaged in protected political speech, regardless of how offensive it might be to some:
The sort of robust political debate encouraged by the First Amendment is bound to produce speech that is critical of those who hold public office or those public figures who are ‘intimately involved in the resolution of important public questions, or, by reason of their fame, shape events in areas of concern to society at large.
Such criticism is essential to the protection of a free society.
"White Christmas (3:00 Weather Report)" is a silly little track that isn't particularly funny or insightful, and I'm not saying that because it pokes fun at my greatest hero, the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. This is one of a handful of similar numbers recorded by comedian Bill Minkin, who primarily made fun of Kennedy's accent. This was hardly a new idea. Several years earlier, comedian Vaughn Meader recorded an entire album of material about the Kennedy Family called "The First Family" that became the largest and fastest selling record of all time shortly after its release. "Bobby the Poet," of course, is supposed to be Bob Dylan.
I was able to find a clip of Minkin's 1967 appearance on ABC's "Hollywood Palace" variety show, in which he performs another of his Kennedy parodies, "Wild Thing":
Track 31 O Come All Ye Faithful, Cast of The Brady Bunch, featuring Florence Henderson (1970)
If you grew up in the 1970s, as I did, you're surely familiar with "The Brady Bunch," the story of a widower with three sons who marries a widow with three daughters to form a large and lively brood that appeared on our family room TVs every Friday evening. It's a show that's somehow become more popular and iconic years after it first aired — primarily, I think, due to the nostalgia factor. The show debuted in September of 1969 and ran for five seasons. This track is from the show's one and only holiday episode, "The Voice of Christmas," which first aired on December 19, 1969. Mrs. Brady, played by the late Florence Henderson, loses her voice shortly before she's scheduled to sing a beautiful Christmas carol in church. Her youngest daughter, Cindy (Susan Olsen) makes it her mission to intercede with Santa to make sure her voice returns in time. Florence Henderson died last month at the age of 82. The relevant clips from the episode appear below:
Five more tracks remain, so I won't be away too long.
Track 30 Person of the Year: Pope Francis, by Dr. John McLaughlin (2014)
For the past 34 years, there was one unshakeable constant in American politics — namely, whatever was going on in the world, you could hear it discussed over the weekend by Dr. John McLaughlin and his fellow panelists on The McLaughlin Group. The phrase "unshakeable constant" isn't mere hyperbole either, as McLaughlin was on the set in the center chair without missing a single weekly episode throughout the program's 34-year history.
McLaughlin, a former Jesuit priest who ran for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island as a Republican "peace" candidate, grew slightly frustrated with politics while working as a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon. He quit his White House job shortly after Nixon quit his, and then he quit the priesthood, too. (McLaughlin, that is, not Nixon. Nixon never was a priest, hard as that is to believe.) In time, McLaughlin drifted from politics to the media, working as a local talk show host in Washington, D.C. and then accepting a job as Washington editor for the National Review. He created The McLaughlin Group in 1982, and I started watching it almost from the start.
McLaughlin's style was unique. He often came off as a self-important, pompous, and ill-tempered know-it-all, but there was just enough of the imp in him to pull it off without being off-putting. He leaned pretty sharply to the right, but he claims to have voted for President Obama at least once, and I always felt as though he kept a relatively open mind about many things.
Dr. McLaughlin died this past August at the age of 89, and I was very sorry to see him go. The short clip I included is one of him declaring Pope Francis as his "person of the year" during The McLaughlin Group's year-end awards show in 2014. He references the Holy Father's pronouncement that animals can go to Heaven, adding that this gave him hope that his beloved dog, Oliver, would be waiting for him there. Let it be so. Amen.
Track 29
Christmas with Donald Trump, by The Private Gentlemen's Yacht Club (2015)
an elite group of individuals who meet regularly to share
our love of luxury yachts. Occasionally we have been known to write songs and
make videos in order to break up the monotony of our luxurious lives.
They must have had at least a little free time on their hands these past couple of years, as they not only recorded this neat parody of a Donald Trump Christmas album, but a host of other social commentaries, including the song that's currently featured on the front of their website, "All I Want for Christmas Is a Shotgun." (CAUTION: This and most of their material features strong language.)
The group is British, the style is irreverent the politics are leftish, but they nail it on the head in a sloppy sort of way more often than not.
Track 28 Christmas in Chicago, by Leon Russell (1972)
Leon Russell was another true original we lost this year — a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer who was responsible for a host of solo records and collaborations over the years. In fact, over the course of his nearly 60-year career he recorded more than 30 albums and over 400 songs, including tunes with artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to the Beach Boys; and from Bob Dylan to Joe Cocker. The early 1970s were a particularly active period for Russell, when he helped launch the career of Elton John and scored with the best-selling album Carney, which featured the hit single "Tight Rope." He wrote songs for The Carpenters and Helen Reddy, and helped The Gap Band to begin their successful career. He also wrote "This Masquerade," a stunning song that won the Grammy "Record of the Year" honors for George Benson in 1977, and "Lady Blue," a song he recorded himself that still gives me shivers whenever I hear it. He also recorded "Christmas in Chicago," which I added to this year's mix in his honor. This man was a giant, and he will be missed.
I'll be back with more sometime soon. Enjoy Christmas Eve by doing something special.
Track 23 Santa Claus and Popcorn, Merle Haggard (2004)
I'm not especially knowledgeable about the country music scene, but I can't recall a time when I wasn't aware of who Merle Haggard was. I knew he was a country singer, and I knew he was a genuine original. I knew that he'd known more than his fair share of trouble and then some, and that he'd overcome more problems than most of us will ever know. And I knew that despite all of this, he managed to put together a life and career marked by decency, fair play and respect.
Born near Bakersfield, California in 1937, Haggard lost his father at a young age, which knocked him off course pretty quickly. As a teenager, he was in and out of jail repeatedly and initially showed few signs that he'd learned anything from these experiences. Moreover, he didn't seem to have any real idea of what he wanted to do with his life. But then he discovered country music, which he liked and was good at, so for the next several years at least there was something to compete with the worser angels of his personality and keep him on the straight and narrow sometimes.
Too soon, however, he found himself behind bars again. Sentenced to prison, Haggard organized a gambling ring and tried to escape, but his effort fell short. Frustrated by the course his life was Taking, Haggard began to reflect on his options. Soon, he began taking GED courses and flirted with the idea of joining the prison band. He attributes his ultimate decision to straighten himself up to a concert he attended on New Year's Day of 1959 featuring Johnny Cash. The rest, as they say, is history.
Haggard had a remarkable career and became one of the most successful country music performers of all time.
During his long career, Haggard received numerous awards
from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, and National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammy Awards). He was inducted
into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977, the Country Music Hall of
Fame and Museum in 1994, and the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 1997 In 2006,
he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was also honored as a BMI
Icon at the 54th annual BMI Pop Awards that same year. During his songwriting
career up to that time, Haggard had earned 48 BMI Country Awards, nine BMI Pop
Awards, a BMI R&B Award, and 16 BMI "Million-Air" awards, all
from a catalog of songs that added up to over 25 million performances.
In later years, he became known for his progressive political positions, and, in particular, his stalwart support of President Obama. I really enjoyed his visit to liberal comedian Bill Maher's show Real Time in 2016, where he talked about his political philosophy . . . and the time Hillary Clinton visited with a group of musicians on Willie Nelson's bus:
"Santa Claus and Popcorn" was written by Haggard himself and first released in 1973 on the LP "Merle Haggard's Christmas Present," which made it all the way to #4 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums chart. The song was later included on several subsequent Haggard holiday albums, including 1978's "Goin' Home for Christmas" and "A Country Christmas with Merle Haggard," released in 1992. This isn't the first time I've featured a Merle Haggard tune on one of holiday mixes. My 2008 mix "Home for the Holidays" featured Haggard's song "If We Make it Through December," which was an especially fitting tune considering the state the country was in at the time.
Track 22 Holiday Thoughts, by President Jimmy Carter (1979)
President Jimmy Carter and his daughter Amy light the National Christmas Tree in 1979.
Track 22 is an excerpt from a statement made by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, just under two months into the Iranian Hostage Crisis. For those who don't recall that particular Christmas season, it was a difficult time. In early November, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 of the American employees there hostage. Earlier that year, the people of Iran had overthrown the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a U.S.-backed tyrant who had subsequently fled to the United States, where he was being treated for lymphoma. Many in Iran wanted the U.S. government to return the Shah to Tehran to stand trial for his crimes, but the Carter administration opposed that request. The students who ultimately seized the embassy originally planned to remain there for no more than an hour or two, but popular reaction to their occupation was strongly favorable and they had the full support of AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini, so it continued throughout the whole of 1980 and into the start of the administration of Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan. To symbolize the plight of the American hostages and the sad mood of the country, President Carter decided that the national Christmas tree should be lit by no more than a single star until our hostages were safely returned. Eventually, they did return home. But the crisis played a major role in the unraveling of the Carter presidency and served as the prologue to our current era of hostility with the Arab world.This clip harkens back to that difficult time. It also spotlights our 39th president, whose administration will likely never achieve the respect that Carter's post-presidential achievements appear to have earned.
Track 21 We're Getting Pa a Brand New Still for Christmas, Little Lou and Her Country Folk (1956)
This one's rather rare, and the reason I know is that just searched on Google for five words from the song's title in quotation marks and came up with exactly three matches. That's very unusual. And so, of course, is the song:
Fourteen left to look at before we're done. It's unlikely we'll finish the lot of them by the time Santa arrives, but we'll try. If we have to finish things up within a few days of the 25th, that shouldn't be too problematic I hope. So long for now!
I'm in Bartow, Florida this evening, where the air is moist and warm and the ubiquitous Christmas lights serve as a reminder that the holiday is only a little more than two weeks away. I, of course, have fallen behind in nearly everything. Notably, I have yet to produce a single hard copy of my latest holiday CD, and that's a problem. For the past dozen years, my annual CD has served as my holiday card, and I don't want friends and family to think I've forgotten about them. I'm thinking of saving a copy of this year's mix to "the Cloud" and providing friends and family with streaming and downloading instructions by email or card. That would preserve valuable resources, eliminate needless trash, and save me several days' worth of hard work. Besides, CDs are so 1990s. A number of people I know and respect don't even have CD players anymore.
Here are some thoughts on several additional tracks from this year's mix:
Track 12
Funky, Funky Christmas, by Electric Jungle (1972)
Several weeks ago, someone at work asked me what type of music I was into. I'm never sure how to answer that question, for as crazy as I am about music, my tastes are very eclectic, and there are so many styles and artists I know nothing about. Moreover, I find it challenging to talk intelligently about some of the stuff I really like. Take funk, for example. I've got a pretty good idea what it is when I hear it, and I can rattle off a bunch of funk classics that I truly love. But I couldn't really define funk with any sort of specificity, nor could I name a single funk song, album or artist after the late 1970s. I'm pretty damn sure "Funky, Funky Christmas" by Electric Jungle qualifies as the genuine article, however, and while Electric Jungle doesn't seem to have released anything beyond this single 45 R.P.M., I'm willing to bet that had they done so, it would have been very funky, too.
I first heard this one several years ago on a spirited album I bought online from Strut Records called In the Christmas Groove, This is the second track I've used off the album. In 2012 I used a track called "Black Christmas," by the Harlem Children's Chorus on my CD "Here Comes Santa Claus." It's a moving and beautiful song in so many different ways, and I still can't listen to it without getting a little choked up. Now, please don't confuse this track with a monstrosity of the same name by New Kids on the Block. If you want to hear that one, you're going to have to look it up on your own.
Track 11
Big Bulbs, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (2014)
I've posted quite a few times about Sharon Jones in recent years, and her death last month came as quite a shock. She came to musical prominence relatively late in life, but Jones' career really started taking off over the past couple of years. She was an amazingly talented performer, and she will long be remembered for her contributions to the holiday music scene. "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects" is among the very best new holiday tunes of the past ten years, and their 2014 CD "It's a Holiday Soul Party" manages to capture some of the energy and daring that was such an integral part of Jones' live performances. "Big Bulbs" is from that wonderful album, and you owe it to yourself to check out the complete package.
Track 10
Christmas Party, Teddy and the Tall Tops (1983)
Let's take a trip back in time . . . not so far back as the 1950s, although at first blush this tune sounds like it may have been recorded then, in Memphis or thereabouts. Sounds just like Elvis, don't it? — the young Elvis, before Vegas and the extra weight and all. No, the trip I have in mind involves heading back to someplace in Texas in the early to mid-1980s. Times were good in Texas back then. The local oil business was running full tilt, jobs were plentiful, and in cities like Austin and San Antonio there was a whole lot of new music being made. Sure, country music was still real big with most folks in the Lone Star State, but there were plenty of other styles that were taking off there, too — particularly in college communities like Austin. One of the most successful local Austin bands at the time was Teddy and the Tall Tops. I'm not sure I'd call them a country band, although they were recognized as one of the area's best Country acts for several years at the Austin Music Awards. I think the better term is Rockabilly, or maybe Roots Rock — and, come to think of it, they did pretty well in that latter category at the "Austies" as well. Founded in the early 1980s Teddy and the Tall Tops was co-founded by Ted Roddy and blues guitarist Mark Pollock and included bass player Donny Ray Ford with Russell Flemming on drums. They appear to have recorded a couple of different albums back in the late 1980s and the band remained active on the club circuit (with various adjustments to their original line-up) well into the '90s. Word is that they started playing live gigs again a couple of years ago, although, sadly, without Mark Pollock, who died last year after an extended battle with cancer. The updated version of the band has been spotted a few times in Austin recently, at Ginny's Little Longhorn, and, just a couple of weeks ago, at the one-of-a-kind Lone Star Court. "Christmas Party" was released in 1983 as the "B" side to the single "Christmas in the Congo." Both tunes are exceedingly hard to find these days. I've been searching for the "A" side for several years without any luck, although at least one site reports that it's an original song written by Ted Roddy. That sort of surprised me, as another song by that same name was recorded way back in 1959 by a group called The Marquees. What are the odds?
Don't stop me, I'm on a roll! Here are some quick thoughts about the next three tracks from my annual holiday mix for 2016:
Track 9 Holiday Greetings from David Bowie (as Elvis Presley) (2013)
From all outward appearances, it seems as though David Bowie lived a wonderfully rich and happy life. Such statements are often intended as consolation following a premature departure. To me, particularly in the case of David Bowie, this richness of his life only serves to make his passing that much sadder.
Bowie was an artist, a writer, an actor, a songwriter, and a performance artist, but he will probably be best remembered as a tremendously bold and innovative musician and recording artist. I was a huge fan from as far back as I can remember. In fact, a brief glance at a list of his best-known songs conjures up a series of remarkably specific memories of where I was and what I was doing when each track first registered for me: Changes, Space Oddity, Young Americans, Ashes to Ashes, Cat People (Putting Out Fires), DJ, Fashion, Let's Dance, Modern Love, Absolute Beginners, This Is Not America — the list goes on.
The track I selected for this year's mix is a short little holiday greeting Bowie recorded in 2013 for the BBC6 program "This Is Radio Clash." Speaking in the unmistakable voice of the late Elvis Presley, Bowie says:
“Hello everybody, this is David Bowie making a telephone call from the US of A. At this time of the year I can’t help but remember my British-ness and all the jolly British folk, so here’s to you and have yourselves a Merry little Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you very much.”
Interestingly enough, Bowie tied one of Elvis's record-breaking statistics shortly after his death this past January when 12 of his albums simultaneously scored spots in Billboard's Top 40 weekly album listings.
Of course, one of the most beloved David Bowie holiday tracks is a song he recorded with Bing Crosby in 1977 for the holiday television show "Bing Crosby's Olde Fashioned Holiday Special." Unfortunately, Crosby died before the program first aired, but this wonderful recording preserves the memory:
David Bowie was an absolute original, and he died far too soon.
Track 8 A Message from the King, by Bob Rivers I posted about comedian/radio DJ Bob Rivers last year when I included his holiday-themed rendition of the Led Zeppelin classic D'yer Mak'er on last year's mix. This year I included a track brings Elvis Presley back to life and sits him (where else?) at the holiday dinner table:
Track 7
The Season's Upon Us, by The Dropkick Murphys
I like many different styles of music, but what I listen to and probably love most is straight-up rock and roll. Without meaning to do this intentionally, I noticed several days ago that many of my recent holiday CDs feature at least one rock track that serves a personal stand-out cut from the mix. Last year it was "O Christmas Tree," by The Orphan, The Poet. This year, it's the seventh track of the mix, "The Season's Upon Us," by the amazing Boston-based band known as the Dropkick Murphys.
I was born in Boston myself, and for 17 wonderful years I lived in that city's diverse South End neighborhood. I worked for the City for several years under Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, and I spent a couple of years in the aggregate working on a number of local political campaigns. Boston's political scene is rich and exciting, as demonstrated by the number of Massachusetts natives who have gone on to national office, or at least played in the genuine major leagues.
Boston's also known as a breeding ground for up-and-coming musicians, largely because of the many colleges and universities in the area. I spent a year studying urban government at Boston University in the early 1980s, and there was never a night when some hot new band wasn't playing somewhere.
The Dropkick Murphys started taking off right around the time I was relocating to California, so I don't have any particular history as an early fan of the band, but I love their stuff and really enjoy this holiday track. The band took its name, by the way, from an old-time professional wrestler who competed (performed?) in the area during the 1940s. By the time I hit down, Dropkick was better known for his post-wrestling career as the manager of a well-known sanitarium for hardcore alcoholics. More than a few wonderful people became sober at Dropkick Murphy's, and there's a special place in heaven for him for the good work he did.
Sad news, Grammy nominated classic soul singer Sharon LaFaye Jones, whose work as lead singer for the Brooklyn-based group Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings helped kick-off a revival of the 1970s soul sound in recent years, passed away earlier today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 60 years old.
Jones began her recording career relatively late in life, releasing her first record at the age of 40. But after partnering with the Dap Kings, she took to the road repeatedly and built an ever-increasing following over the past several years.
She was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, but Jones continued to record and perform whenever possible during periods of remission.
"It's therapy,'' she said in July. "I know I need rest and sleep. But I want to work and that is our job.
"You got to be brave. I want to use the time that I have. I don't want to spend it all laid up, wishing I had done that gig," she told Associated Press.
If you're not familiar with her music, check it out on amazon.com. And if you haven't heard "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects" — or even if you have — press the play button on the box below. Sharon will be sorely missed.
I was very sorry to learn that former New York Governor Mario Cuomo died yesterday. I remember watching his inspiring keynote address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, and, like many others, had high hopes that he'd run for president in each of the next several election cycles. He was an inspiring orator and a good man.
Actress Donna Douglas, who played young Ellie May Clampett on the The Beverly HillbilliesTV series, also passed away on New Year's Day. For you younger folk, The Beverly Hillbillies was about an Appalachian family named the Clampetts, who were trying to adjust to life in swanky Beverly Hills, where they moved after discovering oil under their hardscrabble mountain property. Here's one of the show's five holiday episodes, called "Christmas at the Clampetts" (1963):
Well, it's another Christmas Eve, and time now to share some random thoughts about the final two songs on my latest holiday mix, Is There Really a Santa Claus? The mix is available on my holiday music website, which is called (imaginatively enough) Mark's Holiday Mix CDs. In previous years, I've left the mix up through New Year's Eve, and I'll certainly plan to do that again this year. In fact, I'll probably leave it up even longer for anyone who's interested. Keep in mind that my previous mixes are currently available on the Archive page of my website, with the first 10-12 minutes of each mix also available on the Samples page.* For anyone who wants to have a downloadable copy of this year's complete mix, by the way, click on the album cover near the top right of the website's Latest page. OK, then, with all that out of the way, on to the final two tracks:
Track 39
Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emanuel, by Boyz II Men (2005)
Boyz II Men, circa 1991
I really fell for this song after hearing it performed by the Front Range Christian School Advanced Band, and it occurred to me that the version I've been holding onto by Boyz II Men for the past few years might be a good song with which to end this year's mix. I first heard of Boyz II Men back in the Spring of 1991 when they released their first single, "Motownphilly," which I loved (and still do). The members of the group met and started singing together at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. In 1989, they managed to snag the attention of Michael Bivens, the former New Edition member who'd moved on to co-found Bell Biv Devoe and was looking for new talent to promote. Impressed by their style as well as their musical abilities, Bivens agreed to manage the group, and worked with Dallas Austin to produce their first album, Cooleyhighharmony, which became a big hit and spawned three other hit singles in addition to "Motownphilly" — "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," "Uhh Ahh," and "End of the Road." These three songs, each a slow ballad, came to define the group's principal style going forward. That style proved to be extremely successful, but it lacked the energy and kick that marked "MotownPhilly," and I quickly lost interest in the group, even as they became one of the most successful acts of the day.
These guys must like Christmas, as they've released two full albums of holiday songs. The first was the follow-up to Cooleyhighharmony, titled Christmas Interpretations. I can't think of another group offhand that released a holiday album as their sophomore release. "Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emanuel" appears on their second Christmas album, Winter/Reflections, which was apparently only released in Japan in 2005. Both of their holiday releases are good, although neither breaks any new ground.
I should note that Boyz II Men adopt a different form of the song's title than the Front Range Christian School Advance Band. Boyz II Men use more commas in their version and spell Emanuel with one "m" ("Oh, Come. Oh, Come Emanuel"). The Front Range version omits commas altogether and adds a second "m" ("Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel"). I have no idea which version is correct (if either is), so I decided to use each group's version in connection with its respective track.
Listen to the Oh Hellos' magnificent version of the song, which is presented as Mvmt. 1 of their Family Christmas Album (Rejoice! Rejoice!), below:
Track 38
The Christmas Song, by the Cast of "30 Rock," featuring Elaine Stritch (2008)
I've never been a big fan of show tunes or Broadway musicals; it's not that I especially dislike them — and there have been several (Rent, in particular) that I've truly enjoyed — it's just not been my scene. But I've always been keen on Elaine Stritch, who struck me as one hell of a dame. I first took notice of her maybe 25 years ago during one of the many pledge weeks for our local public television station, WGBH (Channel 2) in Boston. I loved Channel 2 growing up. One of the kids on our block (Tracy) was on the popular kids' show Zoom!, and the Channel 2 Auction in June was always a signal that summer had arrived. Anyway, during that one pledge week, the station was giving away a tribute to Stephen Sondheim and aired a clip of Stritch singing her signature song "Ladies Who Lunch" to promote the deal. It blew me away. She looked to be about 102 years old at the time, but her voice was amazingly strong and she sang with a level of emotion and feeling that simply impressed the hell out of me. That song was from Sondheim's 1970 show Company, in which Stritch played Joanne, a cynical, outspoken older woman who drank too much. From all accounts, she was well-suited for the part.
Raised in suburban Detroit, Stritch's parents were extremely comfortable and devoutly Catholic. Her uncle was the Archbishop of Chicago. She took her first drink at 14 and quickly developed a taste for the stuff, and, with it, a passion for performing. After graduating parochial school, she left for New York and began the customary long, hard slog toward stardom. For Stritch, however, things moved relatively quickly. Tapped as Ethel Merman's understudy in Call Me Madam, she assumed Merman's role in the touring company version of the show after first playing a key role in Pal Joey. In 1961, she was selected for a part in the Noel Coward musical Sail Away, and quickly stole the show. In fact, Coward was so impressed that he wrote the other female lead out of the play altogether and combined her part with Stritch's.
After playing Joanne in Company, Stritch moved to London, where she married John Bay, the heir to the Bay's English Muffins fortune. She appeared in films and on the British television show Two's Company during the 1970s, returning to the United States following Bay's death from cancer in 1982. Stritch's drinking became a noticeable impediment to her career after returning to New York, but she started working again regularly after acknowledging and seeking treatment for her alcoholism. In 2001, Stritch mounted a successful one-woman show Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, which won a Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event. In its review of the show, Newsweek offered that it
is in a class by itself, a biting, hilarious and even
touching tour-de-force tour of Stritch's career and life. Almost every nook and
cranny of "At Liberty" holds a surprise. Turns out she dated Marlon
Brando, Gig Young and Ben Gazzara, though she dropped Ben when Rock Hudson
showed an interest in her. "And we all know what a bum decision that
turned out to be," she says. And then there were the shows. A British
writer recently called Stritch "Broadway's last first lady", and when
you see her performing her signature numbers from Company and Pal Joey and hear
her tell tales of working with Merman, Coward, Gloria Swanson and the rest,
it's hard to argue. Especially since she does it all dressed in a long white
shirt and form-fitting black tights. It's both a metaphor for her soul-baring
musical and a sartorial kiss-my-rear gesture to anyone who thinks there isn't
some life left in the 76-year-old diva. "Somebody said to me the other
day, 'Is this the last thing you're going to do?'," says Stritch. "In
your dreams! I can't wait to get back into an Yves Saint Laurent costume that
isn't mine – but [that] will be when the show is over."
Marc Peyser, “A Stritch in Time,” Newsweek (February
11, 2002).
Stritch continued to act on stage for another decade after At Liberty — for example, succeeding Angela Lansbury in the revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music. She won three Emmys for her television work during this period, most notably for her role as Colleen Donaghy, the mother of the character played by Alec Baldwin on the hit NBC series 30 Rock. She also performed cabaret at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, where she lived until relocating to Michigan in 2013 to live with family. She died on July 17, 2014 at the age of 89.
I wasn't able to find much in the way of Stritch performing Christmas-related material, but she did shoot two very funny Christmas episodes of 30 Rock and joined Jane Krakowski and Alec Baldwin for a sweet version of The Christmas Song, from which I've added Stritch's part. You should be able to hear the whole song HERE.
Fortunately for Stritch's fans, there is ample evidence of her talent readily available online and elsewhere. I've collected just a few samples, below, that you may enjoy. The first is a clip of Stritch performing the Sondheim classic "I'm Still Here" at the White House in 2010. Her diabetes was beginning to affect her memory by this point, and she seemed very embarrassed to have missed a couple of lines at one point, but I thought she covered pretty well and her presence throughout was just as charismatic as ever (that's Justice John Paul Stevens sitting to the President's left, who had just retired from the Supreme Court at the age of 91):
Here is a film version of Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, her terrific one-woman show, which I offer with a warning — start watching it and you may find it hard to break away:
Here's a classic look at Stritch's efforts at recording "Ladies Who Lunch" for the soundtrack of Company, which, after a frustrating series of attempts she finally nails:
Finally, I couldn't resist posting the following cartoon parody, which I trust was made with love and respect:
Well, that's it for this year's mix — and not a moment too soon. Santa has already taken to the skies to begin his long night of work, and I'm hoping he can find a way to sprinkle a little love, compassion and empathy over our heads this year in addition to the toys and gifts I know he has. Those qualities are in woefully short supply.
I started this blog in 2011 for the primary purpose of providing some further background information about the various tracks I include on my annual holiday mixes. My latest mix is called Is There Really a Santa Claus, and over the past several weeks I've been posting comments on its 39 tracks. We've now run through Tracks 1-35, which leaves only four more to consider. We'll do two of those today, both of which are among the nine tracks I selected in honor of nine talented individuals who passed away in 2014.
Track 37
Amazing Peace, by Maya Angelou (2005)
I've known of Maya Angelou as a respected poet, author and civil rights activist for 25 years or more, and throughout that period I've considered her to be a talented and accomplished woman who's lived an extraordinary life. But I have to admit that until today, when I read about her life for the purpose of writing this post, I had no idea just how incredible her life truly was. Born to a poor Missouri family in 1928, Angelou had a difficult and traumatic childhood. At the age of eight, she was brutally raped by her mother's boyfriend, and after she reported what had happened, the boyfriend was apparently killed by members of her family. The trauma of these events had a powerful effect on Angelou, who retreated inward and literally became mute for several years. It was during this period that she developed her love for poetry and literature, which were her principal companions.
At age 17, Angelou settled in the San Francisco area, took a job as a streetcar conductor and bore a child out of wedlock. She subsequently studied modern dance, and, beginning in 1954, began to dance professionally. In 1954 and 1955, she toured Europe with a company of Porgy And Bess, after which she recorded an album of calypso music and appeared in an off-Broadway musical review. In the late 1950s, Angelou began to focus more on her writing, joining the Harlem Writers Guild and networking with other writers. After organizing a successful fundraising event for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1960, she was appointed SCLC's northern coordinator. In 1961, she traveled to Ghana, where she worked on an English-language newspaper and as academic administrator. She became a good friend of both Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped to build the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Following King's murder, she wrote, produced an narrated a ten-part series on blues music and the African-American experience.
In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first in a series of widely acclaimed autobiographical books she wrote. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, she continued to write, teach and lecture, receiving over 30 honorary degrees as a result of her increasing body of work. In 1993, Angelou received wide notice for her poem "On the Pulse of Morning," which she read at the Inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
The clip I selected for this year's mix features Angelou's reading of an excerpt from her poem "Amazing Peace" on NBC's Today Show with Katie Couric. She wrote the poem for the 2005 White House Tree Lighting ceremony, where she first read in publicly. The poem was later published as a short chapbook by Random House. Here is the poem itself, followed by a clip of her 2005 appearance at a White House holiday celebration (Dr. Angelou's reading begins shortly after the 2:30 mark).
Amazing Peace
Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.
Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.
We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.
It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.
We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.
We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.
It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth's tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.
We, Angels and Mortal's, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.
Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.
― Maya Angelou
Track 36 Snow, Snow, by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger was a folk singer, songwriter and political activist whose progressive views and commitment to justice left a permanent impression on American society, largely by way of the succeeding generations of schoolchildren who learned and sang his songs as they came of age during the second half of the 20h century. We sang "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" around the campfire at night at every summer camp I ever attended. In the fifth grade, I can remember my teacher, Miss Richards, gathering the class around a phonograph to listen to The Byrds sing another Seeger song, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and using the lyrics as jumping off point for a discussion about the War in Vietnam. Seeger believed in the interconnectedness of things, and he rarely missed an opportunity to get people thinking and promote his world view even as he entertained them.
He was raised in a family of musicians and activists, and his father, who taught music at the college level, was especially interested in American folk music. Seeger traveled with his father and brothers through many parts of the South and the Plains states to perform and collect traditional folk songs. For a time, he worked with his father's friend Alan Lomax in the Library of Congress cataloging the large collection of field recordings that sought to capture the largely unwritten music of the American countryside. In 1941, Seeger began to perform with the Almanac Singers, a group of politically active folk singers that included Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston. The Almanacs raised a few eyebrows with their position against American involvement in World War II, although they changed their position after Hitler broke his non-aggression pact with Stalin and Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Seeger joined the Communist Party around this same time, although he did not remain a member for long and he openly rejected communism as it was practiced in the Soviet Union.
After serving in World War II, Seeger and several of the other Almanac Singers formed a new group called The Weavers, who scored several big hits in the early 1950s including "Goodnight, Irene" and "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena." Although the Weavers tried to moderate their political activity in the face of growing public fear of the left, Seeger's history with the Communist Party resulted in his being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he refused to answer questions based on the First Amendment. Held in contempt of Congress, Seeger was blacklisted and denied most opportunities to work, just as his music was really beginning to catch on.
In the mid-1960s, when folk music became all the rage and the paranoia of the McCarthy era had finally faded, interest in Seeger's music began to increase. There were more opportunities to work, and coverage of his career became more positive again. In fact, for the balance of his life, Seeger remained very active both politically and musically — right up until his death this past January, at the age of 94.
“He was a very gentle man and intensely optimistic,” British singer and activist Billy Bragg recently told the BBC. "He believed in humanity and the power of music to make a difference, not to change to the world."
The song I chose for this year's mix is a beautiful if less prominent number in the Seeger songbook called "Snow, Snow." It's a sad, wistful sort of song that could be interpreted as speaking about death, which, like a heavy snow, erases most of the defining characteristics and individual features of those it affects:
Snow, Snow
[Chorus (after each verse):]
Snow, snow, falling down;
Covering up my dirty old town.
Covers the garbage dump, covers the holes,
Covers the rich homes, and the poor souls,
Covers the station, covers the tracks,
Covers the footsteps of those who'll not be back.
Under the street lamp, there stands a girl,
Looks like she's not got a friend in this world.
Look at the big flakes come drifting down,
Twisting and turning, round and round.
Covers the mailbox, the farm and the plow.
Even barbed wire seems - beautiful now.
Covers the station, covers the tracks.
Covers the footsteps of those who'll not be back.
— Pete Seeger
I'll be back tomorrow or the next day with the two remaining songs from this year's mix — a return appearance for a song that's already appeared somewhere among the first 37 tracks, albeit by another artist, and an excerpt from a Christmas classic sung on TV by a legendary woman of the stage.
