Christmas Cheer - Part 3

Track 8
Journey to Christmas Island, The Rosebuds (2012)

I first mentioned this awesome group here 11 years ago in a short but rave review of their 2012 album Christmas Tree Island. I noted then that two of the album’s tracks — “Xmas in New York” and “Melt Our Way Out” — were already on my list of all-time holiday favorites, and that each of the 11 other tracks were “bona fide holiday treats.” I’m no less enthusiastic about the album today, which leaves me scratching my head as to why it’s taken me so long to include a second song by The Rosebuds on one of my compilations. (“Melt Our Way Out” was featured on my 2017 mix, It’s Christmas Time Again.) I truly have no idea; I’m just glad to rectify the oversight with the final track from their album, which is called “Journey to Christmas Island.” (I guess you can’t properly call this the title track as the journey here is merely to Christmas Island. Also, this tune is about a journey, not a land mass, in contrast to the album, whose title specifically refers to a location, Christmas Tree Island. Are these two completely different islands, or was the word “Tree” inadvertently dropped from the title in the track listing? Considering the track is an instrumental, I don’t suppose it really matters too much.)

Like Dillon Fence, The Rosebuds formed in North Carolina. Principal members Ivan Howard (vocals, guitar, drums, bass, keyboards and programming) and Kelly Crisp (vocals, keyboard, drums, guitar and accordion) met in college in Wilmington, NC and eventually settled in Raleigh after marrying and forming the band. Like Dillon Fence, the Rosebuds achieved considerable popularity as an indie band and also claim a particular affinity for holiday music. Unfortunately, like Dillon Fence, they’ve also disbanded. Their follow-up to Christmas Tree Island, the 2014 release Sand + Silence, was their final album. They divorced in 2012. Howard is currently pursuing a solo career on the West Coast, while Crisp works as writer on the East Coast.

The Rosebuds were active from roughly 2001 through 2014, and during this period they released over a dozen LPs and singles. I can’t claim to have heard them all, but they have a unique and pleasant indie sound. True Christmas music fans should really consider adding Christmas Tree Island to your collection, although the intimacy and tenderness that makes the album so special take on an edge of sadness knowing that Howard and Crisp are no longer together.

Track 9
Holiday Greetings, Former President Ronald Reagan and Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney

I’ve been interested in politics going back pretty much as far as I can remember, and my interest was warmly encouraged by the adults in my family. Near as I can tell, our family has always been pretty much solid New England Republican in its orientation. New England Republicans confound the GOP faithful in other parts of the nation by staking out relatively liberal positions on issues involving race, disarmament and individual liberties. They tend to hold views closer to the traditions of Presidents Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt than Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan.

Like many people, college introduced me to new ideas and perspectives and by the end of my freshman year I’d become the family’s first registered Democrat. After graduating college I spent ten years as political activist and neighborhood organizer in Boston, and I’ve remained a stalwart Democrat. To my great surprise, my Dad, a Republican banker, moved considerably to the left in his later years. In January 2008, the day before he died, he told me he was supporting Senator Barack Obama for president. My younger brother, a former Reagan partisan, is now staunchly anti-Trump and working for a green business in Maine.

I have many friends and a few relatives who are still Republicans, as is their right. It’s a free country. But to me, there’s a big difference between members of the Republican party and members of the Trump cult. I never agreed with Ronald Reagan about much, but I respect that he was doing what he thought was best for the country. I hold a similar view of Liz Cheney, the courageous Republican who served as vice chair of the U.S. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack. Actually I respect Cheney a great deal, because she was willing to lose her seat in Congress to oppose Donald Trump and bring to light the facts behind the horrific attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, which Trump promoted. Unlike Reagan, Trump couldn't care less what's best for our country. He seeks to benefit only his own twisted self-interest.

This track was produced by Representative Cheney as a holiday message last December. It consists of an old Christmas message of Ronald Reagan’s followed by a short greeting of her own. The entire track represents a point of view that has all but disappeared from our land, which is tragic.

Track 10
MAGA Christmas Chipmunks, Patrick Fitzgerald (2022)

There’s an awful lot of history behind this next track, which uses one of the most recognized holiday songs of all time to take a swing at three of the most embarrassing characters to ever serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. The track was released last December by comedian and content creator Patrick Fitzgerald, who describes himself as the “[p]oor man's Randy Rainbow[,]” and “Weird Al [Yankovic] without the accordion or talent.” I’d say he’s a good bit more talented than he lets on. In just a little over two minutes he manages to pretty much mop the floor with GOP Representatives Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Green and it’s done in such a light-hearted way you can almost picture the three of them laughing right along with the rest of us.

The track is based, of course, on the classic novelty hit “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” originally released in 1958 by American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor Ross Bagdasarian under the name David Seville. Bagdasarian, who wrote the 1951 Rosemary Clooney hit "Come on-a My House," had spent the balance of the decade trying to come up with a suitable follow-up hit but things weren’t going well and by 1957 his funds were running out. On a whim, he decided to purchase a fancy new tape machine that allowed material to be recorded at a variety of different speeds. Recording at higher speeds produced funny, high-pitched voices, which led Bagdasarian to create a song called “Witch Doctor,” which was released by Liberty Records and became his first chart-topping hit. He continued to fool around with the recorder to create a fictional trio of chipmunks that he named after the top brass at Liberty Records – Simon, Theodore and Alvin, and their first single was a smash hit at the end of 1958, selling over 4.5 million copies in just seven weeks and topping the Billboard Hot 100 for two of them. In fact, “The Chipmunk Song” was the last holiday tune to top the Hot 100 until Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” hit the top spot in 2019.

My Dad bought me a copy of “The Chipmunk Song” sometime during the mid-‘60s and I nearly wore it out on my little record player. He was a pretty good sport about it most of the time, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his all-time favorite record.

Bagdasarian did pretty well with The Chipmunks franchise, which eventually produced not only several additional hit records but a number of movies, a weekly Saturday morning cartoon series and a variety of television specials.

We're doing pretty well so far, having offered a few notes about the first 10 tracks on this year's mix before December 1. We've got 27 tracks to go and 24 days in which to describe them. Call me Pollyanna, but I think things are looking good.

I've often used the words Pollyanna or Pollyannaish to describe irrepressible optimists and those who tend to find the good in everything. I'd love to be one of them, though I fear I'm not cut out to be. I learned only today that this word comes from the 1913 children's novel Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter. In the book, a young orphan named Pollyanna Whittier is sent to live with her stern spinster aunt in Vermont following the death of her father, who had taught her the values of gratitude and appreciation before he died. Pollyanna used those lessons to create what she called "The Glad Game," which involved finding something to be grateful for in every situation, no matter how grim. For example, upon receiving a set of crutches rather than a doll as her Christmas present at the missionary home, Pollyanna decided to feel good about the crutches because she didn't need to use them. In the book, Pollyanna shared her outlook with the rest of the adults in the Vermont town she later settled in with her aunt. I'd say I have a lot to learn from young Pollyanna. 

I'll be back soon with info about my next three tracks.

It's Christmas Time Again, Part 4

Looks like we've fallen hopelessly behind with our look at this year's tracks, so I've accepted the fact that this enjoyable exercise will continue until well after Christmas Day. Hey, that's OK. It's kind of fun to be able to stretch the Christmas season past its ordinary limits. Ready to get back to work? Well, I am . . . so here we go!

Track 12
One Christmas Catalog Too Many, Captain Sensible (1984)



The lyrics to this song don't make a whole lot of sense, and I don't suppose it's a track many people have ever heard. It's got a catchy enough beat and a tuneful melody, I guess, and it's probably worth including on that basis alone. But there's another reason I chose this song for this year's mix and that  has to do with another song by the artist who made this one. This track and the other are by a guy named Raymond Ian Jones, a British singer/songwriter better known as Captain Sensible. He was one of the co-founders of the punk group The Damned, which was among the first group of British punk bands to catch on back in the late 1970s. Sensible has also enjoyed a moderately successful solo career before, during and after his his work with The Damned. I can recall hearing his version of "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" back in the day, and his cover version of the song "Happy Talk" from South Pacific made it all the way to #1 on the British charts in 1982. But I first became acquainted with Captain Sensible as the guy who wrote a pop song about one of my favorite characters in Washington political history -- one of the genuine heroes of the Watergate scandal, the inimitable Martha Mitchell.

I was just finishing the 6th grade when a group of agents from the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) were arrested in Washington's Watergate Hotel as they tried to bug the offices of the Chairman of the Democratic Party on behalf of Republican Richard Nixon in June of 1972. Nixon was running for re-election that year and he desperately wanted to not only win but win big. Knowing that a very large portion of the electorate opposed both him and his policies, Nixon and his henchmen decided that their best shot was to rig the Democratic contest to ensure that the opposition party nominated its weakest challenger, Senator George McGovern, and then paint him as a crazy kook far outside of the American mainstream. And they succeeded. The bugging of the Watergate was just one small piece of an elaborate scheme that included manufacturing fake news, interfering with Democratic rallies and events, raising millions in illegal campaign contributions, and even breaking into the psychiatrist's office of a well-known Nixon opponent. By Election Day, the Nixon team managed to secure exactly what Nixon had wanted -- a landslide election victory. They had also managed to keep the arrest of the Watergate burglars from becoming a major story. But once Nixon was sworn in for his second term, the story started to capture the nation's attention, due in no small part to the outspoken and colorful Martha Mitchell.

Martha and John Mitchell, c. 1973

Martha was already a major public figure as the Watergate story took off, for she was the wife of John Mitchell, former attorney general and the manager of Nixon's re-election campaign. In fact, Martha herself was one of the original founders of CREEP. During most of Nixon's first term she was a stalwart defender of the President. She had a high profile and her sharp tongue was frequently unleashed against the liberals and hippies whose criticism of her husband and the President led her to suggest they be "torn limb from limb." However, one of the men arrested for the break-in was a man named James McCord, a former CIA agent who had also worked for a time as a security guard for Martha and her daughter. Unlike many other observers, Martha realized almost at once that the Watergate break-in was a Nixon operation and with one of the chief architects of the operation and cover-up living under her same roof she had access to more information than most about what was going on. To her credit, she did what she could to set things right.

It wasn't easy. Following the arrest of the burglars, CREEP sent several thugs to detain her against her will in a California hotel. When one of them discovered Martha on the phone with the UPI's Helen Thomas, he grabbed the receiver out of Martha's hand and ripped the phone from the wall. Several others threw her onto the bed and held her down while she was forcibly sedated. Then the Nixon people put out the word:  Martha was crazy; she was an alcoholic; she was delusional. Yet Martha persisted, decrying the administration's illegal activities and calling on Nixon to resign.

Martha with Merv Griffin

Eventually, the various official investigations revealed that Martha's reports were anything but crazy. She and former White House counsel John Dean are now widely recognized as the true whistleblowers of Watergate. Tragically, Martha died of cancer less than two years after Nixon's resignation. At her sparsely attended funeral someone sent a large collection of flowers that spelled out the words "Martha Was Right." While her good sense and courage fail to receive the respect they are due, her name is now invoked as the name of a unique psychological condition. The Martha Mitchell effect describes a situation where someone has made claims so preposterous on their face that the reporter is diagnosed as delusional, only the claims are later determined to be accurate.

So why the long diatribe about Watergate in what's supposed to be a humble little Christmas music blog? I don't know, I've long been taken by Martha Mitchell's story as the unlikely hero of the Watergate scandal, and my hat's off to Captain Sensible who appears to have felt similarly some 33 years ago when he wrote and recorded "Martha the Mouth." Of course, more than a few observers are drawing parallels between the current administration and the Nixon White House. Both appear to be under fire, both appear to have engaged in treacherous and illegal activities, and both seem to have trouble telling the truth. Today, as then, we need a colorful and brutally honest character to step into the ring and tell it like it is. 



Hear an interesting take on Martha's story by the late comedian and social activist Dick Gregory.

Listen to "Martha," the first episode from the excellent podcast about Watergate called "Slow Burn"

Check out "Get Off that Phone, Martha," by Gene Burns

Listen to "The Ballad of Mrs. Martha Mitchell," by Gary Paris


Track 11
I'm Christmas Day, The Three Stooges (1955)

Back when I was growing up, it seemed like The Three Stooges were always on TV. They were particularly popular on the lower-budget UHF stations, where they had a certain allure for pre-adolescent boys (to whom Moe's swagger and violent tendencies were appealing) and older men (who likely appreciated the bygone era their black and white reels conjured up). I never liked the Stooges myself. Not these Stooges, at least. (I was partial to the ones who played with Iggy.) I recoiled instinctively every time the sadistic Moe belittled Larry, or poked his finger's in Curly's eyes. But I clearly recall pretending that I liked them in front of certain of my friends. It seemed like the cool thing to do -- better, certainly, than having them think of me as soft or effete. I suppose I felt a little of that same feeling this year when I opted to include their shabby little excerpt on this year's mix. I probably deserve a quick poke in the eye for that. And maybe the Hugh Hefner clip, as well. Ouch!

If you are a fan of the Three Stooges, you may enjoy this bit by Billy West, the comedian, voice actor and former radio personality:

Listen to "The Three Stooges Record the 12 Days of Christmas," by Billy West

Track 10
Melt Our Way Out, The Rosebuds (2012)
This is, without question, my favorite track on this year's CD. It comes from the 2012 album Christmas Tree Island, a wonderful collection of original holiday tunes by the indie rock band The Rosebuds. The group is based in Raleigh, North Carolina and consists of musicians Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp. They're a prolific duo with a unique and very tasty sound not to mention a fun sense of humor and what appears to be a strong commitment to basic Christmas sensibilities. I strongly recommend checking out Christmas Tree Island in its entirety, and the rest of their catalog, too, but the track I used and "Christmas in New York" are truly outstanding. Listen to them below and support the band with a purchase, if you can.

Hey, Radio Programmers: How About Playing a Few New Holiday Songs Next Christmas?

As we get ready to close up shop here for our annual post-holiday hiatus, I thought it might be interesting to take one final look at Billboard's most recent Holiday Music Charts.  I was wrong. Nothing to see here, folks. These listings look pretty much the same as they've been throughout the season. In fact, the Airplay chart hasn't changed much since I wrote my last letter to Santa Claus. (I'm reluctant to share my exact age here, but I can tell you that stamps back then only cost a dime.)

Here are the latest tallies for this year:

I know I must sound like a broken record on the subject, but the average age of the ten most frequently played holiday songs this season is 50 years old! Now, it's not that I've necessarily got anything against any of these songs (well, OK, I'd love it if I never had to hear Mariah Carey again), but wouldn't it be nice to see a few stations take a chance and play some music recorded after color television was invented?

To get things started, I figured I'd suggest a few relatively recent releases that today's audiences might enjoy hearing amongst the old-time classics. Here, off the top of my head and in no particular order, are eight possibilities:

A Long Way Home, Sofia Talvik (2014)



Mrs. Claus Ain't Got Nothing on Me, Little Jackie (2010)




Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (2009)



A Christmas Song for You, The Kik (2011)

Christmas In New York, by The Rosebuds (2012)

My Favourite Time of the Year, The Florin Street Band (2011)




Wish List, Neon Trees (2010)


Christmas at the Airport, Nick Lowe (2012)




I could easily pull together another couple of dozen suggestions, but I think I've made my point. Our culture seems to be at a particularly awkward point in its development just now, as we watch two fundamentally different trends continue to unfold. On the one hand, our mass media has become bland and lifeless as TV, radio and traditional print outlets are either gobbled up by a small handful of powerful corporations or quietly put out of their misery. The result is an industry that panders to the lowest common denominator so as to avoid offending potential consumers, or at least Hollywood's conception of what the typical consumer now is. On the other hand, we have the internet — a truly revolutionary tool that gives everyone a microphone and printing press and helps even small groups of like-minded fans to find one another and support an infinite variety of tastes and styles. Of course, the very diversity the internet serves can be manipulated to divide people into ever smaller segments and thereby exert greater overall control over society as a whole, which is why it's so important to follow developments on both a macro and micro level. The challenges we face as a society require increasing vigilance and involvement, along with a generous dollop of holiday spirit and cheer.

Stubby's Reopens to Point Us to Some Wicked Good Free Music!

You may recall that only a couple of weeks ago I was lamenting the demise of one of my favorite holiday music websites, Stubby's House of Christmas. Sadly for us, the proprietor decided to shutter his site for an indefinite period to take a well-deserved break and tend to other business. Well, the significance of that sad decision was underscored over the Thanksgiving weekend when Stubby's reopened its doors temporarily to point hapless folks like me toward a treasure trove of great holiday music now available online for a limited time at no cost.

Check Out Stubby's Suggested Freebies HERE

I'm grateful to "Stubby" for breaking away from the Thanksgiving table to set us straight. I'm also grateful to the good folks at Christmas A Go Go for serving as another great resource for new holiday releases, especially of the underappreciated and indie variety. Nothing new about that, Christmas A Go Go's been doing it for years. Keep an eye on the sites in my "Links" list to the right, folks. None of us is smarter than all of us when it comes to covering the waterfront.

By the way, I completely agree with Stubby's comments about The Rosebuds' wonderful Christmas Tree Island album, which I wrote about last year. It's an astonishing collection of very original music that I played to death in 2012 and yet continue to adore. Regardless of whether or not the free download deadline's expired, pay a visit to Noisetrade and add this one to your collection. It's a bargain at twice the actual list price. (It's also a bargain at twice the free download price, but then that's pretty obvious, isn't it?)

The Rosebuds: Best New Christmas Album of the Year

One of the very best of this year's new releases is Christmas Tree Island by The Rosebuds, an indie rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina. The principal members of the group are Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, and they've got a thing for holiday music. In between their commercial releases for Merge Records, they've taken to releasing one or more holiday tracks on their own each year, often in partnership with some good cause or another. This year's release is even more substantial than the norm -- an entire album of original tunes. "Melt Our Way Out" and "Xmas in New York" are already on my "best ever" list, and all 13 tracks qualify as bona fide holiday treats.   You can download the whole album for less than $8 on bandcamp, where you can also stream any or all of the tracks for free (as of now). Also available on iTunes and amazon (where the whole album's only $5.99 today!). If this were a just world, something from The Rosebuds would soon knock Wham! or Band Aid off the charts, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Holiday Charts Expose the Radio Wasteland

In 2007, Bruce Springsteen recorded a song called Radio Nowhere, which, among other things, lamented the death of quality rock radio at the hands of corporate media giants like Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting. Of course, a lot of people never got to hear it, because Radio Nowhere and most of the rest of the Boss's catalog were quickly banished from the nation's airwaves by those same corporate interests. When Bruce and I were growing up, rock radio, like rock music itself, was dynamic and edgy. Stations competed with one another for talent as well as listeners, and the best announcers threw themselves into developing their own unique styles and finding the best and most exciting music to play. Over the past 30 years, however, nearly every station of consequence has come under the control of one of the media giants, which invariably results in the adoption of small, tightly controlled playlists and a stifling of creative independence and personality. I hardly ever listen to the radio any more, but I've heard enough to know I'm not missing much. With respect to holiday music, the radio soundscape is just about as flat and uninteresting as you can get, which point is driven home by the by the first Billboard sales and airplay charts for this new holiday season. Haven't seen them? Well, don't worry. They're pretty much identical to the charts from last season, or for that matter any random season of the past dozen years or more:

Considering the significant number of original, topical, funny and/or movingly beautiful holiday tunes that are released every year and the vast catalog of outstanding older material that's also available, it's maddening to realize how few seasonal songs are getting airplay. It's not that the songs getting airplay are necessarily bad songs; heck, one of the songs that made both the "top songs" and airplay charts is on my Christmas comp this year. The bigger point is that these are pretty much the only songs you hear these days because the lifeless corporate drones in charge of programming don't know any better. Little wonder that the number and variety of holiday music sites on the web seems to be increasing each year.

On a more positive note, the only two songs on the first of this season's Top Holiday Songs charts that weren't on last year's final chart displaced two monstrosities by Justin Bieber, so even though those two "new" entries (Andy Williams, at #7, and Wham!, at #10) have a total of 73 years of age between them, there's a silver lining to be found in most every cloud.

TOMORROW, we return to our annual review of the individual tracks on my latest holiday comp CD. (Gee, when you put it that way it sounds pretty grim, no?) We'll be commenting on sounds by Ozzy Osbourne, Al Sears and His Countrymen and the Rev. Edward W. Clayborn, who was telling Americans as early as 1928 that we'd lost our moral grounding as a nation. I guess that puts him just a little ahead of the curve.