Throughout its inglorious 74-year history, the government of the former Soviet Union took a dim view of organized religion. Karl Marx famously called religion the "opium of the masses," and Soviet leaders were smart enough to see that communism would fare better without the church around as competition. Yet don't ever count the church out too soon. Russian churches are drawing larger crowds than ever and there's evidence that even during the Stalin years significant numbers of Soviet citizens continued to worship and celebrate Christmas.
I recently ran across this collection of Soviet Christmas songs, which reminds me of the many horrors the Russian people have had to endure over the centuries. I fervently hope their latest affliction is removed from power soon.
Here's a little background on three more of the tracks from my latest holiday mix, Christmas Cheer.
Willie Nelson at His 90th Birthday Concert
Track 26 Holiday Greetings from Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson celebrated his 90th birthday this past April, and while I
can’t claim to be especially familiar with his extensive catalogue, I really
like a lot of the stuff I’ve heard. Beyond that, there’s no disputing that he’s
a bona fide original — a genuine national treasure. From where I sit, his work
ethic, activism and honesty deserve great respect.
A long description of Nelson's myriad contributions to our culture and politics is probably beyond the scope of this blog, and it would take more time than I have available to do justice to the task. I'm just happy he's still "on the road [again], doing well and doing good.
Track 27 Christmas Time for Sailors, Green Monkey Christmas Chorale (2019)
Forty years ago, a Seattle musician named Tom Dyer started a fledgling
underground record label with the idea of producing and promoting some of his
city’s formidable underground music artists. The label, known as Green
Monkey Records, has never been terribly successful financially, but it’s
a gritty little competitor that sprung back to life after an eight-year hiatus in
2009 and is still releasing new music today (albeit from its new location in
Olympia). The label boasts a number of local bands whose sound has been described
as "post-punk/pre-grunge Seattle" and "indy pop music—good
honest, ballsy, delicate, garage-y, punky, folky, mildly trippy pop music."
Since its resurrection 14 years ago the label has perhaps become best
known for its annual holiday compilations,
proceeds of which benefit MusicCares, an industry-based charity
that supports struggling musicians with health care and other basic needs.
Featured artists include such Green Monkey artists as The Green Pajamas,
Donovan’s Brain, The Queen Annes and, of course, The Green Monkey Christmas
Chorale, featuring Dyer himself. That’s the crew that’s responsible for this
wonderful holiday sea shanty, which, as you can see, comes across even better
on video:
Track 28 We Want the Best for You, Radio Station Jingles
This little jingle comes from a short collection calledHoliday
Radio Station Christmas Jingles, Volume 2, which I found on YouTube. It’s
from the Pirate Radio U.S.A. YouTube channel, which features specific audio files collected over the
years by Pirate Radio U.S.A., a non-profit internet radio station that broadcasts
occasionally on the Mixlr application. The content available on this channel is stated to be for educational purposes
only.
YouTube hosts a wide variety of holiday radio promos, bumpers and
fillers, as well as lengthier tracks such as holiday recordings played in
department stores and shopping centers in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Links
to just a couple of these offerings appear below. If you check them out, be
sure to read some of the comments posted about these nostalgic soundtracks. While
YouTube comments can sometimes be rather mean-spirited (they’ve cleaned them up
a lot in recent years, thankfully), these comments are mostly touching and
bittersweet, pining for the simpler times of 30 or 40 years ago. I can certainly
understand the appeal.
It was good to see Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 again this week, and only a part of my happiness comes from the fact she kept Mariah Carey out of the top spot. Six of the ten top tunes are old Christmas songs again this week, and my favorite holiday song of all time, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," by Darlene Love, is up six spots to #21 on this week's chart!
I'll be back soon with thoughts on the nine remaining tracks on this year's mix. Stay warm and dry and be of good cheer!
It's been about a week since I've posted information about the tracks of my 19th and latest holiday mix, Christmas Cheer, so I'd say it's high time to get back to the task at hand. Here's a little background on three more of this year's tracks:
Track 23 First Snowfall, The Coctails (1993)
I first heard this pretty little tune on A
John Waters Christmas, a compilation of oddball holiday tunes curated by
the infamous director of such films as Polyester (1981), Pink Flamingos
(1972) and Female Trouble
(1974). I went to college in Baltimore, where Waters is a genuine celebrity,
and listening to his holiday collection made me feel like I was an undergraduate again, roaming
the streets of Fells Point and Waverly.
Kitty's Lounge in Baltimore's Waverly Section
I loved Baltimore in the late 1970s. I'd grown up in a beautiful town called Dover, Massachusetts, about 45 minutes southwest of Boston, It was an idyllic community with thousands of acres of protected woodlands and very few major problems. Baltimore was different in so many ways. There was poverty, crime, racial tensions, decay; but there was also excitement and character. The world just beyond our campus offered the promise of adventure and danger, and I resolved to spend as much time in it as possible. It opened my eyes to what was then a whole new world to me.
Along with two friends, I applied for a cashier position at the local Rite Aid pharmacy. Applicants were required to take a polygraph test as part of the hiring process, which I apparently passed. To my surprise, my two friends didn't, but despite my disappointment and a certain amount of trepidation I took the job. I'm glad I did. I probably learned more in the 20 hours I worked at the Rite Aid each week than I did in class, and I wound up making some very good friends among the local community. In my senior year I became an intern for the area's neighborhood council and wrote my senior paper on the role such groups can play in less affluent urban communities. I learned a great deal, and some of the lessons were painful. I once saw a purse snatching on Greenmount Avenue and chased the thief nearly a dozen blocks to retrieve what he'd taken. The pride I felt returning the elderly victim her purse soured a little when she confessed that all she had in the purse were a few Rite Aid discount coupons and around a dollar in loose change. I also befriended another elderly woman who lived in a pitiful single room and often ran through her monthly income well before the end of the month.
Two of my Rite Aid Coworkers, 1979
“First Snowfall” is probably the tamest song on A
John Waters Christmas — a sweet instrumental number that I’m told
features someone playing a hand saw. The Coctails were a Chicago-based band
that formed when the members were all attending the Kansas City Art Institute.
They were active from around 1988 through the mid ‘90s and regrouped several
times after that for brief reunion shows.
The band consisted of members Archer Prewitt, Mark Greenberg, John
Upchurch, and Barry Phipps. While they were often described as a lounge band —
due, in part, I'm guessing, to their name — The Coctails described themselves as a “garage
jazz” band. They were rather prolific during the seven or eight years they made records, and their music actually included songs of many different styles.
The members were also heavily into the visual arts, and they even created a print shop at one point where they made posters, cards and such to promote the band and create other projects. A Japanese company later marketed a set of four action figures depicting the members of the band, and a book was published featuring the album covers and promotional materials created by the group.
I understand that in 2010, during one of the band's several reunions, they recorded a version of Erik
Satie's "Gymnopédie No. 1,” probably one of the most beautiful tunes ever written. Try as I might, I haven't been able to locate a copy.
This one's another song-poem, from the album Peace is a Song to Cherish, which featured tunes by two different M.S.R. acts: Bobbi Boyle and the M.S.R. Singers and Dick Kent and The Lancelots. M.S.R. was one of the biggest of the song-poem mills that operated in this country throughout the 1960s. '70s and '80s. The company name comes from the initials of its founder, Maury S. Rosen, and it's been estimated that they produced more than 3000 45s and something like 300 compilation albums before winding down in 1983. Boyle, who sometimes went by the name Bobbi Blake, was one of the group of M.S.R. staff who comprised The Sisterhood, M.S.R.'s go-to group of female Singers.
I first heard this song on one of the terrific Mondo Diablo podcasts from Hellbound Alleee, an atheist and song-poem enthusiast from Wenatchee, Washington, whose real name was Alison Randall. I used to love listening to her podcasts, which covered a wide spectrum of issues and included lots of diverse holiday music each year. The Christmas podcasts in particular were exceptionally well-curated, and it's clear she put a great deal of work into each show. Sadly, Alison died of cancer in 2019. Her husband, Francois Tremblay, has been posting her podcasts on her YouTube channel so they can be more readily accessible. You might want to stop in a take a look around. Start with any of the Christmas shows and you'll probably wind up listening to some of the other ones. Allee was outspoken, genuine and fearless, and she's missed by many, including me.
Like so many of the old song-poems, there isn't an awful lot of information available about "Let Us Be Gay." I don't know who wrote the words that M.S.R. set to music, but I'm sure wherever the lyricist now resides, he/she is pleased to learn that we're listening to her work as the world falls apart around us in 2023.
You can hear "Let Us Be Gay" in the player, below, starting at around 1:09:49. Thanks to WFMU-FM for providing the player and its content, which features a collection of nostalgic and offbeat holiday tunes from Bill Mac's show The Zzzzzero Hour from December 25, 2010. Enjoy!
Track 25 My Christmas Dream, Dian Rosamond (1975)
I can't remember where or when I found this holiday song-poem and the only information I have to offer is that it was released on the Halmark (sometimes spelled "Hallmark") label.
I did discover that there is a woman named Dian Rosamond who apparently wrote a short story titled "Obsession," that looks to me to be rather odd. I have no idea whether there's any connection to the singer of "My Christmas Dream," but who knows?
Here's the song, for your holiday enjoyment:
I recently learned of another Halmark song-poem that marries a different set of lyrics to the same tune and arrangement as "My Christmas Dream." It's called "The Christmas Message" and is credited to Raymond Spence, which is interesting because the vocalist is a female who sounds exactly like the woman singing "My Christmas Dream." I discovered the second of these two songs courtesy of Bob Purse's excellent blog titled The Wonderful and the Obscure. I sure hope they didn't charge full-price to both lyricists for the same tune.
That's all for now. I'll be back with more sometime soon.
Vincent Price Welcomes Classic Hollywood Stars to His 1954 Christmas Special
This week's Saturday Night Live Holiday Flashback features Vincent Price (Bill Hader) welcoming a lively group of Hollywood celebrities to his holiday variety show, including Katherine Hepburn (Kristen Wiig), James Dean (James Franco) and Liberace (Fred Armisen). Two of the guests have an especially festive time. Can you guess which two guests have an especially festive time together?
