Otis Redding and Carla Thomas - New Year's Resolution

Hey, all. I don't have a lot of time to write up this post today, but I just wanna say this: Happy New Year! Another decade's come and gone; here's hoping we progress as a species a little more this decade than we did during the most recent one!

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas - New Year's Resolution
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Billy Glenn and Shelley Taylor

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Christmas is over. I hope you all had a good one, and that everyone got lots of good swag. Since Christmas is done, and today's Saturday, that means it's time for Stag to return to the blog!

Here's 2009's final version of Stag, and boy is it ridiculous. You'll hear Billy Glenn (official) singing the story of Stag, with interjections and organ by Shelley Taylor (see also).

Did I mention this is silly? I found it via WFMU, of course.

I've got at least one more post before the year's out, so be sure to come back, and become a fan on Facebook if you like.

Billy Glenn and Shelley Taylor - Stagger Lee
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Dan Bryk - Great Adventure

Here's a quick post, my final one for Christmas 2009. (Edited to point out -- hey, be a fan on Facebook!)

Dan Bryk (official MySpace wiki AMG) is an Ontario-born musician, who moved from Canada to Raleigh, NC in 2003 with his partner Erin McGinn (they married in 2008, two years after this song was released). The reason I mention those specifics of his biography should become apparent when you listen to this song.

The Besotted family has a tradition called (I swear) "scooterpooping," which is where you leave the house with a modest amount of money and a full tank of gas, make a random decision to go one of the four cardinal directions, and drive a few hours until you get hungry, make a random decision to eat at a local nonchain restaurant, and continue meandering until everyone agrees to go home, stopping at any place that catches the eye. While this song details a trip with a more specific goal (the best scooterpooping song ever written is Lou Reed's "New Sensations," but that's a different post for a different day), it still has the feel of a classic scooterpoop.

As the fiancee and I prepare to spend our second Christmas together, and the last as an unmarried couple, I can't help but relate to this song. Sure, we're not moving thousands of miles to start our new life together, but it's going to feel like that all the time. The planning and logistics are causing both of us an awful lot of stress, but it'll all be over in 30 days. And every day after that, it will have been worth it. And, as the man says, that will only be the very start of a very long, very wonderful, very great adventure.

Dan Bryk - Great Adventure
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Buy from Bryk himself

Sesame Street - True Blue Miracle

I'd planned to post this song as part of the 2009 Christmas mix (theme: colors) but I haven't gotten around to compiling them yet, so I'll just post this one track while I'm watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. That's a 1978 special wherein Big Bird has to find out how Santa gets down chimneys, and Bert and Ernie reenact "The Gift of the Magi."

The first voice you'll hear on this song is Alaina Reed-Amini, who played Olivia until 1988, and who died one week ago. A lot of us grew up with Olivia as one of our TV friends, and it feels a lot like we've been losing more and more of our childhood friends lately. (If you need help mourning, she played a nice part in Sesame Street Episode 1839, which you can watch on YouTube by clicking. But warning -- you'll need a box of tissues -- that's the Mr. Hooper Memorial episode.)

Sesame Street - True Blue Miracle
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Christmas In Jail

Here's the second part of our unit on prison Christmas songs. I've put a lot of these songs into my annual Christmas mix CDs -- see here and here. (And, of course, John Prine would've made it onto the Country mix if I hadn't had far too much to fit onto one CD.)

Most of these songs deal predominantly with the idea of spending the magical day behind bars, but one or two just mention it as a springboard for other lonely sad Christmas ideas. Almost all the songs are first-person prison narratives, with the exception of two songs about the fat man getting locked up (including a live version of a song from last year's elf mix). Oh, and then there's the exquisite instrumental "Jailhouse Angels" which gives "Angels We Have Heard On High" and "Jailhouse Rock" the Ventures-style Christmas medley treatment. Tonewise, the songs in this collection are all over the map, from the straight-up comedy of the opener to Kansas City Kitty's marvelously depressing blues song about having a lover locked up during the special season.

Have you noticed that it's already the 22nd and I haven't even mentioned this year's Christmas CD compilations? Well, I'm not sure they're going to be done this year -- like I mentioned, I've got a wedding to plan and I still haven't finished putting away all the decorations from September's pirate party. If they're done, I'll put 'em up. If not, I'll still try to post SOMETHING between now and the 25th.

As always, I recommend the zipfile -- that way, your files will already be numbered in the preferred order in your neat little desktop folder, and your MP3 player can play them that way if you choose. (On the other hand, if you have all the previous comps, then there are five songs you'd be double-dipping on. Your call, really.)

Zipfile

01 - Ron Holden - Who Says There Ain't No Santa Claus 1 2
02 - The Youngsters - Christmas In Jail 1 2
03 - Danny Barnes - I'm All Alone On Christmas 1 2
04 - All New Genetically Altered Jug Band - Christmas In Jail 1 2
05 - Adam Kempa - Jailhouse Angels 1 2
06 - Dash Kizer - Christmas In Jail 1 2
07 - Dean - Jail For Christmas 1 2
08 - Drive-By Truckers - Mrs. Claus' Kimono 1 2
09 - Sherwin Linton - Santa Got A DWI 1 2
10 - Kansas City Kitty - Christmas Morning Blues 1 2
11 - Leroy Carr - Christmas In Jail, Ain't That A Pain 1 2
12 - Paul Kelly - How To Make Gravy 1 2
13 - Seasick Steve and The Level Devils - Xmas Prison Blues 1 2

Multiple Mondays: Christmas In Prison

John Prine recorded "Christmas In Prison" for his third album, in 1973, two years after he recorded "Paradise." In the interest of actually getting something posted today (sorry for the slack over the weekend), I won't tell you all about each individual track, but there's a decent amount of variety here, so be sure to get 'em all. As always, I recommend the zipfile.

Also, there are a lot of covers on YouTube. (1 2 3 4 5 should get you started.)

(Edited to point out that John -- and everyone else -- cusses a tiny bit in this song. If you mind blasphemy in your Christmas music, just move on to the next post. Sorry!)

Come back tomorrow for more Christmas-y prison-y songs!

Zipfile

John Prine 1 2
Emmy The Great and The Lightspeed Champion 1 2
Joshua James 1 2
The Boxmasters 1 2
Billy Button Band (live 12-08-06) 1 2
Rory McLeod 1 2
Honky Tonk Confidential 1 2
Doug Legacy 1 2
Will Kimbrough 1 2
The Conestokers 1 2
John Prine (live) 1 2

Guestpost: Carolyn Sills - George Bailey

And here's Travis (previously 1 2) to tell you about his favorite Christmas song of 2009:

On a whole, 2009 was not a great year for many people. One of the few bright spots is that Mark introduced me to the first new Christmas song to enter my top 10 list in a long time. Since I put my list on this blog last year, Mark has graciously offered me the opportunity to write about the new song, "George Bailey" by Carolyn Sills (official MySpace) (and a little bit about my favorite movie).

Despite the new age of hope in Washington, 2009 may well be remembered as the year the "Great Recession" peaked. So this year when we settle in to watch the greatest Christmas movie of all time, we might find a greater connection to the problems of Bedford Falls. A movie filled with bank runs, market panics, and subprime mortgages seemed quaint and archaic until they were in our news. The grand historical events of the movie were not yet historical in 1947, so they served as a backdrop for George Bailey's life the same way they had for the lives of the original audiences. Watching near the end of the last century, we saw a man in a strange time, living through events without peer in the modern era. Over the last few years, however, we have had a taste of the times of George Bailey, and now we feel some of the outrage at bankers and some of the fatigue of years of war.

It is interesting, then, that Carolyn Sills ignores all of those parallels, all of the historical backdrop, and even the main conflict of the movie in her song, "George Bailey." Instead, she writes a rocking Christmas love song from a fan, who lives through Mary Bailey. Taken on its own, the lyrics have Mary Bailey singing, until Ms. Sills speaks for all of us, singing that every Christmas George Bailey makes her cry. The lyrics are great, but so is the music. Capturing the seemingly forgotten classic Christmas rock sound (the echoing drum and cymbals lead in told me right off this would be special), "George Bailey" could have been recorded in 1959 as easily as 2009. Great lyrics, great music and a great subject all add up to an instant classic now in my top ten Christmas songs of all time.

As a bonus, the official video for the song takes the style of the iconic "George Lassos the Moon" drawing and transforms it into a early Disney style animation. The animation focuses on Mary Bailey refurbishing the old house, and pressing the various objects of the house into service to help out. The whole video has a great energy and manages to seem not as much intentionally retro as it does appropriate.

I have not watched It's a Wonderful Life for this year - I hope instead to see a screening at our local theatre on Christmas Eve. Until then, this song is in any playlist I create.

Carolyn Sills - George Bailey
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Kevin Mahler - Pirate's Christmas

Remember last year when I talked about Suburban Sprawl's free annual Christmas compilation? Well, 2009's is up, but here's a look back at two tracks from the first two years.

Kevin Mahler (MySpace) doesn't ONLY write Christmas songs about pirates, but I wish he would. I'd buy that album. (He's also contributed songs to later editions of the compilation, and those are all good too.)

His MySpace genre classification is "Country/Rockabilly/Emo" which sounds ridiculous, but those categories aren't too far from these two songs. The first song is "Pirate At Christmastime," wherein the song's narrator pines for home and Yule logs and family. The second, "Pirate's Christmas," tells a more traditional pirate story, about a battle between an underdog and the bloody Bluebeard. These songs aren't for sale, so the buy link goes to Mahler's latest release instead.

Kevin Mahler - Pirate At Christmastime
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Kevin Mahler - Pirate's Christmas
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Buy Kevin Mahler's latest CD

Bob Dylan - A Visit From St. Nicholas

Here's what I'd hoped Bob's Christmas album would be like. This is a recording from his XM Radio Show Theme Time Radio Hour, where Bob reads the entirety of "A Visit From St. Nicholas." (via) (If you visit the via link, you should consider downloading at least the two-part Christmas show, if not the entire archive -- Bob's music collection is great, and he's got a fun take on musical commentary too.)

Bob's got a great storytelling voice, like the old cowboy poets. In a parallel universe somewhere, Bob's just an actor who gets small parts in weird movies but makes most of his money recording audio books. I want to live in that universe.

Bob Dylan - A Visit From St. Nicholas
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Donate to Feeding America

Multiple Mondays: Must Be Santa!

This will absolutely be the silliest Multiple Monday ever, and it's also another oddball one. We're looking at some wildly different (but all closely-related) versions of a call-and-response style of song. (Next week I can put up a regular MM post, I think.)

So, sometime in the last four hundred years (estimates vary and historians are widely divided on the genealogy of the song), German-speakers came up with a call-and-response song named "Schnitzelbank." It's known in America these days as a drinking song heard at Oktoberfests all around the country.

First, we'll hear a traditional Oktoberfest version from Schwarze Schafe, then a kiddie parody from The Biscuit Brothers. Bill Haley and His Comets rewrite it and rock it up as "Rockin' Rollin' Schnitzelbank." Next, the version probably best known to Americans under 35 and not of German heritage, the version from Animaniacs.

Okay, so in 1953, Mel Blanc recorded a holiday version of "Schnitzelbank" entitled "Ya, Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree" which is an excuse to showcase his incredible voice talents. And that was in turn parodied decades later by Joel Kopischke as "Stupid Christmas Song."

Somewhere in the middle of all this mess, our patron saint, Thurl Ravenscroft, added his own version of the song, a silly love song called "Oh You Sweet One."

Now, finally, we come to the point. At least by 1961, which is when Mitch Miller committed his version to tape, we got around to hearing "Must Be Santa." It retains the structure and polka style of "Schnitzelbank" but changes the tune a little and the lyrics a lot. Now it's all about the fat man in the red suit. (I know, I know, I'd never have guessed I'd post a Mitch Miller track on this blog, but it really brings out the call-and-response aspect, and I don't have another good classic take on the song.)

I'd intended at this point in the post to write a long review of Bob's album, but it's been done other places by better, more knowledgeable writers and this post is already a leetle long. So, let me just say this: it's not a particularly good Christmas album, and it's not a particularly good Dylan album. (Bob is one of those people like Tom Waits or Lou Reed, who has the ability to make sweet pretty music but doesn't do so very often. He doesn't try to make any of these songs particularly pretty, and most of them were written to be pretty.)

It is, however, all for charity. A good charity. There's no buy link today, just a link to donate to that charity. "Must Be Santa" is the best track on the album, largely because (in my opinion) it doesn't express or try to inspire reverence for the holiday which means a lot of different things to a lot of different people (and has meant several different things to Bob over the span of his career, I'd bet).

Then, after Bob finishes up, we have the triumphant return of Glenn Campbot, with his ladyfriend Linda Ronbodt, singing "Must Be Giftbot." I love me some singing robots. As always, I recommend the zipfile.

Zipfile

1. Schwarze Schafe - Die Schnitzelbank 1 2
2. The Biscuit Brothers - Schnitzelbank 1 2
3. Bill Haley and His Comets - Rockin' Rollin' Schnitzelbank 1 2
4. Animaniacs - Schnitzelbank 1 2
5. Mel Blanc - Ya, Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree 1 2
6. Joel Kopischke - Stupid Christmas Song 1 2
7. Thurl Ravenscroft - Oh You Sweet One 1 2
8. Mitch Miller and The Gang - Must Be Santa 1 2
9. Bob Dylan - Must Be Santa 1 2
10. Glenn Campbot and Linda Ronbodt - Must Be Giftbot 1 2

Donate to Feeding America

Silly Sundays - Bobby The Poet - A White Christmas and The Three O'Clock Weather Report

Okay, here's a weird one for yas. You know how Bob Dylan put out a Christmas album this year? Sure you do. Well, waaaaay back in the 1960s, Bob was one of the biggest things ever. Impressionists loved to add him to their stable of characters. Impressionists also loved to do Kennedys. Hence, here are the two Bobbys together at last.

A lot of people out there assume this is a parody of Simon and Garfunkel's "Silent Night/9 O'Clock News." And since the album this was eventually released on came out in 1967, months after the Simon and Garfunkel track, that would seem to be a safe assumption. But that album was largely recorded in front of a studio audience (and this is clearly not), and this single says 1962. I'm chalking this up to odd coincidence. (On the other hand, knowing what I do about Paul and Artie's odd sense of humor, it's not inconceivable they'd heard this record and the name stuck with them too.) I don't tend to use the "Musical Mysteries" tag when a record is as clearly sourced as this, but I'm putting it on today anyway. Anyone with facts or info is requested to post it in the comments.

Tomorrow we'll be hearing about the history of one song on Bob's album (oh and by the way, he doesn't do "White Christmas" on the album), with widely varying historical versions of the song, and then on Tuesday I'll complete this little Dylan segment so we can move on to other things.

Bobby The Poet - White Christmas
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Buy on eBay

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Ken Colyer's Skiffle Group

Here's another version of Stag that mentions the original Christmastime setting.

Ken Colyer (official wiki AMG) was a British jazz musician, one with a fondness for all traditional forms of music. Many people consider him the link between jazz and skiffle.

This is a lot slower than the other two skiffle versions of Stag I posted a few months back, but was recorded in 1956 as well. Lyrically, it's different, and has a nice funny battle between the prosecutor and Stag's own lawyer.

Ken Colyer's Skiffle Group - Stack O'Lee Blues
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Buy from the Ken Colyer Trust (you want LACB 241)

A King-Sized Christmas: Elvis For Christmas!

Here's the reason I did the whole Elvis thing over the last couple of days: a whole bunch of holiday Elvis "tributes." I didn't include any impersonators here, since I don't as a rule collect those, and the thought of wading through that slush to pick out one good thing to post here made me shudder. (I do like El Vez's take on "Feliz Navidad," though.)

So let's get started, shall we? I haven't mentioned "break-in songs" yet on any Silly Sunday posts, but you can click here to read a little bit about the originator, and then sometime soon I'll do a month of four posts about them. Suffice it to say this: Break-in songs are little comedy skits which use snippets from pop songs as dialogue. When you hear Mad Milo's "Elvis For Christmas" I think you'll figure out what I mean.

Then, Marlene Paula wants to spend Christmas with Elvis. (I also have songs where the singer begs for a Beatle, or even Eddie Fisher, as her Christmas gift.) She tries to namecheck a dozen Elvis hits, and I'm pretty sure she makes it. (via)

This year, we lost The King of Pop. Thirty-two years ago we lost The King of Rock and Roll, and back then tribute records were still a big thing. (I haven't heard any Michael Jackson tribute records, and I can't imagine how they'd sound either.) So Diana Williams sent Santa a letter in 1977, reminding him how rough the year had been for holiday songsters -- why, they lost Elvis and Bing Crosby and even "Mr. Auld Lang Syne," Guy Lombardo. And Linda Hughes wants to remind us tearfully that since Elvis is gone, there'll be no more records, or "great" concerts. (I'm pretty sure that Elvis hadn't done any "great concerts" for five or six years at that point, for the record.) Her final line ALWAYS makes me laugh; it's just so overwrought. And I even agree with her, just not her delivery of the line.

Finally, the King is dead -- long may he reign! The Serious Brothers tell us the tale of how so many Elvis obsessives spend Christmas every year with The King (or at least his shoddy licensed merchandise).

There are a few more Elvis-Christmas-tribute songs out there, but I don't have them so I haven't uploaded them. (I also have one I didn't put on here, Bob Rivers' "Message From The King" which is a two-minute string of lackluster fat jokes from a mediocre impressionist.) Remember - Christmas is a time for peace, and love, and sideburns and sequined jumpsuits. Christmas... is a time for Elvis!

Mad Milo - Elvis For Christmas 1 2
Marlene Paula - I Want To Spend Christmas With Elvis 1 2
Diana Williams - Goodbye Bing, Elvis & Guy 1 2
Linda Hughes - Elvis Won't Be Here This Christmas 1 2
The Serious Brothers - It's Another Joyful Elvis Presley Christmas 1 2

A King-Sized Christmas: Jack Scott - There's Trouble Brewin'

Here's the second Christmas Elvis-styled post. I know it may not be fair to post this as a Presleyan thing, but if I didn't tell you it was someone else, and you were a casual music fan, you might be fooled.

Jack Scott (official Myspace wiki AMG) was a Canadian-born rockabilly performer, who had 19 hit singles in 41 months, a record surpassed only by The Beatles. Yet today nobody knows who he is. (You can click on any of those links if that applies to you, of course.)

This record is a classic Christmas favorite on all the music blogs, and I can see why. It begins with a quote from Clement Moore and rapidly becomes a funky slab of rockin country, with a full band blasting the song out, and an irreverent take on Santa as a sex object.

Jack Scott - There's Trouble Brewin'
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Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

A King-Sized Christmas: Elvis Presley - Merry Christmas Baby

Here's the first in a series of posts about Elvis and Christmas. It's easy to focus on the overrated, bloated, sad old Elvis from the mid- and late-70s, but he was an innovative performer and he LOVED Christmas music.

Elvis released two Christmas albums. The first was released in 1957 and charted six consecutive Decembers, till 1962. The second was released in 1971, and is the source of today's track. This is Elvis's take on the perennial Charles Brown classic "Merry Christmas, Baby." (I posted it last year as part of a Multiple Monday, but it's reupped today for this Elvis Holiday Retrospective.)

Here, you can hear Elvis grooving on his band, shouting the blues and begging the band to play louder and harder. (That's legendary James Burton on guitar, and Ronnie Tutt who Elvis exhorts to "wake up." This is the long extended mix put out on Reconsider Baby, the OOP blues compilation from the 80's, where the buy link goes.)

Tomorrow and Friday, more Elvisy things.

Elvis Presley - Merry Christmas, Baby (alternate edit)
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Buy from Amazon

Multiple Mondays - Holiday Update Edition

Hi, everyone. This is an odd edition of Multiple Mondays. I'm going to update a lot of older MM posts with new versions from new artists.

First, let's start with the suggestions from Boy Howdy. He runs Cover Lay Down, the cover blog I'd most like to run if I weren't so dang lazy. In the comments section here last year, he recommended Amy Kuney's (video) take on "River" and Rosie Thomas' cover of "Christmas Don't Be Late (The Chipmunk Song)." They're both wonderful, magical Christmas tracks -- Rosie Thomas does something unexpected and unlikely: she takes a decades-old novelty song and transforms it into something meaningful and, yes, significant.

Remember "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky?" Sure you do. Well, REM want to play you a version called "(Ghost) Reindeer In The Sky."

Then, we'll hear two more versions of Charles Brown's classic "Merry Christmas Baby." First, Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore growls his way through a bluesy 1971 take on it. Then, Sweden's Krystoffer Ragnstam knocks the song out of the park. If 1971 were a lot weirder, and you lived in a college town, this is the type of blues-pop fusion you could've heard in that alternate universe.

As always, I recommend the zipfile, but you can cherrypick if you insist.

Zipfile

1. Amy Kuney - River 1 2
2. Rosie Thomas - Christmas Don't Be Late 1 2
3. REM - Ghost Reindeer In The Sky 1 2
4. Rudy Ray Moore - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2
5. Krystoffer Ragnstam - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2

Silly Sundays - The Asylum Street Spankers - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

The Asylum Street Spankers (official Myspace wiki AMG) are an Austin-based group of bluesy, folkie swingers. This track uses each verse of the song to highlight a different side of their musical versatility. Besides the country verse I excerpted as a hidden mystery track here, they also take on lounge crooners, oldschool ska, and Mr. Tom Waits. And they acquit themselves admirably in each style.

The whole album is, yes, this good. Make sure to click on the buy link down there -- if you like this track, you'll love the whole thing.

The Asylum Street Spankers - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch
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Buy from the band

Stagger Lee Saturdays - The Grateful Dead 2

Remember last year when I posted the studio take on Stag from the Dead? Well, as I mentioned in that post, the original real-life shooting took place on Christmas Eve, but there are almost no versions of the tale which mention that.

So I can have a Christmasy Stagger Lee post, here's a nice live take from Jerry and the band. (via) This is a little funkier than the studio version, with some twisted, tortured guitarwork. Overall, a nice solid live take on the song, with not as much extended jamming as you might expect.

(I might have one more seasonal Stag up my sleeve for this year, but no promises. Stag will definitely return in January if not before...)

The Grateful Dead - Stagger Lee (live Nashville, December 16, 1978)
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Bootsy Collins - Boot-Off

This Christmas season, a lot of Santas are concerned about H1N1, but I think it's important that we all focus on the other meaning of the word "infectious."

And Bootsy Collins (official Myspace wiki AMG) has the remedy for my complaints. This is a track from his 2006 holiday album, which features guest spots from Famous Flame Bobby Byrd, Bootsy's brother Catfish, Charlie Daniels, Snoop Dogg, Buckethead, and George Clinton hisself. The kids on this track are Tyreka and Tyesha Grissom, who met Bootsy at church.

This is pure delectable funk, candy for my ears.

Bootsy Collins - Boot-Off (AKA Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer)
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Buy it from Bootsy

Dr. John - Silent Night

Hey hey, folks, it's December again. And though I'm crazy busy now, and going to be even crazier busier in a few weeks, I'm going to try to post every day till Christmas again this year. (I do have a wedding to plan though, so no promises.) I'm working on rezipping and reupping all of last year's posts, but it's not done yet. When it is, I'll post links here.

It's only been six weeks since I promised not to mention Dr. John for a while, but that'll have to do. Here is his upbeat take on "Silent Night." Many of you probably know the history of the song -- the story goes that the church organ was out of commission, so a song was quickly arranged for voice and guitar. Lacking the pomp and majesty of the organ, the hymn focused on a quiet, humble thing. Turns out the organ probably wasn't broken at all (the first mention of that happened almost 90 years later), but that's the story I was told in my childhood, both by John Denver, and in the church play I appeared in as a child, based on this book.

I think a much more interesting story -- and one that has the virtue of being true -- is that "Stille Nacht" was one of the few songs sung by both sides during WWI's Christmas Truce of 1914.

"Silent Night" is, like all Christmas songs, played in a variety of styles and moods, and they're not all reverent and quiet. (In fact, I was thinking about posting my loudest versions here some Monday, but that won't happen this year.) Here, Dr. John, whose onstage persona is more likely to believe in frankincense and myrrh than virgin births, rocks the song up.

Dr. John - Silent Night
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Buy from Amazon (buy the MP3s here, cheaper physical CD here)