Have Yourself A Mellow Little Christmas

Here's the second of 2006's two Christmas mixes I compiled. The mixes from '06 and '07 (stay tuned!) don't have covers uploaded, since I made all the covers by hand with paper cutouts and stickers and such. I'll probably put together covers for this year's two mixes, though I'm planning to continue with the handmade covers for the hardcopies my friends get.

Now, for about as long as they've existed, I've been a fairly faithful reader of two music blogs: You Ain't No Picasso and WFMU's Beware Of The Blog. But until December '06, I hadn't bothered to explore the rest of the MP3 blogosphere. Christmas music changed all that. For the first December in recent memory, my job didn't entail dealing on a personal level with enraged customers eight hours every single day, which meant that the ever-elusive "spirit of the season" was a lot easier to find. And, when I wasn't forced to listen to Christmas music on my employer's radio station, I found that I kind of missed it. So during that month, I downloaded more than a gig of Christmas music from all the assorted MP3 blogs out there. Some of them became my new best friends, and some I only visit each December. That's why this blog owes its very existence to Christmas music. (Well, that, and my collection of "Stagger Lee.")

Tracklist:

01. Aimee Mann - The Christmas Song
02. Combusible Edison - Christmastime Is Here
03. Diana Ross and The Supremes - White Christmas
04. Simon and Garfunkel - Comfort and Joy
05. Tom Waits - Silent Night
06. Enya - Oiche Chiun (Silent Night)
07. Pedro The Lion - I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
08. Belle and Sebastian - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
09. Dayna Manning - It's In Every One Of Us
10. The Coctails - First Snowfall
11. Math and Physics Club - Marshmallow World
12. The Beach Boys - Morning Christmas
13. Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night
14. Travis - River
15. Chris Isaak - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Zip file

Disney Day 1: A few covers

So I spent two days at Disneyland (and California Adventure) last week. I'd never been to the California parks before, and I had a blast. Here are five covers of Disney songs, some from attractions, some from movies and TV shows.

The Supremes song is from their aborted 1967 album composed entirely of Disney songs (I have eight recordings from these sessions, some of which I don't like much at all.) The Jackson Five song is from their first album in 1969.

The next two songs, by Tim Curry and Etta James, are from the largely disappointing 1996 Disney compilation Music From The Park. (The best song from this album isn't in this post, because I'm saving it for tomorrow's Multiple Monday post of "Grim Grinning Ghosts.")

Finally, my favorite of these five songs, They Might Be Giants' version of "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" (originally from the Carousel of Progress) is from last year's soundtrack to Meet The Robinsons.

Zip file link

Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Alibris
...or don't really. It's out of print, and you can download the whole disappointing thing lots of places.

Lou Reed - Magic and Loss Medley live 9-12-04

Speaking of medleys which surprise you with Supremes songs, there's this. Lou has a long tradition of doing this -- playing his songs, and then quoting the rock and roll he grew up on during them. I have, somewhere, a bootleg tape of him singing 4 -- count 'em, four -- Hank Ballard songs ("Work With Me Annie", etc) in the middle of one of his songs from the late 70s.

I have to admit this: I don't care for Magic and Loss. It's my second-least-favorite Lou Reed album. (Mistrial is EVERYONE'S least favorite; I defy you to find an exception to this.) The songs aren't bad (I love the cooler, darker style), but they're all about the same thing, and the album takes itself too seriously. I can take any one of the songs by itself, in a concert setting or whatever. But I've never made it all the way through the album in one sitting ("like a novel"). Plus, this is thirteen minutes long (and 30 MB -- download with care!).

This medley has other surprise quotes in it too, which would be spoiled by cataloging them here. Suffice to say, I miss my oldies radio.

Lou Reed - Magic and Loss Medley (9-12-04 Genoa, Italy)