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)

Monster Mansion Ridethrough

So remember my longish post on Monster Mansion? It's the only dark ride at Six Flags Over Georgia, the one which until this year was called "Monster Plantation." If you don't recall it, the best thing to do is click through up there and read it.

Anyway, the park FINALLY released an official soundtrack CD, which is something I hadn't even bothered to hope for -- Six Flags doesn't do things like that, and in fact my tentative research indicates that the Georgia park hasn't put out an album since the early 70's.

I hadn't planned to post this ridethrough on the blog -- I bought the CD specifically to get the ridethrough, and I'd like other people to buy the CD too (incidentally, only available in the park, so if you don't buy it by November 1 you can't get it till next March -- I have one extra, so comment if you must have a copy). I'd planned to post the new area music, produced by these guys, but though it's great fun, the track is 15 minutes long, and I don't have the time or energy to edit it down tonight.

So, ridethrough it is. As I mentioned in the earlier post, nothing substitutes for actually being in the room with the singing robots and seeing/hearing/feeling all the 4D effects. So go, this weekend (I'll be there Sunday morning, the last operating day of the year) if you can, and if not, the next time you're in Atlanta.

Monster Mansion Ridethrough
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Merle Travis

Merle Travis (fansite wiki AMG) was a highly influential country guitar picker, born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky (which "Paradise" would later be stripmined for coal) in 1917. He befriended Tennessee Ernie Ford, and even wrote "Sixteen Tons," which would become Ernie's biggest hit.

This is a loose, laidback version, recorded only two years before Travis' death. His voice is appropriately aged, warm and crackling. He improvises a few lyrics, such as Billy's unimpressive claim to have "one little chilluns." You'll note that this is a rare version of Stag where the gambling is over cards, rather than dice. It's also nice that in this version Billy has a gun too -- seems a little more honorable when Stag shoots him dead.

But all that pales in comparison to the real treasure here: the guitar picking. This is one man, on one guitar, but it sounds like at least two of each. I'm a supremely uncoordinated person (which is one reason I have no instrumental talent), but just think -- Travis is singing, and playing a melody line on the guitar, and a rhythm line on the guitar, all at the same time. I'm pretty sure that if I tried any two of those three things, my head would explode. Merle Travis does all three without breaking a sweat, at the age of 64 -- if I have half this much energy at that age, I'll be grateful.

Merle Travis - Stack O'Lee
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Silly Sundays - Monster Mansion!

Back in 1981, Six Flags Over Georgia hired a former Disney Imagineer to put together a new dark ride, one that couldn't be found anywhere else in the world. That ride became known as Monster Plantation. Last month, the ride reopened as a new, refurbished version of the original, with a new name and a lot of new effects. (If any of those A J-C links want you to register, don't forget bugmenot.)

One thing that didn't change was the theme song (though it sounds better now, thanks to advances in speaker design during the intervening decades, and a new instrumental version plays near the queue area). Here is the original theme song, played in several different instrumentations, all of which can still be heard in the new version of the ride.

I hadn't been to Six Flags in years and years, but when I heard they were refurbing this ride, I bought a season pass. I also wrote this, in an email to my friends:

The first audio-animatronic robots I ever saw were at Six Flags Over Georgia, in The Monster Plantation. I remember almost every part of it, and if it hadn't been as good as it was, I'd probably care less about robots, and dark rides, and Disney parks (and their themed brethren).

Those of you who aren't near Atlanta can see the difference between the old and new versions of the ride on YouTube, but of course watching a dark-ride video is pretty unsatisfying. Anyway, enough talk. This song is insanely catchy, so I don't recommend listening more than twice in any given week.

Monster Plantation/Mansion Theme
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Tom Jones

To quote the trailer for Mars Attacks!*, "Yes, Tom Jones." (This is another person you probably don't need the links for.)

I've had this version for a while, but I've been sitting on it because, well, it's not particularly good. It's not bad, either, but it's just so... mediocre. Tom's performance is okay, but I don't know if I'd classify it as "Rockin'."

Anyway, I had the opportunity to see Mr. Jones live in Las Vegas, and passed. (There were a lot of people I could've seen live in Las Vegas, but Tom's the only one I know of that's recorded a version of Stag.) I did get to hear, through an open theater door, Tom welcoming his audience to the MGM Grand. Does that count?

Anyway, here's another take on Lloyd Price's version of the Stagger Lee legend. More Vegas audio tomorrow, as I begin a new feature here on She'll Grow Back: Silly Sundays. Stay tuned!

Tom Jones - Stagger Lee
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*Mars Attacks! is one of my favorite Vegas movies. Odd, I know, since you don't see much of it outside of Tom's show and the Neon Graveyard.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

"Danny Boy" isn't really an Irish song, really. But, hell, it's everywhere on the blogosphere right now, so I might as well post this too. This is, to put it simply, one of the most moving recordings of this song ever.

The Leprechaun Brothers - Danny Boy