Friday, December 13, 2013

HOLIDAY (MODERN): WHITE CHRISTMAS


White Christmas: The Wailers
Purchase link

I love the incongruity of this on so many levels. Firstly the whole idea of snow in Trenchtown seems likely to be counter-intuitive, at least acknowledged within the lyrical change: "not" like the ones I used to know. Secondly, both the song and the pictures of the fresh-faced youngsters seem so far removed from dreadlocked ganga images, being far more akin to early motown with a sloppy ska bluebeat. Thirdly, anything that replaces the cheese of Bing with this happy smile is just fine by me. OK, it was very early in the career of Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, presumably the 3 vocalists, and I dare so that they seldom dragged it out in their later incarnations. Legalise It it ain't. And I'm also tempted to think their elderly aunties could listen to this and muse, disappointedly, on how it all went so wrong!!

There is actually quite a strong tradition of ska-rry eyed yuletide songs in the reggae canon, so I have dug out a couple more. Here is Ding Dong Bell by the Ethiopians and Christmas Day by Barrington Levy . You might note that the youtube publisher for each goes by the monicker of  RastaClaus85 and has put up several others.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Holiday (Modern): Christmas Must Be Tonight


The Band: Christmas Must Be Tonight
[purchase]

So many “modern” original holiday songs are arch or ironic, or are novelties or are overly treacly. To my mind, it is easy to tire of these types of songs, and since the holiday season comes up every year, I appreciate songs with staying power.

I make no bones about the fact that I’m an atheist, and I have discussed here and elsewhere that I was raised Jewish, so it might be surprising that I picked this song to write about. It is a simple, beautiful, low key song with a strong Christian message. Not only that, but I’m willing to bet that no member of my family—who have listened to holiday music with me over the past quarter century plus—would guess that I’d pick this song to write about.

I’m not sure if I should admit to this in public, in a blog where I purport to opine about music, but when I listen to music, lyrics are not as important to me as the overall feel of the song. I suspect that some of that comes from the fact that with many rock songs, you can’t actually understand the lyrics, and when you do, often they are less than stellar. I mean, is “Louie, Louie,” less amazing because the lyrics are impenetrable? And I know that “Stairway to Heaven” still rocks, despite the fact that it exhorts me not to be alarmed by the bustle in my hedgerow, because it is just a spring clean for the May queen. And what exactly is an American aquarium drinker, anyway, Mr. Tweedy? Which is not to say that I don’t appreciate a good lyric, which adds to my enjoyment of pretty much any Richard Thompson or Bruce Springsteen song. Just a few weeks ago, when my son and I saw Lucero, I was struck for the first time by one of Ben Nichols’ lyrics—“It was Texas, it was Tennessee/It was exes and some wannabes.” Not deep, but clever and fun.

Maybe what I like about “Christmas Must Be Tonight,” is that it just sounds like a good Band song. Written by Robbie Robertson with lead vocals by Rick Danko backed by Levon Helm and featuring Garth Hudson’s organ, it works on its own. Robertson wrote it after the birth of his son Sebastian, and it can’t be a coincidence that the song describes how a little baby boy could “bring the people so much joy.” He intended it to be a Christmas single in 1975, but the record company wasn’t interested, so it languished until the Islands album, a collection of unreleased songs and outtakes. When The Band was good, their music had a timelessness to it, and this song fits that mold, with a gravitas that never crosses the line to overly reverent (although I have seen it referred to on another blog as “kitsch.” But what do bloggers know, anyway?). There is a “rehearsal” version that was later released as a bonus track to the Northern Lights, Southern Cross album which is faster and rocks more, and is missing the organ part. It is ordinary. (Robertson also recorded a version for the movie Scrooged with himself on vocals and a synth driven backing track that is really disappointing.)

The Band never performed the song live, but Danko, who coincidentally died 14 years ago today, did at some solo shows, and based on a few versions I’ve heard on the Internet, he played it well. But there is still something about the original version that strikes a chord, and if it doesn’t pop up on my iPod during the holidays, I make sure to throw it on my computer so that I hear it a few times.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Holiday (Modern): Toyland


R.E.M. Toyland
[From the Fan Club Only Single]

   Starting in 1988 R.E.M. rewarded its fan club members with Christmas singles. Some of them contained cover songs originally recorded by such bands as Television ("See No Evil"), The Vibrators ("Baby, Baby") and Flipper ("Sex Bomb"). Most of the time they let bassist Mike Mills handle the vocals, but in 1992 Michael Stipe sang the 1903 nugget "Toyland", popularized by the adorable Doris Day in 1964.




Holiday (Modern): Folsom Prison Christmas



For the past few years, I have been the glad recipient of postings from Santastic. Although the mashup genre may not be your bag, it certainly seems to fit the theme of "modern holiday".

Granted, most music is built on "the shoulders of others" (Isaac Newton), but the Mashup genre brings the style to the fore: take a collection of other people's songs and mash them together to create something new. This is a topic I covered at least once in my own (sadly neglected) blog >> see the right side list, but the subject of mashups deserves a re-visit at this time.

My favorite of the collection this year: banabul.com/muzik/fpc.mp3
It's a mashup of "Mr President" and Johnny Cash called Folsom Prison Christmas

[I suspect you will have to right click copy/download the file even though it is Creative Commons]


See this link for much more of this genre:http://www.christmash.com/