Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Christmas Mix 07

I love Christmas music. I love the normal stuff; the Bing Crosby and all that. I love the crazy stuff too. Each year I made a mix up of my favorite Christmas songs that I own. My collection grows each year, and so something must go. I don't know what I'll cut next year, cause this year was killer.

Here it is, the dopest Christmas mix tape yet!

1. Zapp – Please Come Home For Christmas
2. Red Simpson – Truckin’ Trees For Christmas
3. James Brown – Go Power At Christmas Time
4. The Who – Christmas
5. Chuck Berry – Run Rudolph Run
6. James Brown – Soulful Christmas
7. Prince- Another Lonely Christmas
8. Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis
9. Bobby “Boris” Picket – Monsters’ Holiday
10. Bob Rivers – I Am Santa Claus
11. James Brown – Santa Clause, Go Straight To the Ghetto
12. Dick Farina & Ric Von Schmidt – Xmas Island
13. Ry Cooder – Christmas In Southgate
14. The Youngsters – Christmas In Jail
15. Leadbelly – Christmas Is A-Comin’
16. The Beatles – Christmas Time Is Here Again
17. Ray Stevens – Santa Clause Is Watching You
18. Bob Seger – Sock It To Me Santa
19. Brave Combo – Must Be Santa
20. Kay Martin & Her Bodyguards – I Want A Casting Couch For Christmas
21. John Lennon – Happy Xmas
22. Bob Dorough & Miles Davis – Blue Xmas
23. The Sonics – Don’t Believe In Christmas
24. James Brown – Hey America
25. Simon & Garfunkel – Silent Night

1. Zapp's "Please Come Home For Christmas"

Electrofunk and mistletoe by the candlelight. Curl up with a bottle of Alize and get ready for some g-funk style beats replete with the boice box.

2. Red Simpson's "Truckin' Trees For Christmas"

Trucking has to be one of the most blue collar professions in the United States. This song makes me want to end up at some dive bar on Christmas, cheering up the truckers traveling through. The song is sweet, but the truth is bitter.

3. James Brown's "Go Power At Christmas Time"

The JB's lay out the funk hard on this tune. Go power seems as apt as soul power when it comes to wipin' smiles on peoples faces and rambling on about ski party movies you were in and dance crazes you are about to create.

4. The Who's "Christmas"

Little Tommy doesn't know who Christ was, but he's happy to open up The Night Before Christmas in brail and then pick his nose between beating the crap out of his cousins at pinball. Not necessarily Christmas-y, but it takes place on Christmas, and that's enough to make this list.

5. Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run"

More than any other act, with the possible exception of AC/DC, all of Chuck Berry's songs sound more or less the same. In addition to his one guitar lick, Berry is also credited with bringing memorable lyrics to rock, and the highlight here is definitely the classic claim "Rudolph, [. . .] you're the mastermind."

6. James Brown's "Soulful Christmas"

Perhaps the funkiest of Brown's many, many Christmas songs, this number is a classic. Instead of wishing a happy new year, Brown tells you to "have a new year." Um...., thanks. You can also have a good cheer, or a good chair depening on the verse. The part that makes this song so special though is the last minute, where Brown exhorts fans to come see him in concert so that he can tell them Merry Christmas, ... but he'll only do it at the show. Won't you come to see his show? Good God!

7. Prince's "Another Lonely Christmas"

This song seems to follow along with Prince's film Under the Cherry Moon, but it was recorded two years earlier. Perhaps he wrote the movie after an idea he got from the song. Addressed to an ex-girlfriend's little sister (get your minds out of the gutter), Prince mourns the death of his true love, who died the previous Christmas. Although some parts of it are still funny (who drinks banana dacquiris, especially until they are blind?), overall the song remains one of Prince's most touching tunes.

8. Run DMC's "Christmas In Hollis"

For the longest time I thought this song opened with the lines "It's Christmas down in Hollis, Queens / Mama's makin' chicken and collard greens." It always made me hungry for collard greens, even though I'm not even sure I've ever had them. My favorite part is right after DMC boasts that every year he busts Christmas carols. The beat finagles a medley of Christmas classics into b-boy style and becomes the dopest thing since Eddie Murphy's Christmas installment of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

9. Bobby "Boris" Picket's "Monster's Holiday"

This follow up to "Monster's Mash" is a blatant rip-off of the original's beat with just a set of new lyrics about hijacking Santa's sleigh. It ges repetitive, but its an ultrarare novelty nonetheless.

10. Bob Rivers' "I Am Santa Claus"

In this "Iron Man" send up, Bob Rivers even sounds like Ozzy, and his band definitely pulls off Black Sabbath, plus a tinge of Manheim Steamroller. The lyrics are crazy-witty. My personal favorite: "Give him cookies and beer / He'll come to your house first next year!"

11. James Brown's "Santa Claus, Go Straight To the Ghetto"

This ploy to turn Santa into a socialist makes the rampant capitalism of the season all that much sadder. You know they should be shameful after this song.

12. Dick Farina and Ric Von Schmidt's "Xmas Island"

Leave it to Joan Baez's brother-in-law to feel deserving only cause he hasn't committed any crimes recently. Giving the personnel, I'd hoped for a rant against sweat shop labor. Oh well.

13. Ry Cooder's "Christmas In Southgate"

A depression-era dance tune. The closest I've heard to a polka ballad, if such a thing can exist, this tune from My Name Is Buddy is fantastic. Who wouldn't give up whiskey for a simultaneous visit from Santa AND Jesus.

14. The Youngsters' "Christmas In Jail"

A reminisce of running into Santa's sleigh while out drunk driving. At least the prisoners get turkey.

15. Leadbelly's "Christmas Is A Comin'"

The oldest song on this compilation, Leadbelly croons on about how roosters celebrate Christmas. He also lets us know that Santa Clause comes to Christmas on a Christmas Day.

16. The Beatles' "Christmas Time Is Here Again"

This really should have gone on Magical Mystery Tour

17. Ray Stevens' "Santa Claus Is Watching You"

Great 50s-style R&B sax fills. Ray Stevens falsetto lifts this track out of novelty-land and makes is competely rad. Still not sure about a flying camel, though.

18. Bob Seger's "Sock It To Me Santa"

The opening here sounds like the opening of a 70s horror film, but the song itself is the grittiest Christmas song never released by James Brown.

19. Brave Combo's "Must Be Santa"

This song is just a great list of characteristics of Santa shouted against an accordion-fueled break beat. The best of Christmas polkas.

20. Kay Martin's "I Want A Casting Couch For Christmas"

This song is drrty. It makes the tabloids look clean. The girl wants to be able to read the script off of the ceiling. If she gets a casting couch, you know its gonna be made of coal.

21. John Lennon's "Happy Xmas"

John's a little idealistic, but who am I to rob him of his opportunism? If nothing else he got a chorus of little kids active in helping to stop the war.

22. Bob Dorough & Miles Davis' "Blue Xmas"

The best christmas-based jazz song ever. I've never heard bell ringers debased elsewhere. The Pre-Schoolhouse Rocks Dorough sounds particularly dour.

23. The Sonics' "Don't Believe In Christmas"

This ripoff of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" rocks out over a rollicking beat filled out with some wicked organ soloing.

24. James Brown's "Hey America"

This song is great for James' attempts to be multicultural. In order to celebrate Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, he brings out the a salam a lakem and the hava negeilah. He even brings up the danke shan, even though "this is the United States, you know?"

25. Simon & Garfunkel's "Silent Night/7 O'Clock News"

This would have been chilling with just the "Silent Night." The addition of news reports about everything from King planning protests to the death of Lenny Bruce to Vietnam protests makes it arguably the most touch piece in the S&G catalog, and undoubtedly the best use ever of a traditional Christmas song.

Simply "Silent Night would have been

2 comments:

Matthew Webber said...

Fun list. It's completely different, and better, than what you hear on the 24-7 Christmas radio station, that's for sure. My own list would have to include Bing Crosby's Hawaiian Christmas song.

Matt Groneman said...

Melekeleiki Makais a definite favorite.