Monthly Archives: December 2010

Fairytale of New York

Shane MacGowan celebrated his 53rd birthday yesterday and I’m sure that the celebrations are still in full swing. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sang a song or two and perhaps even my favourite Christmas song got an airing. My sister and I have been fans of MacGowan and The Pogues for over twenty years and I still remember the first time we heard Fairytale of New York. It was late November in 1987 and we had both been surprised to hear that the lead single from their third album would be a Christmas song. We thought that only acts like Wham! and Shakin’ Stevens released Christmas songs and couldn’t imagine The Pogues doing one. Nevertheless, Irish DJ Dave Fanning had announced that he would be giving the song its first spin on his radio show and we tuned in to listen to it. The song began with just a piano and MacGowan’s distinctive voice. The use of the piano wasn’t all that unusual as that instrument had been to the fore a year earlier on Rainy Night in Soho. As we listened, the words sounded like some of MacGowan’s best material and were as far from traditional Christmas fare as you could imagine. After a couple of verses, the rest of the group came in, the tempo increased and the familiar vocals of Kirsty MacColl proved a perfect counterpoint to Shane’s growl. The song turned into a symphony and it even sounded like there were strings on it! By the time the song reached the chorus, it was apparent that this had the makings of a fine song. Then the tone of the song completely changed and Shane and Kirsty started a slagging match as they traded insults with each other. The rather mild uses of “bum”, “punk” and “old slut on junk” gave way to a sentiment that I hadn’t heard in a Christmas song up to that point. Kirsty sings:

You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last

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Merry Xmas Everybody!

Today’s holiday tune comes from 1973 and is a perennial Christmas favourite in the British Isles. Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade was their biggest selling single and the band’s sixth and final number one. I wouldn’t say the song is very well-known in the USA as the band, like a lot of glam rock groups, weren’t very successful over there. Nevertheless, I’ve chosen a version by a California-based band with a French name. Eux Autres feature siblings Nicholas and Heather Larimer from Omaha plus drummer Yoshi Nakamoto. Broken Bow is the title of the band’s third album, which was released last month. Their take on Merry Xmas Everybody replaces the driving guitar of the original with a stomping piano version that also includes some extra percussion. I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Christmas to all the regular and irregular visitors to the site this year. I’m hoping to post the final part of my 12 Songs of Christmas tomorrow, though it could be later in the week as I’m a bit behind schedule. Well, it is Christmas, after all. Have a good one, folks

Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade cover) – Eux Autres

The 12 Songs of Christmas Archive

The Junky’s Christmas

So far, my selection of Yuletide favourites has included songs about excessive wine-consumption, a pregnant, jailed prostitute and a critique of the commercial aspects of the season. However, I’ve decided to lighten things up today with a fifteen-minute, spoken-word tale of a heroin addict’s desperate attempts to obtain some kind of a high on December 25th. Merry Christmas, folks! The track is called The Junky’s Christmas and is narrated by its author William S. Burroughs with musical backing provided by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy. It appears on an album called Spare Ass Annie & Other Tales that he did with the hip-hop act in 1993. It was also made into a 20-minute claymation short that year, with Burroughs again providing the narration. The story had been published in book form in 1989 as part of a collection of the author’s short fiction and early writings entitled Interzone. It tells the tale of a destitute junkie named Danny who has been released after three days in the drunk tank and follows him as he spends Christmas day trying to score drugs or else the cash to buy them. The original short story is full of crackling dialogue and simple but effective language and adapts itself well to both visual and verbal media. The use of music in the version below complements Burroughs’ narration quite well and even includes musical quotations from well-known hymns and carols at certain points. Despite the nature of its characters and its subject matter, The Junky’s Christmas is worth sticking with until the end and possesses a lot more of the Christmas spirit than you’d think. Look out for a song that does something similar on Saturday and a more upbeat one tomorrow

The Junky’s Christmas – William S. Burroughs

The 12 Songs of Christmas Archive

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Baby, It’s Cold Outside, in common with a lot of the Christmas songs I’ve chosen this week, isn’t actually about Christmas. The song was written way back in 1944 by a songwriter called Frank Loesser. Many of Frank’s songs appeared in musicals and he received five Academy Award nominations for Best Song. His only Oscar, though, was for Baby, It’s Cold Outside, which appeared in the 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter. The song is a duet between an eager gentleman and a reluctant lady and its success at the Oscars spawned the release of no fewer than seven different versions later that year. Four of these made it onto the singles charts and my favourite of those is the extremely playful one by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan that I already posted here as part of a post about some particularly cold weather that visited these shores back in January. The above photo was taken on Henry St in Limerick a few weeks ago and, currently, it’s even colder outside, baby. The duet features a back-and-forth conversation between a courting couple that seems to take place in the man’s home. The girl’s constant attempts to return to her parents’ are continually thwarted by her suitor’s efforts to get her to stay, as he stresses the so-called dangers posed by the low temperature outside. Despite its apparent quaintness, the song continues to be popular with new versions being added each year. I’ve chosen a duet between Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone that appears on the soundtrack to Elf (2003). Look out for another Christmas duet before the week is out

Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Frank Loesser) – Zooey Deschanel & Leon Redbone

The 12 Songs of Christmas Archive

All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit

Today’s Christmas tune is an indie classic from Half Man Half Biscuit. The band was formed in the eighties by Birkenhead natives Nigel Blackwell and Neil Crossley and their debut album, Back in the DHSS (1985), was the biggest selling independent record of 1986. They were favoured by John Peel and then mainstream media tried to turn them into a success. The popular Channel 4 TV show The Tube invited them to appear on the show twice, but the band turned them down both times. Their perfectly good reason was that they would be otherwise occupied at Prenton Park watching their beloved Tranmere Rovers in action. A concern with the minutiae of popular culture in all its forms is the prevailing theme in their songs and the band’s love of football is one they return to again and again. It’s evident in songs like I Was a Teenage Armchair Honved Fan, Bob Wilson Anchorman and their critique of the modernisation of the sport, Friday Nights & the Gates are Low. Their song titles draw on their listeners’ knowledge of popular culture and that is also the case with their ode to table football, All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit. This title has been erroneously attributed to a 1963 UK hit for Dora Bryan called All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. In fact, Bryan reached number 20 that year with a song called All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle. Certainly, her song parodied a 1948 US success for Spike Jones that did indeed highlight his desire for seasonal dental work. Half Man Half Biscuit’s request appeared in 1986 on the b-side of their Trumpton Riots single and is now available on a single CD that brings together their first album and the subsequent Trumpton Riots EP

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So Much Wine

So Much Wine is a song that’s set on Christmas Day and chronicles a tense relationship that appears to be on the brink due to one party’s over-consumption of alcohol. Its lyric was written by Rennie Sparks and the music by her husband Brett and the pair are the driving force behind the alt-country band, The Handsome Family. The duo are based in Chicago and formed nearly twenty years ago with Texan Brett on guitar and keyboards and New Yorker Rennie on bass and banjo. The two share vocals, with Brett’s deep baritone usually to the fore. The influence of country and bluegrass is evident in the band’s style and Rennie’s lyrics often read like short stories. Southern Gothic fiction is another inspiration on their music and the writer that I mostly hear in their songs is that wonderful creator of short stories, Flannery O’Connor. The narrator of So Much Wine would appear to be male and he addresses a person who is most likely a woman as he refers to her affectionately as “Butterfly”, indicating a possible romantic involvement as well. The song begins in the middle of a Christmas Day dispute between the narrator and Butterfly. He has been rendered speechless by a series of actions that have seen her throw her clothes in the snow, burn her hair and stumble over chairs. After she passes out on the floor with bloody teeth he drives out to the highway and watches the stars until the sun comes up. He then returns for his own clothes and finds that she’s still lying on the floor. In the chorus, he attempts to dispense some words of wisdom to her, though his advice will most likely fall on deaf ears:

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Music For Airports

The music video has been in a tailspin for many years, but things are looking up in Limerick at the moment. A duo known as The Rubberbandits are proving quite popular on YouTube with the video for their ode to equine transport, Horse Outside. A horse of a different colour, however, is fellow Limerick native, Keith Forde. Keith used to play guitar for one of my favourite Limerick bands, Vesta Varro, but now he’s flying solo. Last year, Keith came third in the Folk/Singer Songwriter section of an international songwriting competition with Pop Them Pills, his debut single. Well, this year he went one better as he won a competition organised by Hot Press magazine and New York University. He’s in good company as this prize has previously been won by Sinead O’Connor, The Frames and Laura Izibor. The rather impressive award he received was the production of a music video for his winning song, Love at the Airport. Tying in with the song’s theme, the video was shot at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Co. Limerick

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Winter Wonderland

Last year, I remember being quite surprised when I heard that Bob Dylan was going to release an album of Christmas songs. Still, Dylan’s one guy whose albums I always check out and I’ve enjoyed some of his recent ones just as much as the early ones. I wasn’t very impressed by the choice of carols and hymns on the collection, but I still gave it a listen. Christmas in the Heart is not one of my favourites, however. In fact, I only like one track on it and that’s his sprightly take on the old chestnut, Winter Wonderland. It was written nearly seventy years ago and has been recorded by everyone from Elvis to Radiohead. I actually prefer the version by Ray Charles, though I’ve decided to go for Bob today. I’ve always liked its melody and simple lyrics, in particular the song’s third verse. Take it to the bridge:

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