Pushing the Snark-o-Meter All the Way to Twelve
Thursday, Feb. 01, 2007 at 8:24 a.m.
No Thursday 13 today! I�m going to spend some time and words on the Smed-tastic Faboo Mix of Holiday Songs and Other Madness of Aural Ecstasy, sent to me my the Absolute Audiophiliac known as smedindy. Oh, and to be completely infantile for a moment � I got a mix CD from Smed and most of you didn�t! NEENER!
Do They Know It�s Christmas? -- Band-Aid
I have loved this song from its debut in 198- . . . oh, what year was that? Back when they had music videos on MTV, I suppose. I remember the talk about giving Bob Geldof the Nobel Peace Prize. I remember the images of starving children in Somalia and elsewhere. And now, over 25 years later, I wonder where the groups like Farm-Aid and Band-Aid and Live-Aid are? I also, considering Darfur and elsewhere, was anything accomplished?
Little Saint Nick -- The Beach Boys
Um, I really dislike this song. I�m not a fan of the Beach Boys in general (Pet Sounds not withstanding) but my dislike of this particular song has little to do with the Beach Boys themselves. Back in the day, I worked as a stage technician in a large opera/touring show house, and lots of local groups also performed there. Every year, I was treated to the local Children�s Choir Christmas concert, a group of (mostly) brats who were only surpassed in unlikeability by their choir leaders, who charged exorbitant amounts of money to the families of these little darlings to watch them do show choir to songs that the directors never paid one lick of royalties for. I was stuck doing sound board for these gigs, because they insisted that each little darling have a solo, but we didn�t have 300 mikes, so we had to choreograph this dance of sharing mikes for each brat�s single solo line while the directors were screaming in my ear that the kids didn�t have a compressed, uber-tweaked, enclosed studio sound in this cavernous, old, 1920�s opera house. I eventually refused to ever work these shows again due to their �abuse�, which my boss gleefully passed on to the directors of this group at a pre-production meeting because he hated them too.
So anyway, one time they sang this song.
2000 Miles -- The Pretenders
Oh, Chrissy Hynde has a voice like no other. Hynde sang the vocals on the Moodswings album Moodfood for track #9, "State of Independence Part II", which is one of my favorite tracks from that album, as well as track #3 which features Jeff Beck on guitar. This is a lovely song to me because of the line �he�ll be back at Christmastime�, a beautiful childlike sentiment that we never seem to outgrow. Someone is always missing someone at Christmas.
Christmas Wrapping -- The Waitresses
This song is a fun ditty about the stress of the Holidays, sung in the way that only 1981 New Wave could bring us! Seriously, this kind of sound would never fly now. Can you imagine the Waitresses trying to sound like this on American Idol? However, I defy anyone to not be tapping their toes when the horn section starts up.
Jesus Christ -- Big Star
This is a great piece of secular music that could easily be sung at a Midnight Mass. It�s a simple lyric composition that�s easy to sing. I don�t think I�ve ever heard this song before, but the sound reminds me of an American version of Badfinger. As I understand it, someone at The 70�s Show must have been a Big Star fan. I know I�ve heard a bit of their music before, and they are one of those groups where you hear them on KCDX and think, �Oh yeah! That band! They�re . . . um. . .�
Jesus Let Me In -- John Strohm
Oh, that guy! From the Lemonheads and Blake Babies! I only know of this guy peripherally, mostly from Smed telling me about him, but I rather like this track. I think I�ll have to check out Vestavia now. I like this kind of music, but it seems that when it first came out in the 90�s, I was apparently listening to other stuff. I�ve been doing a lot of catching up lately on latter-day music (that is, music from the recent past, not the LDS church).
Okay, that�s enough for now.
On this day in 1964, Governor Matthew Welsh of Indiana declares "Louie, Louie" as recorded by The Kingsmen (originally by Richard Berry & The Pharaohs) "pornographic". And while the FCC couldn't figure out the lyrics, the governor's move backfires by making the song one of the most covered titles in existence.
For your edification, these are, in fact, the lyrics that Welsh was concerned about:
Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go
Fine little girl waits for me
Catch a ship across the sea
Sail that ship about, all alone
Never know if I make it home
Three nights and days I sail the sea
Think of girl, constantly
On that ship, I dream she's there
I smell the rose in her hair.
See Jamaica, the moon above
It won't be long, me see me love
Take her in my arms again
Tell her I'll never leave again
Oh, yeah, I�m completely offended. Did that offend you? Let me show you something offensive:
Okay, perhaps that was just more freakish than offensive. How about:
Okay, that�s just funny. Oh, here is something good and offensive passed off as a children�s toy:
But why do I really crave me some pancakes from Sambo�s�?
Bad Valkyrie. Bad.