Here are a couple of quick points, in response to a comment from yesterday.
Some people don’t like Christmas songs because they find them too familiar or overly sentimental. But I have been reminded that some people don’t like Christmas songs because they don’t like Christmas. I sympathize. It does seem so arbitrary to just pick a month and then say we’re all supposed to be happy and get along with everybody. If your life isn’t like that the other 11 months of the year, then Christmas ain’t gonna do it for you.
The message of the season may not be that it’s a wonderful life. It may be that life sucks — believe me, sometimes it royally sucks — but we carry on anyway. We rise above. We carve out that little hollow in the snow and curl up for warmth in a cold, cold world.
Next, the commenter recommends a Christmas song with Tom Waits and Peter Murphy. Yes, great song, but it’s been misidentified. The song in question is “This Holiday Season.” The song is an imaginary duet between Tom Waits and Peter Murphy (lead singer of Bauhaus), done as a parody of the infamous David Bowie-Bing Crosby number “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth.” It’s actually by the Athens, GA band Porn Orchard. The band was together from 1986-92, and consisted of Curtiss Pernice (guitar), Ted Hafer (bass) and Sam Mixon (drums). I e-mailed Mixon last night and he informed me that the part of Tom Waits was played by Pernice, with Hafer doing Pete Murphy. The voices are eerily accurate and the opening tune is a wonderful parody of Waits’ “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me).”
Since Porn Orchard, Mixon has been in the bands Poolside and The Sunshine Fix, and he’s also worked with Vic Chesnutt. More recently, he released his first solo project, final 8 demo. Visit his website and blog.
And speaking of imaginary duets and Bing Crosby (there’s a Google search for you), how about a trio of Crosbys? The math goes like this: “We Three Kings” performed as a combination parody of both the Door’s “Riders on the Storm” and “People Are Strange” is funny. “We Three Kings” performed by a trio of Bing Crosbys is funny. Put ‘em together and you triple the funny.
“We Three Bings” comes from a truly odd album, Blame It on Christmas!, a fake compilation of Christmas tunes from around the world, a put-on concocted by two ad execs from Ann Arbor, Michigan. For you youngsters out there, it helps to know that Bing Crosby was once the spokesman for Minute Maid® orange juice, beginning in 1948 and continuing up through his death in 1977.
Porn Orchard – This Holiday Season — BUY
The Three Bings – We Three Bings — BUY