The McKameys “Sing a Song About the Lamb” cleverly following the old sacrificial lamb to the old gods to the new lamb who is a Son of a God. Plodding ‘grass gospel.
Let’s get even more old Sunday school with a fine old album: American Folk Songs for Christmas, brought to you by Mike Seeger.
Included are tributes to The Jay-by “Sing Hallelujah” by Calum MacColl
The Indigo Girls don’t shy away from a healthy dose of irony, but here with “Your Holiday Song” they get authentic, beating out a gospel folk you can salute. Join in.
Zip Pain streams his dwindling consciousness with “Not Another Christmas Song” into tortured ukulele maundering that borders on punk folk. Must be heard, cannot be forgotten(forgiven).
Slushy, sudsy, and saccharine, this replacement for human life weathers on yet today. The background music is brilliant at telegraphing the ‘complex’ emotions the scenes wreak within you. Some of it is well worth sharing, i will admit. Music from Grey’s Anatomy is nearly an industry in itself, despite the season often breaks around Xmas without addressing the holidays much.
A homeless person singing about home is touching enough to almost count as a Christmas song. When the show spawns a thousand hipsters and the pop/folk song is sung by Lemonheads’ Juliana Hatfield, then we must pay attention–quick–before the character freezes to death. “Make it Home” in its entirety here. On the show here:
The holidays include more than Christmas, as many other cultures get holy-rolly this time of year for their own simpatico reasons.
Thus we include a mention to the Wiccan-mystic underground fantasy creatures who worry about the big bell overhead. “The Bells of Fraggle Rock” mentions no Santa, no JC, no mistletoe… but it is in the spirit of the season relying on faith–not proof.
Spin off of a spin off, this eight season working class manifesto launched some careers. Penny Marshall later directed “Big.” Cindy Williams went on to be a professional guest star. David Lander developed Multiple Sclerosis. Michael McKean collected several Oscar and Emmy nominations.
The latter two as Lenny and Squiggy gave us some musical mirth, including “The Jolliest Fat Man,” an expose of ’60s folk which reveals how gruesome iconoclasm can be.
I’m disallowing musical revue shows, of which the ’60s are replete. No Andy Williams, Dean Martin, or even Red Skelton. But some shows do feature the musical adventures of fictional folk, so they loophole in.
The Monkees only lasted a couple years (1966-1968) so not much Christmas music. One of their missteps was the 3/4 reunion song from a mid-‘seventies album, “Christmas is My Time of Year.” All of the pop, with none of the counterculture they were known for.
One novelty, however, is the 16th Century villancico, “Riu Chiu.” This Spanish song celebrated the kingfisher bird chasing the wolf away from the Virgin Mary right around nativity and had been popularized previously by The Kingston Trio. But these fake musicians shine here with their unaccompanied angelic harmony for this episode.
While The Brady Bunch has their own TV family Christmas album, it’s all traditional music, nothing the least novel.
The Partridge Family‘s Christmas album almost suffers the same fate, but includes one original: “My Christmas Card to You.” It features David Cassidy thinking of and singing to you (and family). Swoon.
