Year-round Yuletide oddities
Paul Revere and The Raiders did in 1967 what many pundits (esp. Garry Trudeau in his comic strip Doonesbury) tried: talking smack about the Vietnam war by encoding references to the Revolutionary War. “Their “Valley Forge” is about suffering young men who would rather go home (for the holidays) than understand what the war is for. Psychedelic pop.
Not a year this count, but a line.
Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull) bemoans spending his life on “Trains.” But he’s got ’em figured out. On the 17.30 he usually finds friends at the end of the day. And he heard there’s an office party on the 18.05 You’ll be home for Christmas if they Take you alive. Groovy pre-Milennial pop.
“Truce for Christmas” indicates that the German/Brit soccer game of 1914 wasn’t a new thing. Apparently the Rebs/Yanks got to singing together for a bit, too. Colby Gray goes ethereal pop, which is better than a Sousa march, i reckon. Oh, all right, i dig this.
“Christmas, the Roaring ‘Twenties” is merely an impression of what music’d’ve been like then. It’s a bit of doggerel, as if for those times all were drunk/stupid, but The No Name Band lean into this so it’s either brilliant or embarrassing. Which means i gotta post it. We’ll call it pop music.
A crazy, caffeinated pop waltz “Beautiful World” rewinds the wildness of the past century, including: So it goes the bird said, Merry Christmas, baby, 1921. Not sure where we’re going, but what a flashy ride.
If you haven’t heard the–BEGAN in 1937–“His Favorite Christmas Story,” count yourself fortunate. It’s a catchy, haunting story in the vein of ‘Christmas Shoes’–maudlin, torturously sentimental. But, hell, it’s effective AF. Finally found someone beside Capital Lights who covered this. Suite Serenade featuring Laney Yelverton and Luci Feie clone the original. (Perhaps you’d prefer to waste time with the sped up [not quite chipmunk] version from some Nightcore project.) Pop.
Redhouse Gasoline whitewashes a bit with “I Love Lucy,” a satiric pop piece that thinks the whole of the US of A behaved like they did on this sitcom. No talk of nuclear weapons and struggling through… indeed! Did the USA of the 1950s Act like Jimmy Stewart in the Christmas holidays? becomes the question (though ‘Wonderful Life’ came out in the ’40s and was set in the ’30s…)–apart from do you love Lucy, too? Danceable.
The old standby “Santa Baby” asks for a light blue convertible, which should be a ’54. Not into tired old traditionals here, so let’s try punk: welcome The Dollyrots!
“A Little with Sugar” is a hard life for a young man and the problems(?) he’s got with his mama. But it starts Xmas of ’54. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen swing it. Before Steely Dan.
Jay Stansfield (feat. SAY) get poetical and altpop with their “Christmas 1954.” Not sure how this picturesque scene is the ’50s (‘ceptin’ for saying gay for gleeful). Maraca out!
Bob Tupper’s recollection of 1962 begins folk gently on the way to “Grandma’s House for Dinner.” Then–surprise–it mystically rocks pop music to a transcendent experience. As an adult he realizes/relishes its perfection. You WISH your Christmas was this fulfilling.