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No matter where I am any time of the year, complete strangers constantly come up to me on the street and shreik,
"Hey Peecat, what are your thoughts on holiday music?" By and large, I hate all of it, especially the traditional stuff, but
especially the stuff by contemporary artists trying to write a new holiday classic, like when
Brian Setzer (inbetween
fetishistically jerking-off with his guitars), reconfigures a by-the-numbers rockabilly tune, replacing the word "baby" with "Santa". Or when he performs a trad-dad number and peppers it with pseudo
Swingers lounge-speak. I'm here to tell you there are only three Xmas records worth owning: the soundtrack to
A Charlie Brown Christmas, the astonishingly-great
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector and
Christmas Album by
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. And in the case of the latter, the only track I ever play from it is
Las Mananitas, which has little to do with Chirstmas being that it's a traditional Mexican birthday song. Upon the rare chance I feel like hearing a modern take on a holiday tune, I pull out the third
Red Red Meat album
Bunny Gets Paid and cue up their version of
There's Always Tomorrow (originally from the animated TV special
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer). As I've mentioned
before, they have a bizarre way of somehow saddening any song they touch. If you don't become a weepy, pouting alcoholic after hearing this track, you must already be one.
2 comments:
What? No, The Sonics "Don't Believe in Christmas" or "Santa Claus?" Their loud, cynical f-you to sacchrine Christmas sentiment is the perfect antidote for too many holiday cookies.
mark
I actually thought of posting the Sonics track but opted for the RRM track instead. For my taste, I find it more interesting that a band could take a kitsch cut from a kid's Xmas show and make it their own.
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