Hello, partygoers! Ho, ho, ho! And a merry holiday season to you!
For this whole month, we’ve handed over control of the old gramophone to our friend David M. – whose band No FUn has been featured a couple of times on the Listenig ng Party. David, a true-blue Christmas music maniac, has put together two mixtapes of some of his favourite holiday songs.
So, if you love Christmas, and you love Christmas music, and you love the idea of David, Mary and David talking about Christmas music, then you’re going to love the Listening Party this month!
Please enjoy:
- The Beatles – “Christmas Time is Here Again” – Free as a Bird EP, 1995 (Originally recorded November 1967)
- Mindy Smith – “Santa Will Find You” – My Holiday, 2007
- Andrea Perry – “Christmas with Fat Aunt Bette” – Ho Ho Ho Spice: A Hospice Awareness and Benefit Project, 2002
- Kate Rusby – “Cornish Wassailing” – The Frost is All Over, 2015
- Lyle Lovett – “Christmas Morning” – The Road to Ensenada, 1996
- Poly Styrene – “Black Christmas” – Black Christmas, 2010
- The Goons – “I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas” – The World of the Goons, 1978
- The Christmas Jug Band – “Don’t They Know It’s Christmas” – Uncorked, 2002
- The Len Price 3 – “It’s Christmas Time, Ebenezer” – Christmas a Go-Go, 2008
- Sandra Bernhard – “White Christmas” – Without You I’m Nothing, 1987
- Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert – “Can I Interest You in Hanukkah?” – A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All, 2008
- The Malibooz – “Carol of the Swells” – A Malibu Kind of Christmas, 1992
- T.V. Smith – “Xmas Bloody Xmas” – Xmas Bloody Xmas, 2000
- Buckcherry – “Christmas is Here” – Christmas is Here, 2010
- Tracey Thorn – “Tinsel and Lights” – Tinsel and Lights, 2012
- Glasvegas – “A Snowflake Fell (and It Felt Like a Kiss)” – A Snowflake Fell (and It Felt Like a Kiss) EP, 2008
- Emerson, Lake and Palmer – “Nutrocker” – Pictures at an Exhibition, 1971
Thanks for listening. Carol on!
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Ah, the long-awaited Christmas Listening Party! I had it on while I was doing some painstaking tracing and scanning for my holiday card design. It kept my spirits up. I agree with most of Mary’s Christmassy-ness assessments.
BTW, “David, Mary and David” is a great name for a 60s folk trio with an orphan Christmas song! My sister says some churches won’t sing Christmas carols until Christmas week and there aren’t a lot of Advent hymns, so I’ll have to write some lyrics in the style of DM&D and send them in.
Say, who have guessed David M. was such a Christmas song connoisseur? That only goes to show you can’t judge a band by its covers.
I’m kind of a fan of “Good King Wenceslas” and its tale of miserable weather, package delivery and warm feet. I love the scene in Love, Actually where Hugh Grant’s PM character goes looking for Natalie door-to-door and the three little girls ask if he’s caroling and he sings GKW half-assedly until his chauffeur joins in with his rich baritone and broadly-rolled Rs.
Not a lot of Advent hymns??? Geez, there’s enough for four weeks anyway!
I’m glad the show helped you through the mind-numbing chores of Christmas – futile, seemingly endless tasks which are best expressed by the boring, repetitive lyrics of “Deck the Halls”.
We’ll be performing the weird and wonderful “Good King Wenceslas”-a-thon at a few more shows this Christmas. (Now at thirty-nine versions, I believe.)
Happy holidays!
Love,
Mary and David
This episode was very special and touching for me. If you may remember, I’ve mentioned my late friend Sean in my writings on more than one occasion. Sean was a close friend for over 30 years and like David, an audiophile and connoisseur of all kinds of music. In fact, many of the stories David tells on the Listening Party podcast are the same ones Sean used to tell me. It’s no secret that Sean would have loved your podcast and it’s partly why I listen to it…because it reminds me of him. Even more so with this episode, I’ll explain.
One Christmas long ago, when Sean and I had little income, we decided to make Christmas mixtapes for one another to enjoy, REAL tapes. We both tried our hardest to include the most esoteric and obscure holiday music we could find which wasn’t easy yet challenging. I actually included on Sean’s tape to him, “I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas” by the Goons! I almost drove off the road when you played that on this last show, I haven’t heard it in so many years! Later in the show you mentioned “Fairytale in New York” by the Pogues, a song Sean included his tape to me which he titled “Xmas in Sean’s Ears.”
Upon listening to this episode, I dug Sean’s tape out. I used to listen to it every year at Christmas, a tradition that has come to a standstill since I no longer have a tape deck. That may have to change since I’ve realized I still own this treasure from my departed friend. Thank you for such a magnificent episode and podcast, it truly resonates within me for reasons I cannot explain. All I can be is thankful for David and Mary and all the listening fun they’ve shared with us all. Happiest of Holidays to all…
https://flic.kr/p/2hZqxkr
Thank you for sharing more stories about your friend Sean, Ed. It means a lot to us that the show is special for you.
I checked out the picture of the mixtape and there were lots of songs on there I’ve never heard of, which I LOVE! So thanks for that!
Happy holidays and…Peanut duck!!!
Love,
David and Mary
Once again, Mary was spot on with her Christmaseyness scale. Great episode; some great songs, and some that I shall be returning for a refund.