BROADCAST #52
AIR DATE: 12-26-06

I imagine many of you are somehow recovering from the War on Christmas. I hope there were no casualties on your end. I am in Djibouti Africa at the moment but Engineer X and I went into the studio and recorded this earlier in the month for your enjoyment. I tried to throw in some songs with Christmassnicity to make the show special, but they’re all special, aren’t they? Sure they are!
Well Fanatics, this is the last show for the year and I am damn sorry that I can’t be in the studio to do it with you live. Thinking that just a year ago I started doing this show again, it sure went by quickly. Next year, we will listen to more great music and we will get up close on some really great bands and albums. I want to do some more album retrospectives and try to get some classic albums played all the way through. I will also be contacting some bands to see if I can get some tracks that will be rare so the broadcasts will be as interesting and Fanatic as possible. It’s been a real challenge to not repeat songs week to week and I have, for the most part, pulled it off. It’s forcing me to really work hard and constantly dig for new music for us to listen to.
The show has given a new purpose to my records and it is so much better to be able to bring them into the station every week rather than just let them sit on the shelf just for my listening. I perhaps work too hard on this weekly broadcast, the notes, etc. I don’t know any other way to do it though. I like the whole ritual, from picking out the records, to listening to them in the order I want to play them for you and then bringing them into the station, the whole routine is great.
Thank you for tuning in and thanks for the kind things you have said to me in passing. It happens now and then, someone will stop me at the grocery store and tell me they liked last week’s show or ask me about a song I played, I think that’s really cool. I got some great letters from people who started checking out records that they might never have heard had they not tuned in. That is what it’s all about. When I get back in January, if I make it back, I will have some interesting stories to tell and of course, some really good music. I already have some shows ready that I have been working on for weeks that I think you’re really going to like.
Until then, STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry
Christopher Guest - Rod Serling Explains The First Christmas: One of the many amazing cuts on the National Lampoon Radio Hour box set on Rhino. Some amazing stuff in this collection. SNL cast members and comedy kings like Bryan-Doyle Murray and Harold Ramis are all over this set.
Wesley Willis - Merry Christmas: This is one of WW’s happier songs. Towards the end of his life, Wes wrote increasingly about the voices in his head and used a lot of vulgarity and lost a bit of his humor. I think he was in a lot of pain towards the end of his life. My favorite Wesley songs were the ones where he talked about the bands and people he liked. I must confess a soft spot for some of the tracks of his we’ve played on our show here like Saddam Hussein. I would like to know, once and for all, just how many CDs Wesley made. I have quite a few but I bet there’s more.
Slayer - Skeleton Christ: From the recently released Christ Illusion album. I waited quite a long time for this album to come out. I kept hearing it was coming out, it was about to come out, it’s out and it never was. Finally it came out. Again, I make the Coelacanth analogy. If there really is multiple lives and we will come back as something else, perhaps whoever or whatever is in charge, to let me come back as one of those. I could reside in the dark and frozen depths and whenever I happen to rise to the top of the water, they can say, “Look, it’s that old bastard again!” as they poke my dead and chewed upon carcass with a pointed stick.
Tralala - Christmas Never Comes (When You’re Alone): Perfect for our post-Christmas War soundtrack. Theirs is a war on Christmas you know. At this point, they’re cleaning up the carnage and waiting for the returns, the dreaded returns! This is from the Falala-La-La With Tralala CD. I guess you would call it an EP as it’s nowhere near album length. It’s a good one though
Tom Waits - Christmas Card From Hooker In Minneapolis: From the Blue Valentine album. I went backwards through the Waits discography. The first two records I got were Raindogs and Swordfishtrombones and went from those to Frank’s Wild Years. They all had a similar feel to them and they were records I could play over and over. I have said this before: Keith Richards work on Waits albums is stellar. It took me awhile to get to Waits’ earlier sound like the Blue Valentine album, Nighthawks At The Diner, etc. I always like the lyrics on Waits albums but really like the music on Rain, Sword and Frank’s and where he took it from there. Tonight’s selection is another great Waits story, he has so many.
The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight): From the Brain Drain album. An ok Ramones album but can’t be considered a classic. I am stuck on the early Ramones stuff, the first three studio albums and first live album, It’s Alive are my personal favorites, although there’s good to great songs on all Ramones albums. I’m glad that The Ramones had a song that was somewhat Christmas themed so we could get them onto our list.
Jimi Hendrix - Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night/Auld Lang Syne: Many of you Hendrix Fanatics probably has this medley in varying quality on different bootlegs. I think there was a 12” of some of this released at one point. I always sought out Hendrix bootlegs but never went after all the different picture sleeves from the different territories. This track came out on CD many years ago and it was great to finally hear all the music so clearly. It’s really nothing to write home about as far as what Hendrix could do with a guitar but it’s still really cool and it fits in perfectly with our post-war broadcast.
The Fall - Christmastide: Also known as Xmas With Simon, which was released on the High Tension Line 7” & 12” in 1990. I was also released on a later CD version of Shift-Work and the Listening In comp. CD. This is an alternative version only found on a limited ed. 2CD version of Levitate released in September of 1997. For all this Fall information and so much more, here’s an address that might be of some use: http://www.visi.com/fall/
Christopher Guest, David Hurdon & Gilda Radner - Kung Fu Christmas: From the National Lampoon Radio Hour box set. Such a strange song and perfect for the show.
Joseph Spence - Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town: From the Living On The Hallelujah Side album. We have listened to Mr. Spence a couple of times before at least. I don’t think you would be able to forget his performance of Will The Circle Be Unbroken and on this performance of Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, it sounds like Mr. Spence is working on the same bottle of rum since the last time we listened to him. I first got turned onto Joseph Spence many years ago when someone gave me a copy of his album Happy All The Time as it had just hit CD. I heard that voice and was immediately hooked and sought out all the recordings of him I could find. Fanatic is as Fanatic does as you well know. They’re all good, too.
Duke Ellington - Santa Claus, Bring My Man Back To Me: Trying to write about Duke Ellington is like trying to write about music itself. We have listened to him on this show a few times, not as much as we should as he’s as big a deal as they come. I really like his early recordings when the growling trumpet sound was in style. He had some amazing trumpet players like Cootie Williams and Bubber Miley. There’s a lot of compilations and retrospective CDs of Duke Ellington and picking out a couple to check out can be difficult. Some of the first ones I got were The Original Decca Recordings and Small Groups Vols. 1&2. The Great Paris Concert is also really great.
Babs Gonzales - Be-Bop Santa Claus: This is the second time we’ve listened to something from this CD, Saturday Afternoon With Babs At Small’s Paradise. Johnny Griffin plays saxophone on this date and Clark Terry plays trumpet. Griffin is relevant to me because he’s on a lot of the early Thelonius Monk recordings on Riverside before Charlie Rouse came on board to play sax. Clark Terry is on a lot of Ellington recordings. Gonzales was a kind of hipster, hustler and sometimes musician. I don’t think he ever got all that famous, seeing that there’s not a lot of music of his out there and his voice isn’t one that’s going to launch any ships but there’s nothing like him, he’s a great find.
Gilda Radner, Bill Murray - The Evil Santa: Another track from the National Lampoon Radio Hour box set. This is a face-off between Radner in her little girl character and a very mean Santa played by Bill Murray. The thing that always amazed me about Radner was that she was able to create really beautiful moments while being really funny. There were moments on SNL when she was simultaneously hilarious and touching, she was brilliant. How great was that cast?!
James White & The Blacks - Christmas With Satan: From the Infinite Zero pressing of the Off White album. I believe it’s on the Ze Records version as well. James is associated with the No Wave Scene but I always thought he was a Jazz player too dangerous for the regular Jazz clubs in NYC who found a scene he could play in. He doesn’t seem to have the same reference points as the other bands associated with No Wave and he always seemed removed from it. He’s like the other Chet Baker or something. You definitely want to check out the Buy and Off White albums. I first heard these albums many years ago and the first time around, I didn’t know how to listen to them but then I came back around to them in the 80’s and found them to be great.
Rev. A. W. Nix - Death Might Be Your Christmas Gift: From the Complete Works Vol. 1 on Document. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this guy’s work. How many times have we listened to one of his micro-sermons? I can’t find any information on the man. All his sermons seem to have same basic theme: do right otherwise you will burn in hell for eternity. It’s a marvelous concept, isn’t it? Screw up in your short life and have all of eternity to make up for it.
Charlie Parker - White Christmas: Another track from the Complete Live Performances On Savoy set. I know I have only played Parker from this collection. I have all the Dial and Verve stuff and it’s cool but the live stuff is my favorite, especially having read the Ross Russell book about him and how he lived and played for so many hours on end. It’s always amazing to me that even with the relatively lo-tech nature of these recordings, Parker’s tone can still be heard. He used to play a few different horns as he had a problem holding onto them. I think I read at one point, he would have to give his horn to the owner of the club when he was done for the night so he wouldn’t pawn it before the next night. I think that’s why you see pictures of him with a plastic sax.
Birthday Party Big Jesus Trashcan: From the Birthday party’s classic Junkyard album. Many years ago when I was in Black Flag, one of the people who worked there was part owner of a label in America that had released the Birthday Party’s Prayers On Fire album. I think he was negotiating to get Junkyard or something, I am not sure what was happening but in any case, he ended up with a copy of the album on a cassette and we heard it before it came out. It was insane upon first listen, much different than Prayers, which I was still trying to get my head around. I heard that tape a few times, and started listening to Prayers more and then they became one of my favorite bands of all time and still are to this day. You Fanatics are all over this band, I’m sure but if you’re not, you should at least check out this album and the two EPs that came afterwards: The Bad Seed and Mutiny In Heaven. Can’t wait to hear what Nick Cave is going to do next with his Grinderman project. By the way, some of you Fanatics will want to know this: There is a one-sided limited edition 1000 7” of a Grinderman track called Get It On that can only be found at the Mute Records site. I just ordered mine. Here’s the site info: http://www.mute.com/allNews.jsp;jsessionid=84D471A9D3FBC01F9649A5A9C9F2F647?newsParentId=43&topItemId=7518580
The Emotions - Black Christmas: This is from the Stax/Volt Soul Singles Vol. 2 1968 – 71 box set. Three sisters, the daughters of Joe Hutchinson, Jeanette, Wanda and Sheila were The Emotions. They worked with Isaac Hayes and David Porter during their Stax period and from what their bio online says, they are still singing together today. I have given the massive Stax/Volt box sets I have some listens but with box sets, I often get a little lost as to who’s who. I have never heard an Emotions album, just the tracks on the box set.
Brian Doyle-Murray - The Littlest Christmas Tree: Another track from the National Lampoon Radio Hour box set. As you know, Brian Doyle-Murray is the older brother of Bill Murray. In interviews, Bill always insists his older brother is the funny one. You remember the two of them completely ruling in Caddyshack. I will never understand why that film didn’t win every possible Oscar, I mean how good does a movie have to be to get a little notice. When the ‘Shack is not talked about in the same context as Dr. Strangelove and other iconic films.
Cole / Rollins – ‘Twas Night Before Christmas: Many years ago, I was asked to do a cut for this Christmas benefit album. Joe and I went into a studio where an engineer I knew worked. They had a lot of special effects there. We did this version of ‘Twas Night Before Christmas with guns and rocket fire. The concept was that Santa comes to town and gets taken out by a bomb. The track starts with a party scene they had as a sound effect, we slowed it down and Joe and I did an overdub at the beginning where we talk like we’re at the party. It’s something like, “Have you seen Ted?” “No, I think he broke his arm.” This was a Ted Bundy reference. The bass on the track is Joe. We cut it and mixed it very quickly onto DAT and left.
King Tubby & Soul Syndicate - Ethiopian Version: From the Freedom Sounds In Dub CD on the mighty Blood And Fire label. I have never gone wrong with a CD from Blood And Fire. I know we just listened to King Tubby a couple of weeks ago. I have a few more Dub CDs than just ones he’s one but don’t know much about the genre. I usually either pick up a title from Ian or just roll the dice and see what happens. Most of the time, it’s pretty cool. Of all the labels though, it’s Blood And Fire that have really delivered every time, like that Cornell Campbell album I Shall Not Remove, amazing.