“Father Christmas” – The Kinks

You know, we had Springsteen a few spots back, and the beginning of “Father Christmas” sounds like it could be another Bruce production. Then it breaks into the classic Kinks sound. Here’s a band that never quite could keep up with the Stones or the Who. In many ways, they were way more presonal in their writing and built a sound that was unmistakable when it came on the radio. “Father Christmas” is a song that I almost never hear unless I’m the one playing it, but have found it on a number of CD compilations. Intelligently crunching rock, with Ray Davies hitting it out of the rock park during his heydey.

Buck Owens – “Santa Looked a Lot like Daddy”

That’s right people: Buck Freakin’ Owens. The dude was more than just Hee Haw. Ever hear of the Bakersfield sound? Country rock before there was country rock. You gotta love this song.  Really.  There are hundreds of covers of the tune, but the good ones rarely stray from the signature sound Buck laid down back in 1965.  And here is the song at #10.  Maybe the surprise of the countdown?  Think again.  Respect the Buck.

Wikipedia: “The Bakersfield Sound was a genre of country music developed in the mid- to late 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California. Bakersfield country was a reaction against the slickly-produced, string orchestra-laden Nashville Sound of the late 1950s. Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and Merle Haggard and the Strangers are the most successful artists of the original Bakersfield sound era”.

“Merry Christmas Baby” – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Overshadowed during the holiday season by his cover of “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”, Bruce and the E Street Band grab a hold of the song by supplying a nod to their Jersey shore R&B roots.  What makes this work is Bruce infusing the song with some of the same stop and starts, and musical breakdowns that work so well in songs like “Spirit in the Night” and “Out in the Street”.  It’s really a snapshot of how they would sound in the early 80’s – though a little less gloss than the “Born in the USA” album had – that’s because it was recorded in late 1980 during ”The River” tour.  Great Roy Bittan piano.  I love this version of the song.  Not the greatest Christmas song ever.  But if you want one of the most inspired live pieces of Santa Rock, turn this one up. 

The song has been covered by Otis Redding, B.B. King, Chuck Berry,  Bonnie Riatt, Charles Brown and Hanson. The recorded version performed by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band was recorded live at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on December 28, 1980, and included on the Christmas album A Very Special Christmas, released in 1987.
Video from Late Night with Conan O’Brien from December , 2002.

John Mellencamp -  “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” – In 1987, Mellencamp was at the height of his musical trajectory.  His “Lonesome Jubilee” album synthesized rock, country, folk and old-timey instruments into a peculiar (though accessible) piece of art.  The shows that supported the record put on display one of the best bands I have ever seen live, and I’ve seen hundreds, both great and crappy.  I saw John first in ‘85 at Detroit’s Cobo Hall during the “Scarecrow” tour and it was my first real taste of what kind of power a band that behaved like that could have;  it was the combination of 60’s Mitch Ryder-like  rock and roll, Kinks-via-America blue collar lyrical poetry and really loud guitars and drums.  Two years later,  in ‘87, that same band had become even more nuanced without losing its power or its garage rock backbone, while adding a fiddle and accordian to the mix.  So when I found myself deep in the lawn at Pine Knob Music Theater (again, Detroit) for the second leg of that tour,  the intensity, James Brown-ish polish and the momentum of a bunch of radio singles made it one of the best five shows I have seen in my life.  The “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” video was recorded during  that tour, before one of the shows.  It captures that unique-for-the-times Mellencamp sound – rustic, rootsy rock and roll.  I would call it brilliant.  It is a Mellencamp era that I miss to this day. 

He’s had a helluva career, still does what he wants – with integrity –  and has moved into a more traditional rock sound for his live shows, though the fiddle still plays an important part in defining the Mellencamp concert sound.  Rewind to a era captured on video, of an Indiana punk grown up just enough to build himself one of the great, underrated live bands of the rock era, successfully reinventing a holiday classic.

The Tractors – “The Santa Claus Boogie” - Oklahoma rock and roll boogie from the Tractors, a bunch of guys whose stew of New Orleans piano and Tulsa shuffle created some unique music in the 1990’s.  I love the way the vocals of leader Steve Ripley sound (miked close  and in your ear), and the whole group’s rough and ready harmonies.  Too unique for country radio today, they didn’t even really fit in anywhere in their brief run, and are a one-hit wonder.  Iconoclastic yet familiar with their mix of musical influences.

“Little Saint Nick” gets points for withstanding the test of  time; an early hyper-produced-yet-simple rock tune –  almost 40 years old  – and still heard today because of the uniqueness of the Beach Boy vocals, unmatched and never duplicated all these years later.  Ripped the melody from “Little Duece Coupe”, but added the great repeated harmony refrain “…Run Run Reindeer” to the tune, among the other lyric changes.  Not a great song; instead a nugget of 60’s pre-Beatles rock preserved forever.  The Beach Boys were huge in America, and splintered because of death, family fights and Mike Love’s cheesiness. 

We’re going with two versions of “Run Rudolph Run” at the #15 spot. Brian Setzer’s take on the tune (a song that has been covered by many others, notably Dave Edmunds and a bit more sloppily by Keith Richards) is pretty true to the orginal, adding Setzers growl – both with guitar and vocals – to modernize the classic.

And Chuck Berry is the father of the sound. So we have both here. Just a freakin’ great blast of rock and roll everytime I hear it. Ain’t nothing polished about it – or at least there needn’t be. Just turn it up.

You will notice, if you are a longtime reader, I throw in a fair amount of unsubstantiated opinion on my way to passing along facts. In reality, if you have read the blog posts over the past year, you already know – via these little nuggets of insight that roll out of my brain, into my fingers and onto the computer – what I like. And trust me, this has everything to do with the song at #16.

If you listed the six (I needed six – five wasn’t enough) musical sounds/songs/albums/artists that are the influences behind this here Rockforward site, it would read like this:

1. The trio of Mellencamp albums in the mid 80’s – “Uh-Huh”, “Scarecrow” and “The Lonseome Jubilee”. Anyone who is 35+ that likes the music we do should recognize how much these albums – especially “Scarecrow” – influenced tons of Americana and roots-rock bands and fans.

2. Tom Petty. Anything Tom Petty.

3. Those late 80’s bands that came on the heels of Petty and Mellencamp (including Gear Daddies, Uncle Tupelo, BoDeans, Del Fuegos, Georgia Satellites, Jason & The Scorchers, Lone Justice, and regional/Indiana artists like Larry Crane, Duke Tomatoe, The Hammerheads, and Henry Lee Summer. That is some and there are more ) Alt-country before they called it that. Heartland rock at the time.

4. Springsteen – for the majesty of the rock and roll, the brilliance of the lyrics, and the passion of the live show. And for the lineage to bar band rock and R&B  (like the outstanding J. Geils Band)

5. Power Pop. I think Cheap Trick is woefully underappreciated. Rick Springfield’s “Working Class Dog ” album should be considered great power pop/rock. The Cars debut album is one of the best records in the rock music era. Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend ” record was killer. I saw the Romantics live at a bar in 1989 and they were loud, into the performance, and rocked hard, fast and righteously.

6. The current crop of bands that carry on the sounds: Bottle Rockets, Todd Snider, James McMurtry, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Will Hoge among many more…

So that’s where I come from. And it leads to #16 on our countdown of 20 Christmas roots-rock songs. Indiana’s Rusty Bladen has been working for the past 20 years in the bars, clubs and parties throughout the state. I’ve known him that long, first meeting him when I was a radio jock down at WORX in Madison, Indiana – I was just out of college and had a Sunday night radio show and eventually did mornings for a couple years. He was just starting his solo career after a few years in cover bands. He now plays mainly solo live shows that are always high energy. His sound hits all of the influences I already cited.  His writing is blue collar.

About a year ago, he released “Feels Like Christmas”, a holiday album of 11 classic Christmas songs and one original – the title cut. That’s the one we have here. Mellencamp drummer Dane Clark produced the effort, and made it all sound really good.  A great country rock/heartland/Americana record. The record is simply my favorite Christmas album of all time. Overstatement? Nah.  Listen to the album.

Here’s the song, with it’s  fun, quaint, and homegrown video.

#17

From the uber-successful “Very Special Christmas” album (the first one), our earnest boys of U2 take the Darlene Love/Phil Spector classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and give it the echo-and-Edge treatement. 

(Did You Know? –  Love provided backing vocals for the cut).

Recorded during the height of their initial powers, just after “The Joshua Tree” release, the group adds enough drama and bombast to keep up with the exquisite original.  Gotta admire U2 for their ability to take on anything (song, idea, sound) and end up giving it their own stamp.  Not as much a staple of rock radio at Christmastime as it should be. Recorded July 1987 during a sound check at a stop during their Joshua Tree Tour in Glasgow, Scotland.  The video was filmed in Baton Rouge, LA.  Though just 2:18 in length, enough time for Bono to fully rock the hat. 

One from basketball that is just plain weird: This reeks of ego and acting like a poor man’s Bob Knight. Saturday, North Carolina coach Roy Williams (in the midst of watching his Tar Heels romp past Presbyterian 103-64) decided he didn’t like a fan from the visiting team telling one of UNC’s players to miss a free throw – the quote I am hearing is the fan yelled “Don’t miss it Deon” – and Roy had the guy forcibly removed from the game. 

Watch the cops get a little aggressive with the offender, who doesn’t look like he’s a steroid-takin’, whiskey-soaked fan.  More like a, uh, team supporter and hoops fan.  Even has his school’s golf shirt on.  Just more than a little odd.  Maybe more will come out about the event, but the early forecast is for Williams  to take a little shit for this one.  His postgame press conference seems to hint that he may have been uncomfortable, knowing he might have stepped into the moment a but too aggressively.

CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO (It wasn’t on YouTube as of Sunday night – might be now.  Until then, use the link.)

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