December 26, 2011

Happy Boxing Day from the Manna Tease: The Fa-la-la-ing is Coming

Is today the day you're supposed to get two turtle doves? Also, why is the writer of that song so obsessed with giving birds to his paramour? They're kind of messy, high maintenance pets.

I never put up this other video we shot of my one-minute christmas carol, The Fa-La-La-ing is Coming. Until it comes next year, happy Boxing Day from The Manna Tease (please "like" us on facebooks!)
Lyrics & chords to "The Fa-la-la-ing is Coming" here. Goodbye.

December 24, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XXII thru XXIV.

I didn't quite get caught up for the last couple chocolates of our Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. See you next year! It's time to put away the Christmas songs until they start playing far too early in the calendar next year.
Here's three last good songs to fill in the gaps:
That's from Duke Ellington's very cool versions of tunes from the Nutcracker Suite, his Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed Pipes.) (The links are to Spotify.)
This guy Dan Hicks seems to have released dozens of Christmas jug band songs, & his voice is very comforting.  Here's his "Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit." (The version on Spotify from Hicks' album Crazy for Christmas is more mellow.)

And we'll finish this late advent calendar with the American folk song "Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over," sung here on the soundtrack to Cold Mountain by Jack White of the White Stripes. (Great album, by the way!) Till next year...

More spotify playlists & mixtapes to come! One last time, here's the link to our Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)
And these days, we blog more at the simpler Manna Tease tumblr blog, where I've also been posted mixtapes & Manna Tease videos.

December 21, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XXI. De Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy

Hello again - only a few days left of the Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. This song, a traditional from Trinidad called "De Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy" or "Glorious Kingdon," from an old Kings Singers' Christmas album, has a hilarious rhythm track. This is the only video of it:


You can hear the rhythm better in the studio version, on Spotify here. And here's our Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)

December 20, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XX. Christmas in New Orleans & also Harlem

Quickly catching up with the Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. Louis Armstrong takes us to both New Orleans and Harlem for Christmas:



I think "Christmas Night in Harlem" is catchier, but they're both awesome. (Is "lit up like a Christmas tree" a subtly subversive innuendo?) Here's Christmas Night in Harlem on Spotify, and here's Christmas in New Orleans. Here's the Infinite Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs Playlist (Listen on random!)

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: If that playlist is too wide-ranging & chaotic (& contains more than a few annoying songs) I have created a much more digestible christmas playlist centered on some albums of doo wop & blues songs: Christmas Blues, Doo Wop, & Big Band Epic Playlist (listen on random.)

December 19, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XIX. Best Christmas Ever

This song is better for the strange vocal stylings of Ronnie Spector (formerly of the Ronnettes & Phil Spector's  prisoner wife) than for any quality songwriting:
Here's two shaky live videos from 2010:


The studio version is better & weirder, available on Spotify here. Here's our incomplete Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)

December 18, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XVIII. Homeless Wassail

And here's the Manna Tease singing the song "Homeless Wassail":

Please "like" the Manna Tease on facebooks.
Homeless Wassail is a song by Ian Robb, but we heard it from a Christmas mix in a beautiful version by Finest Kind. The only cover on Spotify is by Broadside Electric. Here's our full Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)
Lyrics:
HOMELESS WASSAIL
(Ian Robb)
"Wassail, wassail,all over the town,
Our cup is white and our ale is brown"
But huddled on the iron grate
we poor and hungry curse our fate. 
No wassail bowl for such as these
No turkey scraps, no ale nor cheese,
This Christmas Eve our heart's desire
Is a bottle of gin and a trashcan fire. 
Good Christian, mind, as home you go
With dreams of holly and mistletoe
That the holly bears a dreadful thorn
For those who wake to a frozen dawn. 
Oh, where is He, that holy child
Once born of Mary, meek and mild?
And whither peace, goodwill to men
Now and forevermore, amen? 
All ye who dine with face aglow
In Reninensi atrio (in the Queen's hall---Latin)
Pray pause awile at pleasure's door
And sup some sorrow with the poor. 
"Wassail, wassail,all over the town,
Our cup is white and our ale is brown"
This cold and hunger, pain and care
Sweet Jesus Christ, it's hard to bear. 
copyright Ian Robb/SOCAN 
Chords as we play them:
amin G emin
amin emin/B C D
amin G emin
amin emin/B C D 
C G emin
amin emin/B C D
C G emin
amin emin/B C D

December 17, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XVII. Christmases in Heaven

If you ask Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, "What is the meaning of life?" she gives a couple of different answers, including "42" & "Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations." I think there was an article on Slate about this, where the author was touched by this practical advice from artificial intelligence. The writer was pointed out in the comments by people who recognized it as a quote from the anti-climactic postscript to the last Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life.
The scene immediately before this advice, the "Afterlife" section of the movie, contains the following strange Christmas song, imagining every day to be Christmas in heaven, complete with classic movies on television:


I had never heard this longer version that's on Spotify, which has a long coda about "Fishmas in Heaven." This verse is not in the movie: "It's Fishmas in Heaven / You are home with God. / And lot's of dace & carp & bream / And halibut and cod."

But if you need more Christmas in Heaven, there's also a soulful take on this concept, with versions by James Brown & B.B. King! Here's Billy Ward & His Dominoes:

And here's our Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)

December 16, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XVI. Bethlehem & Sherburne

Speaking of sheep, Nahum Tate's "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" is one of the most frequently set texts for carols. (I've always loved the juxtaposition of the mundane "all seated on the ground" with the glory shining all around, but I suppose that's the point.) The common setting in my caroling book is by Handel, and I think there's another old common British church hymn called "Winchester Old." The version I know best is Sherburne from the Sacred Harp, & it's also one of my favorite tunes in that book. This is the great Alan Lomax "field" recording:
Here's that recording on spotify. I found several other decent versions of that on spotify, here, here, & here. I really like this medley by the Western Wind called Three Settings of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks." The excerpt of Sherburne is in this video:

The other setting in the Sacred Harp, Shining Star 461, doesn't appear to be on Spotify. (Will Fitzgerald has a nice round-up of Christmas tunes from the Sacred Harp here.)
However, William Billings, the great Sacred Harp composer, did set the words also, and the tune Bethlehem is published in the Norumbega Harmony. Here's Anonymous 4 singing it on spotify, & here's the Norumbega Harmony - two pretty tame versions, but still pretty. Here's a the Western Wind again:

I've also set the Tate text several times, here. & here's our incomplete Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)

December 15, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XV. A Buggerer's Christmas

Brought to you by itwaslost's Very Special Department of Arnophilia & The Blue Myself's One Minute Christmas Carols - we present A Buggerer's Christmas.


The Blue Myself on facebooks here. More One Minute Christmas Carols.

Lyrics & chords:
A Buggerer's Christmas

Bb-dim Esus7 E7
If you see a stranger in your manger,
Bb-dim Esus7 E7
Your babe is not in any danger.
A F#min D
Ever stop to think that maybe,
Dmin A
They weren't looking for a baby?
E F#min
Fa la la, faaaa.
Bb-dim Esus7 E7
The shepherd's run in adoration,
Bb-dim Esus7 E7
Not to Mary's son, but to his barn companions.
A F#min D
We all need some warmth this winter, I feel ya,
Dmin A
'Tis the season for arnophilia.

A F#min
It's a buggerer's Christmas
D Dmin Bmin E A
All we like sheep, we've gone astray, Christ was born today.
F#min
You'll find me in the crèches.
D Bmin E A
We're rolling in the deep, we're rolling in the hay.

E F#min
Fa la la, baaaa. 

©2011 The Manna Tease

December 14, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XIV. Hot Christmas

This year's Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs wouldn't be complete without a selection from The Squirrel Nut Zippers masterpiece & overlooked holiday album Christmas Caravan.
"Hot Christmas" is more of an instrumental, if you consider the only lyrics are "Hot Christmas / Hot Christmas / Hot Christmas." But what does it mean!?

Here's Hot Christmas on Spotify. And here's our epic Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Carols (Listen on Random!)

December 13, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XIII. Christmas with Andrew Jackson

Another One Minute Christmas Carol for day 13 of our Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs:

The Blue Myself on facebook here. "Christmas with Richard Nixon" here.
More One Minute Christmas Carols.

Lyrics: (same chords as Christmas with Richard Nixon.)
Christmas with Andrew Jackson 
In 1814 this house was burned by Limeys,
But now let’s decorate with candles & pine trees.
Let’s challenge Charles Dickens to a duel,
And use your cabin’s logs for fuel.
John Calhoun & Floride croon,
Christmas with Andrew Jackson,
Christmas with the Cherokee & the Whigs, Ho ho higgy,
The feast will have piggy, and the pudding will be figgy,
Christ was born today.
Old Hickory’s first lady was guilty of bigamy. 
©2011 The Manna Tease

December 12, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XII. A Five Pound Box of Money

Halfway thru: Day 12 of the Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs! This is exactly what I want for Christmas: A Five Pound Box of Money. Exactly how much money is in a five pound box of it is never divulged, but if it's full of Ben Franklins, it could be a heavy load:
Here's the Pearl Bailey song on spotify: A Five Pound Box of Money. (That's a great compilation, called Doo Wop Christmas.) Here's our Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)

December 11, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XI. The Bitter Withy


This English folk band Kerfuffle's "Midwinter album" Lighten the Dark is amazing, my favorite new discovery in this non-overplayed Christmas music project. Here's them playing The Bitter Withy live:

I love the "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" in that funky mode in the middle (technically overplayed, it's true.) It seems Kerfuffle has broken up & the sexy accordion player has joined the girly band Lady Maisery. Here's the spotify link for their awesome take on I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In, & here's The Bitter Withy from Lighten the Dark. Here's our lengthy spotify mix Infinite Non-Overplayed Christmas Playlist (listen on Random!)

December 10, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: X. The Fa-la-la-ing Is Coming

This song speaks for itself: The Fa-la-la-ing is Coming!

The Blue Myself is on facebook here.
Lyrics & Chords for THE FA-LA-LA-ING IS COMING:

Dmin Bb
Remember, remember
F C C#aug Dmin
The fifth of November used to be November,
Bb F
But November is the new December
C C#aug Dmin
Did you hear a bell from a sleigh?
Dmin Bb Dmin
It’s coming, it’s coming! The fa-la-la-ing.
Bb
The fa-la-la-ing is coming.
F C
Ba-da-boom ba-da-bing,
C#aug
Christ was born today.
Dmin Bb F C C#aug
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Dmin C
It’s the fa-la-la-ing for sure,
Bb
It’s clawing at your door,
Amin
It’s sawing thru the floor.
Gmin
It’s gnawing with its den-ture,
F
It’s drawing a pic-ture
C C#aug
That Christmas is only seven weeks away.

ComScore
More from The Blue Myself's One Minute Christmas Carols.

December 09, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: IX. Brand New Christmas

Now, here's a strange chocolate for the advent calendar... What was Hot Chocolate thinking when they wrote a Christmas song with the lyric "We need a brand new Jesus"?

I agree with youtube commentor Xtronicus who wrote "THE MOST PROFOUND SONG EVER WRITTEN?"
Here's Brand New Christmas on spotify, & here's our epic spotified mix Infinite Non-Overplayed Christmas Playlist (listen on random!)

December 08, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: VIII. Christmas Wrapping & Christmas Rappin'

Hello, this is the Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. Today, a double feature. I heard Stephen Metcalf on the Slate Culture Gabfest recommend this Christmas song Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses, a nice 1980s girly rap with satisfying brass arrangements.  Look, someone synchronized it to their Christmas decorations:

Here's the link on Spotify.
And when I was trying to find that song, I typed in "Christmas Rappin'," thinking it was spelled that way. Of course, tho, there is a Christmas Rappin' by Kurtis Blow from 1979! "Now I'm the guy named Kurtis Blow / And Christmas is one thing I know. / So every year just about this time / I celebrate it with a rhyme." Poetry!

Here's that song on Spotify. And here's our epic several-day-long Infinite Non-Overplayed Christmas Playlist (listen on random!)

In related news, HuffPost has a post called "15 Most Annoying Christmas Songs." There are some truly bad songs there I'd never heard of, like Simple Plan's "Christmas List," which has the lyrics "Santa is coming tonight / And I want a car & I want a life."

December 07, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: VII. Bluegrass White Snow




This song reminds me of Dolly Parton's great "The Grass Is Blue" as far as obvious twists on the genre name blue grass. "Bluegrass White Snow" from Patty Loveless' 2008 album Bluegrass & White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, is a bit bland, but the bluegrass harmonies are really beautiful, & doesn't that sound like Dolly singing back-up on the recording? Here's a live video:

December 06, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: VI. My Fiancée Ran Off With A Christmas Elf

Welcome back to itwaslost.org's Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. The last few days I've had a project of writing & posting one minute songs called The Blue Myself's One Minute Christmas Carols. This one is a parody of the one-joke novelty song genre, called "My Fiancée Ran Off With A Christmas Elf."

Here's The Blue Myself on Facebooks.
A funny story about this song. Within an hour of writing it & posting this on youtube, I was walking to work & I got a voice mail from my mother saying "I'm really worried about you, call me." I couldn't think why, & when I called she said, I don't know, recently Lauren hasn't been singing with you in your songs & you're calling yourself "Blue" & now you have a song about your girlfriend leaving you. I told her, don't worry, The Manna Tease is still together, The Blue Myself is just a side project for novelty songs, none of these songs are autobiographical. Then she said she didn't think the songs were funny: "I don't remember laughing."

Lyrics & chords:

My Fiancée Ran Off With a Christmas Elf 
E D A E
My Fiancée ran off with a Christmas Elf,
C#min G# A B7
I guess you could say she stooped to the lowest shelf.
C#min G# A E
She said was going to leave, and she was gone on Christmas Eve,
D A E
My Fiancée left me alone Christmas Day. 
I regret being a nerd, I regret being a slob.
Her new boyfriend might be indentured, but at least he’s got a job.
He might be small of stature, but at least he looks up to her.
I’ve no more Fiancée, Christ was born today. 
My Fiancée ran off with a Christmas Elf,
I guess I’ll sit here crying, drinking eggnog by myself.
All I want for Christmas is to punch his stupid little face.
All she wanted was an iPod, but she got a tripod.
©2011 The Manna Tease 
If E is a tricky key & you want to sing it in a lower Elvis-y voice, try these chords:
C  Bb  F  C
Amin  E  F  G7
Amin  E  F   C
Bb  F  C


More The Blue Myself's One Minute Christmas Carols.

December 05, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs:V.

As everyone knows, "White Christmas" was written as a toss-off novelty vaudeville song by the Jewish Irving Berlin, and became the best-selling song in the history of music (according to Guinness, approx. 50 million copies). Fittingly oppositely, this heartfelt single by The Emotions called "Black Christmas" didn't even make the charts. But it's still soulful:
Here's the link on Spotify. & here's our Infinite Non-Overplayed Christmas Playlist (listen on random!)

December 04, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: IV. Christmas with Richard Nixon

Listening to hundreds of Christmas songs has poisoned my creative juices, & I started writing some short ones which I'll call "The Blue Myself's One Minute Christmas Carols." The first one, written & recorded quickly yesterday, is called "Christmas with Richard Nixon". (You can hear the common cold in my voice.)

It's fitting that my highly conceptual concept band The Blue Myself should put out a Christmas album as its first endeavor. 

Lyrics & chords:

Christmas with Richard Nixon 
D Emin A
My wassail cup is filled with gin & vermouth,
D Emin A
‘Tis the season to be jowly & uncouth.
F# Bmin
God bless the master of this house,
G A D
Was that a break-in or a mouse?
F# Bmin A
Red phones ring, & the children sing, 
D F# Bmin G
Christmas with Richard Nixon,
D F# Bmin G
Christmas with the jews & the gays, Ho ho hey,
D Bmin7
The snow would be grey if there weren’t no EPA.
Emin A
Christ bas born today,
A A7 D
But I saw Mommy kiss a commie. 
©2011 The Manna Tease

December 03, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: III. Gower Wassail

There's a couple good versions of the Welsh carol, the Gower Wassail, on spotify. I was glad that Wikipedia had this handy helpful chart for the choruses:

That's right, haters, the default font in my browsers is Comic Sans. Eat it.

Here's my favorite version of Gower Wassail, by John Langstaff and the Christmas Revels. It's satisfyingly krummhorny.
Here's a version by Kerfuffle from their excellent "Midwinter" album Lighten the Dark, more on that later.
And, this one by Steeleye Span is also pretty good & has some crunchy harmonies, & someone put it on youtube:


Now master and mistress let your company forbear
To fill up our wassail with you cider and beer
We want none of your pale beer, nor none of your small
But a drop of your kilderkin, that's next to the wall
 
More lyrics from Wikipedia.
Infinite Non-Overplayed Christmas Playlist (listen on random.)

December 02, 2011

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: II. A Counting Song

On the second advent day before Christmas, I bring you "A Counting Song," also known as "Come And I Will Sing You." Move out of the way "12 Days of Christmas" with your strange Lords a-leapin'. "A Counting Song" has some more abstract counties, like eight filly-white, & "six are the six that never did mix."

I knew a version from Nowell Sing We Clear (with John Roberts & Tony Barrand) that I had on a mix years ago, but that version seems hard to locate. However, there's a great album on Spotify by Shira Kammen called The Castle of the Holly King. It contains this exciting version:
 Shira Kammen - A Counting Song .mp3
Found at bee mp3 search engine
Come and I will sing you,
What shall I sing you?
I will sing you one alone,
What shall be the one alone?
One is one and one alone.
Come to my dilly, come dally, come dilly
Alone, and ever shall remain so. 
Repeat and add two, three, etc., increasing to 
Come and I will sing you,
What shall I sing you?
I will sing you twelve of them,
What shall be the twelve of them?
Twelve are the followers all in a row,
'Leven, eleven all gone to heaven,
Ten are the ten command-i-ments,
Nine of them's Aunt Mary Ann,
Eight of them are the filly-shine white,
Seven are the shiners up in the sky,
Six are the six that never did mix,
Five are the oxen standing by,
Four, the carollers at the door,
Three are the three that's in Bethlea,
Two are the Chris-si-mas babes in green,
One is one and one alone.
Come to my dilly, come dally, come dilly
Alone, and ever shall remain so.

December 01, 2011

Apologies: & Re-Spearheading a Re-Initiative of an All-New Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs

Hello, & welcome back to itwaslost.org. & Apologies for the five week radio silence, so much has happened. Actually, nothing has happened, but there is also a Manna Tease tumblr blog - themannatease.tumblr.com - which exists. 

Furthermore, Mr Jason Islas is spearheading an initiative called Advent Bloggifying. This reminds me that in the year of our lord Twenty-Ten, I advent blogged all 24 days leading up to Christmas with a Special Department called the Special Department of Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs. So I hearby [sic] now re-spearhead a new re-initiative of an all-new 2011 Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs.

This is an issue very important to me, & of which I spend 11 months of the year not thinking at all about, & the remaining month thinking of nothing else. My love-hate relationship with Christmas music borders on manic-depression. It is often manic, but it is proceeded by the mid-November chill of death upon hearing the first Carol of the Bells in some Nissan TV advertisement. I realize this relationship to Christmas music isn't unique, but perhaps mine is personally intense. (I propose a six week boycott of any company that uses any Christmas song in an ad before Thanksgiving.) 

So to save the ubiquitous Christmas songs from themselves, I have a project of collecting the best & worst of non-overplayed Christmas songs. My personal collection is already many hours long, but this year is the year of Spotify. If you do not have Spotify right now, you are a fool, because it could be a short-lived Golden Age if record labels are going to pull all of the music from it. My spotified playlist of non-Overplayed Christmas songs, ranging from the worst to the best, is now at least 30 hours long & is still being expanded, pruned, & improved. (Please listen to it on random.)

For the Advent, I'll post a song a day until Christmas. Day 1 of my Advent Calendar I am going to go with a new recording, from Carole King's 2011 album A Holiday Carole (get it?) This album isn't amazing, in fact it's lame, but for a washed-up '70s pop star - "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" - it's better than one of Kenny Rogers' 47 Christmas albums. It contains a bunch of sucky new songs written by her daughter Louise Goffin - but by my calculation, the album is only 25% overplayed Christmas songs, so that's commendable. I think this song "Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday" is strangely satisfying, especially on repeated listening. It's a cover of a song by soul singer William Bell, but I like her singing & production better. Now, come back here every day for a NEW Non-Overplayed Christmas Song. & listen to the spotify mix if you wish.