10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1265: The 26th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas Show.
JOHN AND YOKO: Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
From a previous post:
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was my favorite rock 'n' roll Christmas song for a long, long time, and it's still pretty far up there in my holiday music pantheon. I know that some folks don't like it or are sick of it, and that some even prefer that dishwater Paul McCartney thing (aka "The Cringe That Stole Christmas") when 'tis the season.
I don't get that. Dig what you dig, of course, but man...I don't get that. To my ears, John and Yoko's Christmas single remains a stirring and engaging plea for peace on Earth, good will toward all. An obvious sentiment? I'm not looking for Proust here. "Happy Xmas" supplies the feels I want in my holiday music, its childlike hope (and children's chorus) never falling prey to the cynical or the overly earnest. It added an aching, awful sense of melancholy forty-four years ago this month. But I never get tired of hearing it.
I'm not one of those who blithely bash Paul McCartney, either. Seeing Macca perform live in 2017 was the highlight of my concert-goin' career, I listen to solo Paul more often than I listen to solo John, and they were equal partners in the greatest rock 'n' roll band this world will ever experience. Nonetheless: I can't stand "Wonderful Christmastime." I absolutely adore "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)."
(For my further thoughts on this subject, see my piece Yoko For Christmas.)
MIKE BROWNING: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
We debuted our pal Mike Browning's most wonderful new cover of "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" on last week's show, and we use it again this week (after our John and Yoko intro) to open The 26th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas Show. This year, I'm especially grateful to Mike for his invaluable assistance in advising, amending, and improving my 2024 book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1); our Mike's efforts on behalf of that project should secure him a permanent berth on Santa's NICE! list. Thanks again, Mike! Wonderful is as wonderful does.
(And speakin' of wonderful: We'll hear Mike Browning again on our Countdown show this coming Sunday night.)
THE GRIP WEEDS: Christmas, Bring Us [acoustic]
We'll also hear the Grip Weeds again on the Countdown show--the Grip Weeds are a fairly safe bet to appear on our Countdown in any given year--but this Christmas show spin of "Christmas, Bring Us" serves the additional Oh HELL Yeah! of promoting The Very Best Of Hi-Fi Christmas Party. We ARE Santa's elves! This new digital compilation comes to us from the visionary Keith Klingensmith's Futureman Records label, and it gathers the best from our man Dan Pavelich's Yuletide essential various-artists Hi-Fi Christmas Party discs.
The Grip Weeds' "Christmas, Bring Us" was on 2006's Hi-Fi Christmas Party Volume 2 (and on the group's on 2011 collection Under The Influence Of Christmas), but I think--I think--this acoustic take is new to the Hi-Fi Christmas Party universe, and otherwise only available on the expanded deluxe edition of Under The Influence Of Christmas. I'd verify that, but c'mon--who has time to check stuff this time of year? Unique or not, your stocking ain't properly stuffed without The Very Best Of Hi-Fi Christmas Party.
THE FLESHTONES: Hurray For Santa Claus
For Pia Zadora, wherever she is.
And anyone who sez Santa Claus Conquers The Martians is one of the all-time worst films deserves nuttin' for Christmas--not even coal. Call the big guy!
We spell it S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S, hurray for Santy Claus!
I figure the difference between spelling and pronunciation can be attributed to Martian accents.
DAVID WOODARD: Around The Power Pop Tree
The title track from David Woodard's 2024 Kool Kat Musik album Around The Power Pop Tree celebrates the enduring kvell of discovering the gift of music stacked under the ol' trimmed 'n' tricked out Tannenbaum. As someone whose own prevailing and pervasive love of the Kinks began with a Christmas 1976 present of a 2-LP British Invasion compilation, I can relate and affirm with wide eyes and raised fist.
In 2017, I wrote about the ongoing glow of the memories of past Christmas gifts:
"Christmas still inspires a warm and comfy feeling in my mind. There have been Yuletime moments that were less than glittery--developing car trouble on a snowy trek to Missouri in 1970, spending Christmas alone with a stack of old comic books and a bottle of Jack Daniels in 1982, suddenly having to fly to Ohio for a funeral in the early '90s, stuck home with chicken pox at the age of 36 in 1996, the first Christmas after a devastating family tragedy in 2008, and after my Dad died in 2012--yet I retain an instinct to associate Christmas with a feeling of happiness. The sadness is there, too; I see the empty chairs at the dinner table, I feel the drag of sand falling in the hourglass, I sense the finite nature of all we love. This Christmas has offered its own unique set of challenges. Sometimes it seems as if there are challenges poised to attack from all directions.
"And nonetheless: I love Christmas. I hope I always will. I hope yours is merry and bright. The challenges will wait for us, at least for a little, little bit. A spin of Nat King Cole. A sip of eggnog. A tree that casts its glow into our hearts. Presents to exchange, fleeting moments to share, food to savor, company to enjoy. It will not last forever.
"Except that it does. I can still be seven years old, if only for one day. Maybe you can be, too."
Since the above was written, I've lost my Mom and my oldest brother. My daughter got married--that's a happy memory--and there was, y'know, a pandemic. I have aged more than the mere seven years that the calendar pages indicate. But I'm okay. I still know delight, I still know joy, and I still feel the gratitude for the good things I've enjoyed. I still love. I am still loved.
So let's all gather around the power pop tree. David Woodard will lead us in song. (And we'll hear him again on the Countdown show, too. Another chance to gather 'round.)
THE IDEA: It's About That Time
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE RAMONES: Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)
From a previous post:
The Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" is almost totally devoid of irony. It feels earnest, sincere. Honest. It really is a straightforward love song, Ramonesified by its pace and the deliberate quirk of its lyrical queries about the whereabouts of Santa, his sleigh, and his errant reindeer. Where is Rudolph, where is Blitzen, baby?
Merry Christmas. Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas.
No relationship is free of discord. Lovers, friends, siblings, other family members. Disagreements and arguments will occur, and no amount of love can alter that truth. Some relationships aren't worth saving.
Some are.
And that's the way it's got to be
I loved you from the start
'Cause Christmas ain't the time for breaking each other's heart.
No matter what Her Majesty's Ramones the Beatles insisted, it is not true that all you need is love. Nor is it a fact that love conquers all. But mutual love? Respect? Consideration? My friends, that can accomplish a lot. Love can change the world. It can't do it alone...but it can do it if love accompanies love. Love with love, together, side by side?
It can happen.
It has to happen.
Peace on Earth. Good will toward all. It's an elusive goal.
But it's our only hope.
Hope begins with love. Maybe the Ramones are unlikely avatars of hope and love. On "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)," they nail it nonetheless.
Merry Christmas. We don't want to fight tonight. As tonight becomes tomorrow, as tomorrow becomes today, we could do worse than listening to the Ramones.
Like swords into ploughshares: Anyone up for decorating a baseball bat?
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Another act we'll be hearing on the Countdown show, Librarians With Hickeys merit extra gravitas for forcing me to appreciate the splendor of Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling." Yoko's original version was the B-side of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," but I'm not sure I ever heard any version of it prior to Librarians With Hickeys' mesmerizing 2016 cover. The Librarians' cover was itself a B-side (of the group's original "Jingle Jangle Heart"); the A-side is terrific--a Grade-A prime example of why we adore Librarians With Hickeys--but we can't resist "Listen, The Snow Is Falling." It's become a TIRnRR Christmas season prerequisite, and it prompted me to seek out Yoko's also-mesmerizing rendition. Worth a listen, again and again.
(And yes, there will be original Librarians With Hickeys music on the Countdown show, but we're also really, really looking forward to hearing a new cover they're recording for a 2025 project. The hype for that project will fall like Syracuse snow when its own season arrives.)
THE MONKEES: Riu Chiu
From a previous post:
The Christmas episode of The Monkees aired at the end of 1967, a big year for the Monkees. Their biggest year, actually; they probably outsold the Beatles. Michael Nesmith once suggested that the Monkees outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in '67, and later claimed that he was joking, and testing to see if anyone would take the claim seriously. But whether he made it up or whether it's true, it's plausible. The Monkees were really, really popular in 1967. It was all going to go away in 1968.
But when they did the Christmas episode, the Monkees--Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork--were on top of the world. They had proven themselves to anyone willing to be sufficiently open-minded to accept, y'know, evidence. Granted, even as they started to play some of their own music, they were still managed, still part of a corporate machinery. But they had a hand in what they were doing.
In the Christmas episode, near the end of the show, the Monkees come on, just the four of them--Micky, Davy, Michael, and Peter--and do an a cappella performance of a 16th century Spanish folk song called "Riu Chiu." It's stunning. If you haven't seen it, you must. Talentless? Boy band? That's absurd. Watch the video. If you don't agree there's talent there, you aren't paying attention.
I'm a believer. Monkees fans are believers by definition. As we listen to the Monkees sing at Christmas, we acknowledge that Christmas itself invites belief. I am not religious by any stretch of the imagination. I don't belong to any church, and I'm not part of any organized faith. But I believe in the Golden Rule. I believe that we can be good, that we can be better than we are. That we can improve, and become the sort of souls we wish we could be. I believe that such belief transcends creed.
Belief is its own reward. Join us.
Believe.
GEORGE HARRISON: Ding Dong, Ding Dong
Ring out the old, ring in the new. But don't discard anything more than what should be consigned to the dustbin. There are good things, great things, we must retain and maintain, But we must remain open to new things, in hope that they can eventually become good old things for us to retain and maintain.
Here's to the old, and here's to the new. Happy Holidays from Dana and Carl.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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