DOUBLE PLAYLIST POST: Tuesday night I guest-hosted The Hop, WCBN's weekly hour-long selection of classic soul, funk, and rhythm and blues. When I do my own show, I usually try not to broadcast songs I've played in previous weeks, but that rule goes out the window when I sit in on a different DJ's shift:
Clarence Carter: Back Door Santa Jean Knight: Your Six-Bit Change Joe Tex: Skinny Legs and All Pigmeat Markham: Here Comes the Judge Jerry Lee Lewis: Hold On, I'm Comin' Herbie Mann: New Orleans Mariann: The Woman in Me Kip Anderson: I Went Off and Cried Etta James: Take It to the Limit Mavis Staples: Hard Times Come Again No More The Exotics: Let's Try to Build a Love Affair Candi Staton: Sure As Sin James Carr: Life Turned Her That Way The Meters: Live Wire Parliament: Ride On Bobby Womack: Across 110th Street Sly and the Family Stone: If You Want Me to Stay Slim Harpo: Mohair Sam Wayne Carson: Soul Deep
On Thursday I hosted a special Christmas edition of Titicut Follies -- or was it a special Titicut Follies edition of Christmas? Maya and Rona came in for the last 90 minutes or so, and the show got a little chaotic with a three-year-old girl running around the studio, but that's what makes community radio fun. (Yes, I played "Back Door Santa" twice in three days. It's a holiday, dammit!)
Bobby Gimby: When Bessie the Cow Helped Santa Rev. Edward W. Clayborn: Wrong Way to Celebrate Christmas Rev. J.M. Gates: Death Might Be Your Santa Claus Bob Rivers Comedy Corp.: O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-Heads William S. Burroughs: The Junky's Christmas Big Star: Jesus Christ The Kinks: Father Christmas Michael Nyman: Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds Vince Guaraldi: Linus and Lucy Mickey Rooney: One Foot in Front of the Other Thurl Ravenscroft: You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch Oscar the Grouch: I Hate Christmas! Stan Freberg: Green Chri$tma$ The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band: Cooking Bulgars Tom Waits: Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis Asleep at the Wheel: Xmas in Jail Brave Combo: Must Be Santa Mary Wells: Silent Night Saturday Night Live: Christmas for the Jews The Royal Guardsmen: Snoopy's Christmas Cheech and Chong: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas: The 12 Days of Christmas Michael Nyman: An Eye for Optical Theory Wynton Marsalis: We Three Kings of Orient Are Leon Redbone & Dr. John: Frosty the Snowman Charles Brown: Blue Holiday Clarence Carter: Back Door Santa Ray Charles: Santa Claus is Coming to Town Etta James: Merry Christmas, Baby Spike Jones: Nutcracker Suite The Roches: The Hallelujah Chorus The Impossibles: The Hallelouie Chorus June Tabor: Young Waters The Louvin Brothers: A Shut-In at Christmas/Shut-In's Prayer The Christmas Jug Band: Santa Lost a Ho Elvis Presley: Santa Claus Is Back In Town The Blasters: Trouble Bound John D. Loudermilk: No Playing in the Snow Today The Roches: Good King Wenceslas Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues: Fairytale of New York Bob Dylan: Wigwam
During the first Michael Nyman piece, I read a three-year-old essay of mine, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." (The second Nyman track served as a music bed while I listed the songs I'd been playing. So did the Chanukah-friendly tune by the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band.)
The great discovery of the afternoon is that Bob and Doug McKenzie singing "The 12 Days of Christmas" isn't nearly as funny as I remember it being when I was in the seventh grade. But hearing it gave me a warm nostalgic glow, and isn't that what Christmas is all about?