Well, Christmas is right around the corner, and if your family is anything like mine, you have been bombarded with Christmas music non-stop for the last month. Now, there is nothing wrong with a little holiday cheer, but if I have to hear one more minute of Delilah’s sentimental Christmas memories, I might swear off the holiday forever. So, rather than give up what is otherwise a very enjoyable time of year, I’ve decided instead to put together a little mix of holiday music to rescue all of you who are drowning in a sea of Delilah induced Christmas tears. Enjoy, and a very happy holidays to you all.
1. Santa, Bring My Baby Back to Me – Belle & Sebastian
2. Must Be Santa – Bob Dylan
3. Blue Christmas – Bright Eyes
4. Santa Claus is Back in Town – Elvis Presley
5. O Holy Night (Shoes Interruption) – My Morning Jacket
6. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Sufjan Stevens
7. What are You Doing New Year’s Eve – Ella Fitzgerald
8. Christmas in Prison – John Prine
9. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
10. Father Chrtistmas – The Kinks
11. Chipmonks Song – Birds and Arrows & Butterflies
And I thought I would include this just for good measure. I just saw Fanfarlo in New York, and they did this song…who knew they did Christmas too!
I’m about to write a post about something for which I simply don’t have the words…I am stunned, shocked and surprised beyond all capacity for reasonable thought or coherence. I put this up only for your listening…um…pleasure? For those of you who didn’t know, Bob Dylan released a Christmas album yesterday…yes, you heard me, a Christmas album. Sigh.
As a self-professed lover of Bob Dylan, I just don’t know what to make of this. I hear the traditional sounds of harmonious background singers crooning familiar songs, but in place of Bing Crosby’s dulcet tones I hear the familiar, ragged, nasal sing-talking of Bob Dylan. It’s surreal…there is some strange disconnect that I just can’t seem to remedy.
Bob Dylan – “First Noel”
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I can’t even decide what I think about this…my mind is too conflicted. It’s Dylan on the one hand, but Dylan singing Christmas on the other. It is either sheer brilliance, or utter insanity. I can’t tell whether I feel festive, or just sad and confused. Either way, an early Happy Holidays to you all…I think.
Bob Dylan – “Here Comes Santa Claus”
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The idea of the “super group” has been around for quite some time. Whether pairing Louis Armstrong with Duke Ellington, or John Lennon with Eric Clapton, the concept is not new. Who could ever forget the extraordinary collaboration of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan…and that fifth guy that no one can ever remember…oh yeah, Jeff Lynne (seriously how did he get into that group?!)? The tradition of such collaborative work is as strong as ever, and with the release of their self-titled, debut album, the Monsters of Folk have stepped into the scene as the newest iteration of the “super-group.”
The Monsters of Folk are Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes). The four have collaborated for a number of years, occasionally appearing together on stage, but for the most part they have focused on their various other projects. Despite their continued touring and new album releases (My Morning Jacket, M. Ward, and Conor Oberst have all released albums in the past couple of years), the band was finally able to come together for a studio recording, and the results are definitely worth a listen. Lyrically and musically, the album is excellent, and anyone who enjoys the music of the individual members, will definitely enjoy the product of the four together:
Monsters of Folk – “The Right Place”
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But I use the expression “the four together” loosely. The challenge of any super group is to bring numerous, individual artists together to create a new sound…a new band. And in this, the Monsters of Folk have fallen short. At no time while listening to this album did I feel like I was listening to something new, something unique…something special. With each song you can clearly tell who brought their own influence forward. Each of the members gets their moments to shine, but at the expense of the others. This doesn’t necessarily detract from the quality of the album…but I feel as though I could get the same effect simply by listening to M. Ward, Bright Eyes, and My Morning Jacket on shuffle.
Monsters of Folk – “The Sandman, the Brakeman, and Me”
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Perhaps this isn’t entirely fair, M. Ward’s vocals, for example, certainly gain a depth and texture when he is backed by the soulful sounds of Jim James, but I had hoped for more. The album seems not so much a collaboration as it is a compilation…and while I definitely enjoyed listening to the album, I was left wanting so much more.
Monsters of Folk – “Baby Boomer”
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I’ve felt a bit withdrawn from new music lately. I’ve been working overseas for several weeks, and so it has been hard for me to follow upcoming releases and new artists. I would have thought that this would be really hard for me, but in the absence of new music, I have found myself listening to many of my old favorites…too many of which I’ve not listened to in far too long. At the top of that list lately has been Bob Dylan.
I still remember the first time I heard a Dylan album. I was in the 6th grade, and I can’t say that I spent a lot of my time in the record stores back then…in fact, if I remember right, my tape collection consisted of Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams” and Soul Asylum’s “Run Away Train,” both taped off of the radio. I still remember the night my brother walked in, turned off my radio, and gave me a small pile of mixed tapes. Included in the stack were carefully selected compilations of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Tom Waits, the Beatles, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and of course Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan – “Shelter from the Storm”
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There weren’t many of my fellow 6th graders listening to Dylan at that time, but I couldn’t put it away. I was completely hooked. The first full album I borrowed from my brother was Blood on the Tracks, and I never looked back. Everything about Dylan was perfect to me…the voice, the lyrics, the music, the look…he had it all.
Bob Dylan – “Talking World War III Blues”
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It’s easy to write about Dylan’s “protest-songs.” It’s not just that they are brilliantly written, no one can deny that…the man was, and still is, an incredible poet. What sets him apart, though, is that these songs are timeless. They are profound and relevant even now…we can listen to lyrics such as “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” and they still hold meaning, they still inspire and incite…the Weathermen have come and gone, the times have changed, the context has shifted, but the songs still move.
Bob Dylan – “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
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Throughout his career though, Dylan always denied that he wrote “protest songs,” that he was “the voice of his generation.” He didn’t want to be labeled, he didn’t want to be limited…and he wasn’t. He wrote more than protests, he was more than a voice. There isn’t a word that describes him, and there aren’t enough to describe his songs.
Bob Dylan – “Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest”
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I’ve been racking my brain trying to choose songs by Dylan for this post. It would be easy to pick the well-known ones: “The Times They Are A Changin’,” “Hurricane,” “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Just Like a Woman.” The list goes on. I could choose the “protest-songs” that made Dylan famous, infamous, and reclusive, or focus on the folk, rock, and blues influences with which he made a name for himself while also alienating his most loyal fans; yet none of this seems satisfying. It would merely be a post like thousands of others…categorizing and extolling, somehow falling short…attempting to define the man, instead of appreciating the music.
Bob Dylan – “Bye and Bye”
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To that end I have decided simply to put up some of my favorites. They may not be well-known, and I may not know why they were written, but I do know what they mean to me. This is the wonder of Dylan, and the beauty of music. Others may disagree with me, but I find little reason to know the backgrounds of songs, or the history of the artists. Music is not stagnant, it is not a medium limited or restrained by the moment of its creation. It is what we make of it and take from it.
Bob Dylan – “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”
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I was stunned the first time I heard this song…it was the moment I realized that Dylan was more than just a singer. He was a poet like any of the greats we read in countless English classes. Few can weave feelings into words or express the unexpressable, but some get close:
The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.
Bob Dylan – “Boots of Spanish Leather”
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This may be the single saddest song I’ve ever heard. There is little to separate it from any other song written about love and loss. The theme is the same…but it’s more subtle, more intense…unbridled sadness contained in a single pair of shoes.
Bob Dylan – “Eternal Circle”
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Five days ago I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that the song “Eternal Circle” existed. I know I have heard it before, I’ve had the album for years, but I had simply forgotten. I heard it completely by accident…the happenstance of the shuffle button. It is now a new favorite of mine, and I wonder just how many songs like this I have let slip by.
Bob Dylan – “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts”
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I absolutely love this song, but I have no idea what it could possibly be about. I understand the narrative, but can’t come up with a meaning. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times, but with each listen I end up more confused, constantly chasing the vision of “the leading actor” as he hurries by “in the costume of a monk.”
Bob Dylan – “To Ramona”
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I could think of hundreds of other songs to add to this list, but I will leave you with what may be my all-time favorite Dylan song, “To Ramona.” It’s not his most famous, and probably not his best, yet it has stuck with me since the first time I heard it. I don’t know why it was written, and I’ve never really cared to learn…I find myself swept away by the song…but the reasons are my own.
Helen Keller once wrote, “Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens, I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real flesh and I myself am not a dream.” I’m coming to the end of my trip in New York, and there is little doubt that Helen Keller was right about the city. Everything is so full of life, that you can’t help but feel like an integral part of it all.
I’ve been thinking long and hard about songs that capture the feeling of the city. It’s easy to put in Sinatra’s “New York, New York” with it’s self-evident claim that “If [you] can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere;” but I can’t help but feel that it’s not truly representative of how New Yorkers feel about their city. More often than not, songs about New York highlight the love-hate relationship between the city and it’s inhabitants. People seem to hate the noise, the commotion, the traffic, and the never-ending seas of concrete; yet the city has an unavoidable pull on everyone who lives here. The culture, the sites, the people…it all draws them in, until they find that no matter how much they hate the city, they always seem to love it just a little bit more. That feeling permeates songs about New York. As Paul Banks drones on in Interpol’s NYC, “I’m sick of spending these lonely nights training myself not to care…but New York Cares.”
Interpol – “NYC”
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There are too many songs about New York to include in a single blog post…or even 20 blog posts, but below are a couple of my favorites. They run the gamut between songs of love, and songs of loss, songs of success, and songs of failure…but each captures one piece of the chaos and the beauty that make New York what it is. As the architect Le corbusier once said, “A hundred times have I though New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.”
Rufus Wainwright – “14th Street”
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Tom Waits – “Downtown Train”
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Bright Eyes – “Lua”
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Bob Dylan – “Hard Times in New York Town”
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I have to say that the Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Forget the parties, the cook-outs, and the fireworks (though I really like the fireworks)…the day commemorates the most important and the most memorable day in our history (go ahead and argue that if you want, but it’s the truth). With just a few choice words, the US was born:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government…
Thousands of songs have been written about America in the 233 years since its birth…they’re not all patriotic, they’re not all positive, but they all reflect the promise of freedom contained in the Declaration of Independence…the achievement of that freedom and the continuing struggle to extend that freedom to all who seek it. In honor of the day, I thought it would be fitting to put together a mix of these songs, and what better way to start than with Woody Guthrie’s classic, “This Land is Your Land.” Ironically, this song has become something of a patriotic ballad, commonly appearing on collections of songs to America, but when it was written, it was a biting criticism of the inequalities of dust-bowl America. One verse in particular, which doesn’t make the popular release of the song, asks:
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?
Woody Guthrie – “This Land is Your Land”
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Guthrie can be considered the voice of the migrant worker, calling for fairness while exposing aspects of America that many do not see, or choose to ignore. He ushered in an age of music as a vehicle for protest…calling for equality, peace, and justice. Not all songs written about America are protest songs, but for some reason, such songs tend to be more interesting and compelling. Perhaps it is because writing patriotic songs too often becomes simplistic, sentimental, or (to put it simply) lame (see for example “I’m Proud to be an American,” “Let the Eagle Soar,” or just about every country song written on the subject). Now I realize that putting together a mix of “protest” songs on the 4th of July may not seem to be in the spirit of the day, but I disagree. The country was founded on the idea that we can live a better life, so long as we continue to strive toward that goal. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” While songs of protest are critical of the country (whether it be issues of war, equality, environment, or economy), they are so in the hope of righting wrongs and bringing about positive change for posterity:
Bruce Springsteen – “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live”
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The Pogues – “Thousands are Sailing”
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Steve Earle – “Condi, Condi”
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Bowerbirds – “In Our Talons”
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Bob Dylan – “When the Ship Comes In”
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Kimya Dawson – “Loose Lips”
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This is just a few of the thousands of songs written about America that call for change, but I can’t leave a Fourth of July post on a note of criticism, and at times even pessimism. Instead, I will end with a couple of songs highlighting the very things that make the US great. The first is a song by Johnny Cash, called “Ragged Old Flag.” While the song is in fact quite critical, it’s underlying theme is one of great optimism, emphasizing the American spirit and the pride we can all feel because of it. And unlike his country singing successors, Cash is able to present the sentiment in a way that doesn’t feel like being beaten over the head with an American flag:
Johnny Cash – “Ragged Old Flag”
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And last, I leave you with what may be the most stunning rendition of any patriotic song ever written. The song is Katherine Lee Bates’ “America the Beautiful,” sung by none other than Ray Charles. This version of the song will never be surpassed:
Ray Charles – “America the Beautiful”
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OK, I may have lied…I have to include just one more thing. Yes, I realize that this is Schoolhouse Rock, but really, how many of us actually know the words to the preamble of the Constitution. In high school, I had to memorize this song, and I’m glad I did. Even more so than the Declaration of Independence, this may be the single most important document in American history, and this one sentence says it all. Happy Fourth of July.
