Favoriting Surface Noise with Joe McGasko: Playlist from December 20, 2009 Favoriting

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A pennant-winning battery of songland. Ongoing feature: Single File, a half-hour of randomly selected small records with big holes.

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Favoriting December 20, 2009: FREEFORM: A Snowed-In Christmas

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Artist Track Album Label Year Format Comments Approx. start time
Bert and Ernie  Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (excerpt)   Favoriting Christmas Eve on Sesame Street  Sesame Street  1980  LP    0:00:00 (Pop-up)
Paddy Roberts  Merry Christmas, You Suckers   Favoriting     late 50s  MP3     
Regina Kujawa with the B. Witkowski Orkestra  Rudolf Z Czerwonym Nosem   Favoriting Polish Christmas Carols  Dana  50s?  EP     
Jimmy Masuluke  Sour Milk for Christmas   Favoriting       MP3     
Lord Executor  How I Spent My Time at the Hospital   Favoriting Calypso Breakaway 1927-1941  Rounder  1990  CD     
Die Winzies  O Tannenbaum   Favoriting Weihnachten mit den Winzies  OXA  1998  CD     
Michiko Hamamura  Jingle Bells   Favoriting Japan's Teen Queen: Victor Recordings, 1957-1963  RCA Victor  2004  CD     
Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra  Blue Christmas   Favoriting The Apartment Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  United Artists  1960  LP     
Willie Colon  La Murga de Panama   Favoriting Asalto Navideno  Fania  2006  CD  From early 70s   
Electric Jungle  Funky Funky Christmas   Favoriting In the Christmas Groove  Strut  2009  CD     
 
Memphis Sounds Orchestra  Sleigh Ride   Favoriting   RSO  1976  45     
The Walter Murphy Orchestra  Deck the Halls   Favoriting   Major  1976  45     
Moonlion  The Little Drummer Boy   Favoriting   P.I.P.  1975  45     
Charo  (Mamacita) Donde Esta Santa Claus?   Favoriting   Salsoul  1978  45     
Mirror Image  Hark! The Herald Angels Sing   Favoriting Yuletide Disco  Pickwick  1979  LP     
The Salsoul Orchestra  The Little Drummer Boy   Favoriting Salsoul Christmas  Salsoul  1976  LP     
 
Charles Bevel  Black Santa Claus   Favoriting   A&M  1974  45     
The Emotions  What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas   Favoriting   Stax    45    0:01:37 (Pop-up)
The Jackson 5  Christmas Won't Be the Same This Year   Favoriting Jackson 5 Christmas Album  Motown  1970  LP    0:04:40 (Pop-up)
Donny Hathaway  This Christmas   Favoriting   Atco  1970  45  Mono version, just to be different  0:07:08 (Pop-up)
Honey & the Bees  Jing Jing a Ling   Favoriting Cool Yule, Volume 2  Rhino  1988  LP  From 1969  0:10:41 (Pop-up)
Wild Honey  Angel's Christmas   Favoriting In the Christmas Groove  Strut  2009  CD    0:13:17 (Pop-up)
 
Dylan Thomas  A Child's Christmas in Wales   Favoriting Dylan Thomas Reading A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems  Caedmon  1964  LP    0:21:16 (Pop-up)
John Cale  A Child's Christmas in Wales   Favoriting Fragments of a Rainy Season  Rykodisc  1992  CD    0:40:08 (Pop-up)
May Blitz  The 25th of December 1969   Favoriting The 2nd of May  BGO  1992  CD  From 1971  0:44:00 (Pop-up)
Johnny McEvoy  The Bells on Christmas Eve   Favoriting About This Time  Target (Ireland)  1967  EP    0:46:32 (Pop-up)
Louis Armstrong  Twas the Night Before Christmas   Favoriting   Continental  1971  45    0:50:52 (Pop-up)
 
Del Reeves  Christmas Is Lonely   Favoriting   United Artists  1966  45    1:02:58 (Pop-up)
Loretta Lynn  Christmas without Daddy   Favoriting Country Christmas  MCA  1966  LP    1:05:52 (Pop-up)
Jesse Rogers with the Saddle Buddies  Red, White, and Blue Christmas   Favoriting   MGM  1952  78    1:07:22 (Pop-up)
Johnny Paycheck  Mommy for Awhile on Christmas Day   Favoriting A Little Darlin' Christmas  Koch  2004  CD    1:10:35 (Pop-up)
Carson Robison and His Pleasant Valley Boys  Jingle Bells   Favoriting   RCA Victor  1946  78  Calls by Lawrence V. Loy  1:13:35 (Pop-up)
Lynn Anderson  Ding-a-Ling the Christmas Bell   Favoriting   Columbia  1971  45    1:15:58 (Pop-up)
Hank Snow  A Letter to Santa Claus   Favoriting   RCA  1967  45    1:19:06 (Pop-up)
Eddy Arnold  Will Santy Come to Shanty Town   Favoriting   RCA Victor  1949  78    1:22:47 (Pop-up)
Woody Guthrie  1913 Massacre   Favoriting Hard Travelin': The Asch Recordings, Volume 3  Smithsonain Folkways  1993  CD    1:26:09 (Pop-up)
 
Hernando Hopkins and the Orchestra  Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer   Favoriting   ABC-Paramount  1958  45    1:35:28 (Pop-up)
The Free Design  Close Your Mouth (It's Christmas)   Favoriting   Project 3  1968  45    1:37:42 (Pop-up)
Jerry and the Landslides  Get Off of My Roof   Favoriting   P.R.X.  ?  45    1:39:10 (Pop-up)
Mud  Lonely This Christmas   Favoriting   RAK  1974  45    1:41:52 (Pop-up)
Hilly Kristal  Mud   Favoriting   CBGB & OMFUG Records  1976  45    1:45:36 (Pop-up)
Dolly Parton  Hard Candy Christmas   Favoriting   RCA  1982  45    1:48:30 (Pop-up)
Toni Wine  My Boyfriend's Coming Home for Christmas   Favoriting   Colpix  1963  45    1:52:21 (Pop-up)
Lee Arnold  A Trucker's Christmas   Favoriting   Kirshner  1976  45    1:54:52 (Pop-up)
 
Prince  Another Lonely Christmas   Favoriting Yulesville  Warner Brothers  1987  LP  From 1984  2:03:19 (Pop-up)
Douglas Leedy  Good King Wenceslas   Favoriting A Very Merry Electric Christmas to You!  Capitol  1969  LP    2:07:29 (Pop-up)
Joseph Byrd  It Came Upon a Midnight Clear   Favoriting A Christmas Yet to Come  Takoma  1975  LP    2:10:42 (Pop-up)
Ryuichi Sakamoto  Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence   Favoriting Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Original Motion Picture Soundtrack  MCA  1983  LP    2:12:36 (Pop-up)
The Free Design  Christmas Is the Day   Favoriting   Siesta  1998  45    2:15:31 (Pop-up)
Randy Burns  Christmas Lights   Favoriting I'm a Lover, Not a Fool  Polydor  1973  LP    2:18:39 (Pop-up)
Steve Ashley  The Spirit of Christmas   Favoriting Electric Muse, Volume IV  Island  1974  LP    2:22:11 (Pop-up)
 
Bishop Perry Tillis  Silent Night   Favoriting In Times LIke These...  Mississippi  2009  LP    2:31:26 (Pop-up)
Edward Penney  What Is Christmas   Favoriting   Radax  early 50s  78    2:36:06 (Pop-up)
Father Malcolm Boyd and Charlie Byrd  It's Christmas Time Again, Jesus   Favoriting   Columbia  1966  45    2:39:15 (Pop-up)
Reverend C.L. Franklin  The Challenge of Christmas (excerpt)   Favoriting The Challenge of Christmas  Chess  1965?  LP    2:40:57 (Pop-up)
Evangelist Jones Singletary and Her Holy Ghost Band  It's Christmas to Me   Favoriting Jesus Is Going to Bless Me  Rae-Cox  1977  LP    2:47:44 (Pop-up)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the Rosette Gospel Singers  Silent Night (Christmas Hymn)   Favoriting   Decca  1959  45    2:51:14 (Pop-up)
 
Les Paul and Mary Ford  White Christmas   Favoriting Christmas Cheer  Capitol  1955  EP    2:57:45 (Pop-up)


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Listener comments!

  2:05am
Mike Sin:

Just got back from DJing a Toys-for-Tots benefit at a bar out in Jersey... treacherous driving... but, I'm glad to arrive home and hear your show on an hour early! What's the deal? Prof. Dum Dum was snowed out, huh? Anyway, I look forward to the show after I heat up the rum.
  2:07am
Joe:

Hey, Mike! Nice to have you live. Hope the benefit was a success. Yes, Professor D.D. called and just said "Jesus won."
  2:25am
slugluv1313:

oooooooo me loving thee WILLIE COLON!!!!
  2:29am
slugluv1313:

here is a *LIVE* version! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfmg6g4d_0M ENJOY!!!!
  2:31am
muhrvis:

Thanks for the extra DJing tonight. I am listening from the comfort of Oregon, but I appreciate the difficulty, as I am from Michigan originally.
  2:36am
Joe:

Thanks for the COOOOOL Willie Colon clip, slugluv! Thanks for tuning in from Oregon, muhrvis!
  2:36am
Becky visiting in Michigan:

Hi Joe! I sent you an email about archiving considerations tonight. Check it out before you go to sleep if you can. Get home safely!
  2:37am
slugluv1313:

loving your extra-extended-version show too, Mr. McGasko! Bert and Ernie, Polish treats, old school salsa and now DISCO CHRISTMAS, woo hoo! lovely soundtrack for this ultra SNOWY night!!!
  2:40am
Joe:

Hey, Becky! I'll check it out after the show, if that's okay. Thanks so much for checking in--I was wondering what to do about the Dum Dum half fill-in!
  2:41am
Joe:

Thanks, slugluv! I'm glad that disco Xmas music is going down eazy on this snowbound night!
  2:51am
slugluv1313:

YES and omg it's CHARO!!!!!!! do you know if Iris Chacon recorded any Xmas songs??? (i am thinking that she MUST have!) glad you dig the Willie Colon clip . . . and for some reason *all* of this is reminding me of childhood Christmas mornings when my Mom would play all our CHIPMUNKS records (which i still have but *alas* no turntable) . . . also reminds me i have GOT to dig out my JINGLE CATS CDs!!!!
  2:59am
Sue:

Hi Joe! How are you?
  3:02am
Joe:

Hey, Sue! Happy Xmas, many days early!
  3:09am
Sue:

How long have you been on? I missed you for an hour or two? I tried to be prompt by 3!
  3:10am
Sue:

Yes, Merry Christmas! Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Hanukkah! I hope I covered everything.... Happy New Year!
  3:10am
Joe:

Yes, I got an early start tonight! The snow is swallowing DJs left and right.
  3:12am
Sue:

What about you?! How are you getting home? Maybe you'll have to cover a triple shift... good for us!
  3:14am
Joe:

Wow! I HOPE Dan can make it in! I like Christmas music, but even 4 hours is pushing it! I'll be training it...ugh!
  3:17am
Sue:

Well I guess that's a safer way of getting home. I have to check out the weather report. I don't know when this is supposed to stop. Looks crazy out there. I just woke up to this blizzard. I was all doubtful it was even going to happen. Nice Christmas set!
  3:18am
Toronto Jim:

I've been enchanted since I started listening 3/4-hour ago. Come to my senses a bit, and I gotta say that I'm floored by this mix — 'cause I'm a fella that fekkin' hates the annual overload of x-mas compilations. But, man! THIS mix has redeemed the whole holiday for me.
  3:21am
Toronto Jim:

Umm, looking at the time signature on the show, I guess I haven't been "enchanted" for quite as long as I'd professed. So — eighteen minutes, then. Goes to show you just how "enchanted" I am at this juncture in time.
  3:25am
Joe:

Hey, Toronto Jim! Thanks for the swell words--that makes it all worth it to know I got someone over the Xmas music hurdle!
  3:25am
Toronto Jim:

I once got an homage/parody of Thomas's poem, called "A Child's Christmas in Scarborough." Quite charming it was, actually. People from Toronto will understand the potential subtexts.
  3:27am
Toronto Jim:

Thanks for the kind welcome, Joe. Seriously: Xmas music can really get on one's tits, eh? Yours is far better, as I've said.
  3:29am
Sue:

I agree with Toronto Jim. I really hate Christmas normally but Joe makes it bearable somehow.
  3:30am
Toronto Jim:

I take this long reading by Thomas to be a signal — a beacon, if you will — summoning me to have a wee whisky.
  3:32am
Toronto Jim:

Aaaaaah... that's better.
  3:36am
Toronto Jim:

Hi Sue: I know what you mean. Xmas can be a drag. I have been more or less successful, in recent years, in simply not letting it make me anxious anymore. I take it in stride nowadays, and if I'm late for a family gathering or some such, I apologize and forget about it. "Cause I realize now that it ain't no big deal.

(I had another whisky there...)
  3:37am
Joe:

I'm a wee bit jealous, TJ--some Xmas whiskey sounds niiiice....just like Auntie Hannah with her port!
  3:40am
Toronto Jim:

Port for her, was it? A nice Xmas drink. My mum always went for lemon-flavoured gin. My dad likes Drambuie for Xmas.

Yesterday evening, I had something odd: it was an Xmas party at a bar, but they had no egg nog. So I improvised and had a kahlua and rum with table cream. Pretty close to the "xmas" flavour I was aiming at.

Whisky's good too. So good, in fact...
  3:42am
Joe:

And parsnip wine~!
  3:43am
Toronto Jim:

PARSNIP wine?! Where were you raised, my boy? Appalachia?
  3:43am
Toronto Jim:

...or the Ukrainian steppe?
  3:44am
Toronto Jim:

Papua New Guinea?
  3:45am
Toronto Jim:

Seriously, though: how does it taste? I'm intrigued.

Got a bottle of Niagara peach wine here for some rainy day. That's quite good.
  3:47am
Joe:

I don't really know! That's another one of Auntie Hannah's tipples in the story. Niagra peach wine sounds great!!
  3:49am
slugluv1313:

PARSNIP wine??? sounds like some Eastern European concoction to me! . . still a BLIZZARD out there! and YUP! WFMU's DJs sure have a way with thee Xmas music . . . TOTALLY helps one to *HEAL* from the worst case of BAH-HUM-BUGS brought on by waaaaaaay too much "lite-FM" type CRAP with which one is inundated this time of year!!!
  3:49am
Toronto Jim:

That prog-rock Biafran conflict xmas tune blows my mind. I've got friends who are guaranteed to wet themselves when I play them the archive.
  3:50am
Sue:

Are you doing Single File at the regular time?
  3:53am
slugluv1313:

Toronto Jim, okay, *how* did i miss this?? what is this "prog-rock Biafran conflict xmas tune" of which you speak???
  3:54am
Joe:

Hey, TJ--that May Blitz track IS pretty amazing. Definitely two sides to the same day. Sue, I think I will do Single File at the regular time. I hope you can hold on!
  3:55am
Toronto Jim:

slugluv1313: That "May Blitz" track — "The 25th of December." Evidently from their misnamed album "The 2nd of May."
  3:56am
Sue:

Oh yeah, of course. I didn't know if you were doing two b/c of the extended time
  3:57am
Joe:

I thought about it, but we'll see-maybe it will be longer tonight if it feels good!
  3:59am
Toronto Jim:

It's always longer when it feels good, Joe.
  4:08am
Joe:

I totally agree with you, TorRRRonto!
  4:09am
Sue:

Oh my god, I was just thinking of asking you to play this song, seriously! It's been in my head, woo hoo!!
  4:11am
Joe:

That's so excellent, Sue! Loretta Lynn has so many outstanding Xmas songs that it's hard to pick, but this is my current favorite...
  4:11am
Toronto Jim:

It may be too late for a request, but à la Sue, I've been thinking of one for a bit. Do you have anyone doing Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre"? Arlo did it, I'm sure, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot did a rendition at the '69 tribute to Woody.

It is an Xmas song...
  4:13am
Sue:

I know what the song's about, but she has the sexiest voice
  4:14am
Joe:

Toronto, your wish is my command. Woody Guthrie soon to come up...
  4:15am
Toronto Jim:

Wheeee!
  4:31am
Toronto Jim:

Thank you so much, Joe, for the Massacre. As fun as everything is, it's also good for all of us to remember capitalist injustices. No better time to do it, in a way...
  4:33am
Toronto Jim:

I've been reading the topmost early posts, and I'm sorry that I haven't acknowledged your terrible blizzard!

Here, it's barely cold, no wind, no snow to speak of. You have my condolences, Joe, Sue, and all others blanketed.
  4:35am
Sue:

Thanks Jim!
  4:39am
Joe:

It's a real winter wonderland, here, Jim. I hope I make it home one of these days!
  4:39am
Toronto Jim:

I can remember once when the first blizzard of the year came to T.O. and a couple friends and I dropped acid and wandered all about the streets, knee-deep in that softest powdery kind of snow — the freshest.

...So go ahead, Sue: while you're looking out the window — take drugs!
  4:40am
Toronto Jim:

Is that the FREE DESIGN??

You've outdone yourself, Joe!
  4:42am
Sue:

How did you know? :)
  4:43am
Toronto Jim:

Simply adore the Free Design.

Their sound is alternately perfect for flaky winter storms and for gistening summer afternoons.
  4:45am
Toronto Jim:

Umm, "glistening," if you please.
  4:48am
Joe:

I agree totally, Jim. I have a nice later Xmas FD single on white vinyl I may try to slip in a little later...
  4:49am
Toronto Jim:

Please do slip it in, Joe! I'm sure I've never heard it, and I may never will if you don't play it!

(And I didn't make any jokes about Joe's "slipping it in.")
  4:52am
Sue:

Oh my god, you guys are outta control!
  4:54am
Joe:

I'm actually not sure if it's a remake of their earlier "Christmas Is the Day" or the original, but either way, it's a great song, so I'll try to "get it on"!
  4:55am
Sue:

This is a total x-rated christmas
  4:55am
Toronto Jim:

Excellent. Just introduce the "needle" to the "groove."
  5:00am
Sue:

I love your trucker song. Man, I'm normally such a humbug, but you're all gettin me in the spirit
  5:02am
Toronto Jim:

The organ breaks have been cracking me up all along. (But kinda nightmarish too, in a David Lynch kind of way.)
  5:02am
Toronto Jim:

Don't say "beaver"!
  5:06am
Joe:

Yay, I'm getting Sue in the spirit! This song ought to kill it!
  5:13am
Toronto Jim:

Isn't it amazing what computers can do those days?
  5:16am
KUMA:

33rpm!!
  5:19am
Toronto Jim:

Ah! That Free Design. Thanks a lot, Joe. I'm with Sue: you're making the holiday bearably merry!
  5:22am
Joe:

Aw, shucks. :)
  5:28am
Toronto Jim:

Got to be part of a trilogy, right? No self-respecting prog-folk flautist would do a song about the "ghost of Christmas past" without also doing the other two ghosts.
  5:29am
Toronto Jim:

Mum! Look! Mum, come quick! Look! It's the... snowploughs!
  5:35am
Joe:

Hey, I wonder! That would be great if Steve did two other tunes on the theme. Somebody get him on the horn!
  5:37am
Toronto Jim:

My Lord, this is... very weird indeed. Fabulous.
  5:40am
Toronto Jim:

This is weird too.
  5:41am
Joe:

Happy Birthday, Little Savior!
  5:42am
Toronto Jim:

It's Xmas after all — we all gotta tolerate the Christers for a while.
  5:54am
Toronto Jim:

Still listening, Joe (and loving it every moment). But retreating from the keyboard with an open-ended ticket to Slumbertown. G'night folks! Here's hoping your Xmas is as smirkingly lovely as Joe's set tonight.
  5:59am
KUMA:

Thanks for amazing show !
I will listen this show again with my girlfriend,
at Christmas time ^-^
  6:00am
Joe:

Thanks for listening, everybody! I had a blast. Merry Christmas to you all!
  11:24am
Sue:

Wow, when you played Loretta Lynn, I was hoping you'd also play the other one I've had in my head and listening again, I realize that you played the Lord Executor song in the earlier part of the show!! Yippee! Stellar xmas show!!
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