For Your Listening Pleasure
Dave Matthews Band – Remember Two Things
Yes, Dave Matthews… my guilty pleasure. This mish-mosh of live and studio tracks was Dave’s first album, and concludes with “Christmas Song” — one of the most beautiful, simple, non-commercial-yet-not-“religious” Christmas songs around.
Sure, a lot of his fans are really hard to deal with, but I’m not gonna let that stop me from enjoying a nice tune here and there.
News to You
Before I get into the news, I (once again) strongly recommend checking out the latest and greatest from Iago Ali, as he runs through some of his favorite songs of 2002 in last week’s Pop Culture Locket.
On a sad note, as I write this shorter-than-usual Christmastime column, I came across the sad news that Clash lead singer Joe Strummer was just found dead at age 50.
Add him to the list, I guess, since it seems that since George Harrison passed away late last year, the world of rock and roll has seen way too much death, including:
— Dee Dee Ramone
— John Entwistle
— Jam Master Jay
— Teen Pop
— Layne Staley of Alice in Chains
— Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC
— Mary Hansen of Stereolab
— Dave Williams of Drowning Pool
— Michael Jackson’s career
— “Skiffle king” Lonnie Donegan (huge influence on early British rock)
— Sugar Hill Studios
— Rosemary Clooney
…and the list goes on and on.
Joe Strummer… man, didn’t he just announce that the Clash was going to get back together for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction?
Now That’s What I Call Selling Out!
That’s right, I’m a sell-out, I admit it. Not only am I a Dave Matthews fan, and plan on closing out this column with some reader feedback (a trick columnists like to use when they’d rather, say, open Christmas gifts and concentrate on eating a huge, Italian fish dinner, than concentrate on an overly creative column), but I’m about to use ANOTHER old trick: bulking up my column with a nice, juicy list (the SECOND this week if you include the one above). Please forgive me… it’s Christmas!
I was looking through the track list for Now That’s What I Call Christmas!, and couldn’t help but notice — among the truly classic Christmas songs — so many omissions. Sure, there were probably licensing issues involved, permission needed from various record labels and artists in order to include each track on this compilation… but, still, you have to wonder why some of the best Holiday tunes were left off.
So, here’s my unofficial list of my Ten Favorite Christmas Songs of all-time. Send me YOUR thoughts, and maybe I’ll get you into my next Reader Feedback section…
10. Bing Crosby/David Bowie: Little Drummer Boy
9. RUN-DMC: Christmas in Hollis
8. Elmo & Patsy: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
7. Band Aid: Do They Know it’s Christmas
6. Bruce Springsteen: Santa Claus is Coming to Town
5. Andy Williams: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
4. The Singing Dogs: Jingle Bells
3. The Chipmunks: The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)
2. John Lennon: Happy Christmas (War is Over)
1. Bing Crosby: White Christmas
Kinda funny how not only are TWO of my favorites sung by animals, but also that my favorite Christmas song, which I believe is officially the most famous of all-time, was written by a Russian Jewish boy named Israel Balin (or Irving Berlin, as it were). Between that little fact, and all the Neil Diamond Christmas albums, it’s easy to see how some Christians like me grew up entirely confused…
Reader Feedback
Speaking of confused, here are some remarks that you, my readers, have recently emailed me!
Blake wrote…
Hello! I was reading your column and Just wanted to comment on a few things.
The “there only drummers” comment. I am glad you won’t accept that.
Anyone who honestly believes that a change in drummers isn’t a MAJOR change is sadly mistaken or clinically insane. The drums are the backbone of rock music. They always have been and they always will be. Can a band exist and still make good music without the same drummer? Sure. It is possible for ANY member of a band to be replaced and not cause the band to crumble, but there is ALWAYS a change. Would you claim that Aerosmith would be the same with Bob Dylan singing instead of Steven Tyler, or that the Beatles would have been the same with Eric Clapton on guitar as opposed to the amazing George Harrison? No? Then why claim that a change in the guard in the drum position isn’t as serious to the way the band works? And I TOTALLY agree with the comment about Keith Moon. Moon was an AMAZING drummer and without him, The Who were never the same.
Also, you talked about how few bands managed to thrive after losing or changing members. The two biggest “success stories” you forgot were Metallica and oddly enough, The Beatles. The Beatles don’t count quite so much seeing as how the lineup changes were technically while they were known as “The Quarrymen” and took place before they invaded America. But hey, I am a loyal Beatles fan and had to throw it in. Metallica on the other hand is a major success story. Early on the band parted ways with Dave Mustaine, their lead guitar player (who went on to form Megadeath), only to replace him with Kirk Hammett. The band also lost bassist Cliff Burton in a tour bus accident. Jason Newstead took over for him at the time and has now left his band and moved on to other projects. Now facing their THIRD lineup change, they are still going strong.
Good call on Metallica, but I think the Pete Best reference was a BIT of a stretch… Let’s also not forget (like I did the first time) the interesting case of Audioslave. Rage Against the Machine has basically re-formed with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell behind the microphone, and while one can argue that Audioslave’s actually a new band rather than a “restructuring” of an old one, it’s worth mentioning here.
TKSM11 says…
Hey, more power to you with that column you just wrote, I couldn’t agree with you more. Especially when you said that Daltrey and Townsend should just hang it up now that Entwistle passed away this year. You know, my dad thinks that Daltrey and Townsend should do a Page and Plant kind of thing where the lead guitarist and the lead singer do unplugged sets of some sort, but I told him that that would be just downright embarrassing, and somewhat insulting to The Who fans that “oh its okay, the two main driving forces of the group are gone, but they were not that important for us to just stop and call it quits.”
Haha… that wouldn’t be so bad, actually, and there is an argument to be made that the fans would really enjoy something like that, so why not do it? Just don’t call yourselves The Who anymore, and don’t start putting out albums as “The Who’s Left” or something. It’s hard to have a problem with people touring as long as people are willing to spend the money on the tickets…
Lastly, the lovely Nicole writes this, and part of me is really scared that she knows all of this!
ok, menudo. let’s dish.
Menudo was a contrived ‘band’. It’s members were never permitted to be over the age of 17. Thus, every few years or so you have new members coming in and out. Ricky Martin was in Menudo, and he talked about how horrible it was b/c they ran the band like the boys were slaves. And do you know that Menudo still exists? They do. They are still touring around South America, with a modern name of MDO. The band will never die!
Well, thanks! And on that note… Merry Christmas!
peace. love. moe.
– Matt
Till My Head Falls Off can be found weekly on 411 Music (old columns are archived in the pull-down menu below). Already hit everything on 411? Matthew Michaels also contributes to 1-42 and is getting ready to launch his own site, moodspins, in early 2003.
