Musical Fruitcake

Here is another Christmas song from Kay Martin and Her Body Guards, called “The Girls Were All Happy,” which is a jazzy poem in the vein of “The Night Before Christmas.” According to Kay, on the night before Christmas, Santa likes to stop at “dancing schools” to peruse and “dance” with the ladies.

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Kay_Martin_-_The_Girls_Were_All_Happy.mp3

The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who became popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Jack Kerouac’s stream of consciousness story, On the Road, is widely considered as one of the genre’s most important works. It took Kerouac just 21 days to type the story of his 7 year trek across America, on a friend’s typewriter, on long sheets of tracing paper. As he completed the pages, he taped them together, until he had a long, continuous 120-foot long roll. Here is Jack Kerouac on a rare appearance on the Tonight Show with Steve Allen, reciting from On The Road:

The beat philosophy was generally counter-cultural, anti-materialistic and stressed the importance of bettering one’s inner self over and above material possessions. Beatniks were members of the “beat” movement in the United States in the 1950s. Beatniks frequently rejected middle-class American values, customs, and tastes in favor of radical politics and exotic jazz, art, and literature. The movement was often classified as bohemian.

Edd Byrnes’ portrayal of Kookie on the television show 77 Sunset Strip, and the character Maynard G. Krebs, played by Bob Denver on Dobie Gillis, both solidified the beatnik stereotype in the minds of most people, which reduced beatniks to stereotypical goatees, sunglasses, poetry readings, coffeehouses, slouches, and hipster jargon, and the fact is that there never were any actual beatniks in this sense. A sensationalist Hollywood interpretation of the subculture can be seen in the 1959 film The Beat Generation. This clip from the 1958 movie “High School Confidential” features Phillipa Fallon as a beat poetess, accompianied by Jackie Coogan on piano:

Here is Herman Munster improvising some beat poetry:

The 1959 Christmas song “Beatnik’s Wish,” written by Ray Willis and Willy Ackerman and recorded by Patsy Raye and The Beatniks, features Patsy as a sultry hipster enticing Santa to fulfill her lustful Christmas wishes.

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Patsy_Raye_-_Beatniks_Wish.mp3

Reece Shipley (1921 - 1998) was a well-respected Country Swing and Rockabilly songwriter and singer. In the early 1950s, Shipley performed regularly on radio programs, such as WKPT’s “Saturday Night Hayride.”

He released a number of rockabilly records in the mid 1950s, for such labels as Decca, Mercury and BML. His song “Milk Bucket Boogie,” became a big hit for Red Foley. Other recordings of his from this period, include “Catfish Boogie,” “Will Good Times Last Forever?,” “I‘ve Got Wrinkles Where My Dimples Used To Be” and “Hillbilly Jive with a Boogie Beat.”

Reece Shipley is most often remembered for Western swing music. During the last decades of his life, Reece was a regular performer at music festivals, including the Smithsonian Folk Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C..

Reece was well-liked and highly respected as a teacher and mentor by a generation of regional old-time and Western swing musicians.

Reece performed regularly at Dollywood with guitarist Red Peterson, and was inducted into the Birthplace of Country Music in Bristol, Tennessee.

Reece Shipley also recorded a Christmas song, for Orchard Records, involving Santa Claus and the cold war, called “Can Santa Miss Those Missiles,” with Rudolph and the other reindeer dodging Redstone, Jupiter, Polaris and Saturn 5 missiles.

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Reece_Shipley_-_Can_Santa_Miss_Those_Missiles.mp3

“Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile” is a Song-Poem that was recorded by an artist named Heather Noel, that plays on cold war fears, similar to “Mister Russian, Please Don’t Shoot Down Santa’s Sleigh.” This song serves as a reminder that military equipment, preemptive war and nuclear weapons make terrible stocking stuffers.

The recording opens with the sound of an exploding bomb, which is followed by a lively organ and vocals, that cheerfully explain that Santa has transformed into a hairless, militaristic alien who arrives on a weapon of mass destruction and gives the terrified singer/narrator a laser gun, instead of the teddy bear that she asked for.

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Heather_Noel_-_Santa_Came_On_A_Nuclear_Missile.mp3

Punk bands create short, fast, raw songs, with bare instrumentation and often political or nihilistic lyrics. The punk subculture expresses a variety of anti-authoritarian and anarchistic ideologies. Punk rock emerged between 1974 and 1977, and was led by groups such as the Ramones and The Sex Pistols. It was preceded by a variety of protopunk in the 1960s and early 1970s, with bands such as Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, and the MC5. During the 1980s, the culture emerged in a series of local scenes around the world, and by the turn of the century, punk rock had led to development of the alternative rock movement.

In 1977, Harold Bronson, Graham Daddy, and Lou Maxfield, grouped as The Ravers, wrote and recorded the song “(It’s Gonna Be a) Punk Rock Christmas.” The group did such a good job at parodying the sound of The Sex Pistols, that this song is often mistaken for actually having been recorded by them.

Although he is best known for co-founding Rhino Records in 1978, Harold Bronson has written and edited a quite a few well-regarded books on modern music history and criticism. He also runs the Rhino Films production company, and has produced “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas,” among other movies. Lou Maxfield played lead guitar on Joan Jett & The Blackhearts first release, “Bad Reputation,” which was produced by Steve Jones and Paul Cook, of The Sex Pistols. Lou was also an original member of Ray Manzarek’s band Night City. Graham Daddy and Lou Maxfield still perform together, in a group called Daddy Maxfield.

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The_Ravers_-_Its_Gonna_Be_A_Punk_Rock_Christmas.mp3

Kitty Wells (born Ellen Muriel Deason) is an American country music singer, best known for her 1952 hit song “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” a response to Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life.” Its controversial pre-feminist lyrics, which blamed unfaithful men for creating unfaithful women, established Wells as the first major female country star.

She also as recorded a string of hits from the 1950s to the early 1970s that earned her the title “Queen of Country Music.” Her success in the 1950s and 1960’s was so great that she still ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and she was also the third country music artist to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Here is Kitty Wells performing “There’s Poison in Your Heart,” on the Grand Old Opry TV show, in 1957:

Kitty Wells became the first female country star to have her own syndicated television show with 1968’s The Kitty Wells Show. Wells released at least two albums a year for Decca through 1973. In 1974 she signed with Capricorn Records and recorded a highly acclaimed album called “Forever Young,” and was backed by members of the Allman Brothers Band.

In the late 1970s, Kitty and husband formed their own record label and released several albums. In 1979, at age 60, she was back on the Billboard magazine charts with “I Thank You for the Roses.” In 1987, she joined Brenda Lee and Loretta Lynn on K.D. Lang’s “Honky Tonk Angels” medley. In 2001, the country music legend officially retired with a farewell performance in Nashville.

In 1962, Kitty Wells released a Christmas song, on Decca Records, called “Dasher With the Light Upon His Tail,” which was an attempt to cash-in on the popularity of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The song was written by Warner McPherson (aka Warner Mack), and was produced by legendary producer Owen Bradley, who was one of the chief architects of the “Nashville Sound” in country music.

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Kitty_Wells_-_Dasher_With_the_Light_Upon_His_Tail.mp3