Advent Calendar Day 7

For those unfortunate enough to be working today – or any other day, come to that – today’s Christmas songs will hopefully give you a smile or two. I’ve shared both in previous years, but I think they both stand up to another airing.

The first is one of the funniest videos I’ve come across for a Christmas song:

You might need to watch that more than once to get all of the jokes, there are so many packed into it. The Dropkick Murphys are an American ‘Celtic punk’ band, from Boston, who clearly revel in their Irish roots, and I love this video. The lead singer, Ken Casey, doesn’t have a voice for lullabies but it is well suited to this one! The band has been going since 1996, and Casey is the only original member still there. Their other videos are fun, too, if you want to follow up on them.

Today’s second song is an old favourite of mine. I was introduced to Tom Lehrer’s songs by a schoolfriend’s father, somewhere around 1970, and I’ve loved them ever since. Who couldn’t relate to the man who gave us such gems as Poisoning Pigeons In The Park, or the beautiful (i.e. gruesome) love song I Hold Your Hand In Mine? This is what he did with Christmas:

Tom’s peak performing days were in the 50s and 60s, after which he mostly gave it up to devote his time to teaching mathematics and musical theatre history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from which he retired in 2001. I think I’d have enjoyed maths more if I’d had a teacher like him! He is still with us, at the ripe old age of 92, I’m glad to say. Quite a few of his songs are of the political satire variety: he was quoted in 1973 as saying that political satire was dead after Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, so I wonder what his take on current US and world politics would be! He once remarked that he only wrote 37 songs and performed 109 shows across a twenty year period: we are lucky that those songs and live performances live on in his records.

After those two songs, what could I round off today with? How about this?

See you tomorrow 🎅