One Track Mind – Christmas Mashups

I have made mention of my fairly extensive Christmas collection in the past, but I haven’t done a lot of posting of them.   The fact is I don’t feel like I bring anything new to the table and truth be told I “borrowed” a few of them from my fellow bloggers.   I spent roughly three or four years compiling the collection and now I can’t even play them all each Christmas.  No matter, I’m addicted to the genre.   We all know there are only 40 or 50 standard Christmas carols, if that, and you wind up with 15 copies of each song done by different artists.   I love that newer artists make an attempt to write original Christmas material.  Sometimes you stumble on absolute gems. 

Getting the word out after that is near impossible at my age and amongst my friends.  If you try to dump nearly 700 Christmas songs on someone they just humor you and don’t even use the file.   I don’t think it dawns on them that if they just ferret out their favorite 50, or whatever their personal capacity is, the file is invaluable.  The man hours involved alone are staggering, but the fact that I no longer have to search for the ones I missed makes me happy.  It’s not all consuming to me anymore.  I don’t take it personally when my friends don’t use the file I give them anymore, but what an opportunity to have Christmas music completely compartmentalized and portable for the rest of your life right?  Back up the file off site and you’re golden…forever.  Some people don’t like Christmas music, I get that, but for the folks who do?   If it wasn’t illegal I’d sell thumb drives for $50-$100 I’m telling you.  This year I added tracks from new Christmas CDs by Tori Amos, Enya, Bob Dylan and a Funk & Soul Christmas CD I bought.  I’m on cruise control, but always monitoring for errors and perfecting the file.  It’s a labor of love for sure, but I really enjoy it.

I’m absolutely content to add a couple of songs here and there as the years go by and just deal with the core.  I bought a separate iPod like device and leave them there year ’round.   The next year rolls around and all you have to do is charge the thing, put it on shuffle and off you go.   I have learned a few things here though; one is that if you have an apostrophe in front of the song title it will come up every single time you turn the thing back on in shuffle mode.  I have a copy of Louis Armstrong’s ‘Zat You Santa Claus? and I have to skip over it  after hearing it a couple of times and wondering why it kept coming up.   I cut the apostrophe out on the source file so when I resync at the end of the season the problem will be eradicated, but I don’t want to lose my place in the shuffle.   Another problem with shuffle mode is that if you hear an error (abrupt ending, bad sound, whatever the case) you had better be on top of the player because you can’t go back on a Sony player in shuffle mode.  You can only see the prior alphabetical mp3 file.   I’ve got one abrupt ending out there all mixed up and driving me mad as we speak.  Did I mention I was anal?

The last thing you have to watch for is foul language and songs that might not be suitable for family listening.  Denis Leary’s “Merry Fuckin’ Christmas” might be a good example, but even AC/DC’s “Mistress For Christmas,” as mainstream as they have become, has been known to ruffle a feather or two.  I don’ t have to worry much about this problem, but I always warn any recipients of the potential for trouble.

OK, I wanted to leave these Mashups for all Giant Panther fans to enjoy going forward.  I’m gambling that some of you have never heard them.  I’m not much of a Mashup guy, but these are brilliant.  I was reading The Boston Phoenix maybe four years ago and they had an article on this production company that was putting out these CDs of Christmas Mashups so I decided to check them out.   The first song I heard was “Christmas in Boston.”  If you are like me you once thought very highly of the very first Boston (the band) song to hit the airwaves back in 1976.  “More Than a Feeling” was as good a single as you are likely to hear on Classic Rock radio.   Unfortunately, with a name like Boston, the band had extra cache around these parts and now it’ll be a cold day in hell before I reach for that 17 times Platinum selling record with all the choices I have.   What I can do though is listen to this great Mashup with “More Than a Feeling” as the backbeat.   I can still close my eyes and drift away believe it or not (R.I.P. Brad Delp).  The other two Mashups I’m posting have Led Zeppelin backbeats.  “The Christmas Massacre of Charlie Brown” by an artist known as DJ John is awesome.  I still love A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I hope I brought something unusual to the table on this Christmas Day 2009 for some of you.   These are great to have mixed in with your “Christmas Wrappings” and your “Father Christmases” at an impromptu party.   I just love them.  You can find them on various volumes of the Santastic! collection.  Most them are three of four years old now.  I just decided to throw in a bonus Christmas track I like by a band called The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.   For the longest time I really didn’t like these guys, but they have grown on me.   This is a great original Christmas track for my money.  Peace on Earth people!  Merry Christmas and thanks again for reading…

Go Home Productions – Christmas in Boston.mp3

DJ John – The Christmas Massacre of Charlie Brown.mp3

Mojochronic – Yule Tide Zeppelin.mp3

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – X-Mas Time (It Sure Doesn’t Feel Like It).mp3

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – X-Mas Time (It Sure Doesn’t Feel Like It).mp3

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