Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Last year we had two compilations of classic Christmas soul (plus one featuring newer stuff); here is a third volume. It kicks off with a spoken intro by The Jackson 5. Jermaine is crying – and the manner in which that is established always makes my smile – and he needs yuletide comforting. Wonderful stuff.

Towards the middle we get socially conscious. Stevie Wonder, still just 17 years old, hopes for no hunger and no tears, but for peace and equality of man. Then the Harlem Children’s Choir, who sound rather older than children, provides some seasonal black consciousness from the ghetto, with an inevitable riff on notions of white Christmas.

The Shurfine Singers borrow a concept from Simon & Garfunkel as they sing Silent Night as a news broadcast runs in the background, speaking of war, protest and strife. As on the Simon & Garfunkel track, the news (now at 11pm, not at 7) becomes increasingly louder to drown out the hymn of peace. Unlike the S&G version, the news cast ends with an editorialising Christmas wish.

This is followed by two examples of a genre that was fairly popular at one point: the Vietnam Christmas song. We previously encountered Change Of Pace on Covered With Soul Vol 5 covering Freda Payne’s Bring The Boys Home as the more alliterative Bring My Buddies Back; here they send a letter from Vietnam, explaining that they won’t be home this Christmas. Johnny & Jon’s Christmas In Vietnam is representative of the anger African Americans felt at the disproportionate number of young black man drafted for the war. So, where in a country song the lament of an unhappy Christmas because “there’s Vietcong all around me” might provoke defiant flag waving, this sombre Southern Soul number seethes with resigned anger.

Things soon become Christmassy again, and we come across a pre-fame Luther Vandross with his band Luther, who perform a song he wrote (two years earlier, he had co-written David Bowie’s Fascination). Vandross clearly didn’t like the two Luther LPs; he later bought the rights to them and prevented their re-release.

James Brown closes the set with the second song called Soul Christmas; needless to say, it’s not the same song as Count Sidney’s. I rather enjoy JB thanking and loving his fans (“people like you don’t grow on trees”) for their support, urging them to come to his next show. So it’s a bit ironic that the man should have died on Christmas Day…

This is the first of three Christmas sets I’ll post this year: the others will cover country music and the acoustic lot. All are timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and I’m making front and back covers for all.

TRACKLISTING
1. Jackson 5 – Christmas Won’t Be The Same This Year (1970)
2. Count Sidney and his Dukes – Soul Christmas (1967)
3. Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa (1968)
4. Otis Redding & Carla Thomas – New Year’s Resolution (1967)
5. Mack Rice – Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ (1972)
6. Brook Benton – You’re All I Want For Christmas (1963)
7. George Grant and the Castelles – At Christmas Time (1960)
8. The Staple Singers – The Last Month Of The Year (1962)
9. Aretha Franklin – The Christmas Song (1964)
10. The Temptations – My Christmas Tree (1970)
11. Stevie Wonder – Someday At Christmas (1967)
12. Harlem Children’s Chorus – Black Christmas (1973)
13. The Shurfine Singers – Silent Night & The 11 O’Clock News (1968)
14. Change Of Pace – Hello Darling (1971)
15. Johnny & Jon – Christmas In Viet Nam (1965)
16. Margie Joseph – Christmas Gift (1976)
17. Bill Withers – The Gift Of Giving (1972)
18. Donnie Hathaway – This Christmas (1970)
19. Luther – May Christmas Bring You Happiness (1976)
20. Smokey Robinson – A Child Is Waiting (1970)
21. Linda Lewis – Winter Wonderland (1976)
22. The Impressions – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (1976)
23. The Supremes – White Christmas (1965)
24. Booker T. & The MG’s – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1966)
25. James Brown – Soulful Christmas (1968)

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I noticed only after uploading this mix that I replicated a track from Any Major Christmas Soul Vol. 1. Ah well, the hazards of spreading things out over a year…

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CHRISTMAS MIXES WITH WORKING LINKS:
Any Christmas Soul Vol. 1
Any Christmas Soul Vol. 2
Any Smooth Christmas (2010)
Any Christmas In Black & White
More Christmas In Black & White
Christmas Mix, Not For Mother
Any Major X-Mas Mix
PLUS: Rudolph, a victim of prejudice

More Christmas Mixes
More Mixes

The first Christmas soul mix was very popular. Thank you to all the kind people who took the time to say nice things about it (and about my efforts here in general). Comments are always appreciated.

As I pointed out in the blurb for the first mix, I held back a lot of great stuff for the follow-up. So this one might be even better than the first compilation. You be the judge of that.

Be advised that in this batch are a couple of tracks that might not appeal to your mother: Rufus Thomas (Carla’s dad) makes little effort to disguise his punnery, missing out only on Santa coming only once a year. It may be necessary to point out that Clarence Carter’s Back Door Santa is not an invitation for yuletide anal sex (and here we welcome the lost and probably disappointed Google user); the back door of the title is just that: a door. With hinges.

Charles Brown, who appears here with Christmas In Heaven (not the Monty Python song), incidentally wrote one of the great Christmas pop songs: I’ll Be Home For Christmas. As in the first mix, the voice on the Rotary Connection’s track – here a psychedelic take on Silent Night – is that of the great Minnie Riperton. And there is a justification for the inclusion two takes of Silent Night: they are both excellent and very different from both, one another and the standard versions.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R. It also includes a really good (though long) bonus track and front/back covers.

TRACKLISTING
1. J Hines and the Boys – A Funky Christmas To You
2. Smokey Robinson – Christmas Everyday
3. Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Clowns – Silent Night
4. Lee Rogers – You Won’t Have To Wait Till Christmas
5. Carla Thomas - All I Want For Christmas Is You
6. Brook Benton – Soul Santa
7. Roscoe Robinson – Tis Yuletide
8. Baby Washington – White Christmas
9. Stevie Wonder – Christmastime
10. Solomon Burke – Presents For Christmas
11. Electric Jungle – Funky Funky Christmas
12. Rufus Thomas – I’ll Be Your Santa, Baby
13. Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa
14. Jimmy McGriff - Christmas With McGriff Pt1
15. The Twistin’ Kings - Xmas Twist
16. Otis Redding – Merry Christmas, Baby
17. The Soul Stirrers - Christmas Joy
18. The Persuasions – You’re All I Want for Christmas
19. Meditation Singers – Blue Christmas
20. Gene Toone – Baby Boy
21. Charles Brown – Christmas In Heaven
22. The Emotions - Black Christmas
23. Rotary Connection – Silent Night
24. Marvin Gaye – Purple Snowflakes
25. The Supremes – Silver Bells
26. The Temptations – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
27. The Funk Brothers – Winter Wonderland
Bonus track: Ohio Players – Happy Holidays

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Previous Christmas mixes:
Any Major Christmas Soul Vol. 1
Any Major Christmas in Black & White
More X-Mas in Black & White
Christmas Mix (Not For Mother)
Any Major Christmas Mix
Rudolph – Victim of Prejudice

Christmas got funky, Christmas got soul! The analytical eagle-eyed reader may have deduced, by astute observation of the post’s title, that this year’s Christmas mix is dominated by soul music, and that there will be at least one more compilation. Indeed, there will be at least a second mix of Christmas soul tracks from the heyday of the genre – the 1960s and ’70s. I have held back a few cracking numbers anyway. Still, this is a really great bunch of songs. Whoever I got the utterly gorgeous opening track from, I am particularly grateful to. The Flirtations, one of the great girl-bands of the late 1960s, are unjustly forgotten. One singer appears twice on this selection: Minnie Riperton first duets with Sydney Barnes on the Rotary Connection’s Christmas Love, and later reappears as the lead singer of the girl group The Gems, whom she split from in 1965.

As always, the mix is times to fit on a standard CD-R. It also includes a front and back cover.

TRACKLISTING
1. The Flirtations – Christmas Time Is Here Again
2. Rotary Connection feat. Minnie Riperton – Christmas Love
3. The Emotions – What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas
4. The O’Jays – Christmas Ain’t Christmas (Without The One You Love)
5. William Bell – Everyday Will Be A Holiday
6. The Salem Travellers - Merry Christmas To You
7. Isaac Hayes - The Mistletoe And Me
8. The Staples Singers – Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas
9. Soul Duo – Just A Sad Christmas
10. Carla Thomas – Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas
11. Kim Weston – Wish You A Merry Christmas
12. Sam Cooke – Christmas Means Love
13. The Supremes – Twinkle Twinkle Little Me
14. The Skyliners - You’re My Christmas Present
15. Stevie Wonder – A Warm Little Home On A Hill
16. The Soul Stirrers - Christmas Means Love
17. The Gems – Love For Christmas
18. The Jackson 5 - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
19. Al Green – I’ll Be Home For Christmas
20. Marvin Gaye – I Want To Come Home For Christmas
21. Ike & Tina Turner – Merry Christmas Baby
22. Gary Walker - Santa’s Got A Brand New Bag
23. Otis Redding – White Christmas
24. Joe Tex – I’ll Make Everyday Christmas (For My Woman)
25. Soul Searchers – Christmas In Vietnam
26. Smokey Robinson & The Temptations – The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)
27. Booker T. & The MG’s – Jingle Bells

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Previous Christmas mixes:
Any Major Christmas in Black & White
More X-Mas in Black & White
Christmas Mix (Not For Mother)
Any Major Christmas Mix
Rudolph – Victim of Prejudice

Thank my new friend Charlie for this instalment in the Answer Records series; covering the reply to Universal Soldier was his suggestion. Besides the conflict of ideology, we have Billie Jean creating a bit of a scene and Sam Cooke begging his woman to return to him. But will she, and is the kid Jacko’s son?

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Who does Wacko think he is?

Act 1: Michael Jackson – Billie Jean (Demo) (1982).mp3
Renowned laydees man Michael Jackson’s denial of paternity in relation to Billie Jean’s kid is well known. Our man is not impressed when his disco dancing is disrupted by the appearance of the woman who claims that he fathered her son. He pretends not to know her, but he does admit that he followed Billie Jean into a room (because of her perfume, apparently), and then did not have sex with that woman. Perhaps the excessive consumption of Jesus-juice made Jacko forget the act that spawned a kid with his eyes, as his girl (presumably the one he won in the contest with Paul McCartney) confirms. The kid might have his eyes, but still Michael denies paternity. Not only that, he accuses Billie Jean if all manner of dishonest schemes and duplicity — and of being just some random girl.

Act 2: Lydia Murdock – Superstar (1983).mp3
Billie Jean, it’s safe to say, is rather disappointed by Michael’s denial. In her rather more convincing version, the two had an affair which Michael asked to be handled with discretion. “You became my lover, you said: ‘Let’s keep it secret, let’s not spread it around’.” The trade-off for being a secret lover? Expensive gifts and smooth-talk: “You send me flowers and diamonds, and said that you were in love. You said you never met a girl that you thought so much of.” The cad! And when he had had enough of Billie Jean, he just stopped calling. In an instance of bad timing, Billie Jean soon discovered that she was pregnant. “And when the baby was born I sent you a telegram, but it came back saying you don’t know who I am.” So when Billie Jean goes out dancing (her son presumably in good care) and spots Michael, she goes ballistic: “I did not intend to start a fight, but when you said who am I, you don’t know my face, I went off. I made a scene, I really wrecked the place. And I know you might be a big superstar and the whole wide world knows who you are, but the next time we meet, if you don’t want a scene, tip your hat with respect, ’cause I am Billie Jean.” And some child support would be nice too, she might add.

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Running from an elf

Act 1: Buffy Sainte-Marie – Universal Soldier (1964).mp3
If we want peace, all soldiers must just refuse to fight. It’s an easy equation, but, well, it’s not entirely lacking in naivety. Donovan (or Donovan or, in the original recording, The Highwaymen ) asks how without the universal soldier “would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?” Which is a bit of a strange question: more likely, the refusenik would have been executed at Dachau for the act of refusing to fight, no? Still, the soldier is “the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war. And without him all this killing can’t go on.” So, until all soldiers turn into conscientious objectors, the argument goes, they are personally to blame for war.

Act 2: Jan Berry – Universal Coward (1965).mp3
The hippy sentiment is not universally shared, least of all among the clean cut youth represented by surfer duo Jan & Dean (Dean Torrence wanted no part of the song, so it was released as a solo record by Jan Berry, who here sports the broken leg that kept him from being drafted. It did turn up on Jan & Dean Rock ‘n Folk album though). Jan is mightily pissed off that the responsibility for war is being shifted on to the runts in the trenches. With soldiers in Vietnam serving what Berry evidently thought was a just cause, the peacenik “just can’t get it through his thick skull why the mighty USA has got to be a watchdog of the world” — an opinion perpetuated by any Dick, Don and Dubya three and a half decades later. Berry defines the peacenik: “He’s a pacifist, an extremist, a communist or just a Yank; a demonstrator, an agitator, or just a knave.  A conscientious objector, a fanatic, a defector — and he doesn’t know he’s digging his own grave.” And then, by way of lazy rhyme, he gets his digs in before arriving at a nonsensical conclusion: “He’s the universal coward, and he runs from anything: from a giant, from a human, from an elf. He runs from Uncle Sam, and he runs from Vietnam. But most of all he’s running from himself.” Give that man some tea!

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Can a cad get forgiveness?

Act 1: Sam Cooke – Bring It On Home To Me (1962).mp3
Sam is heartbroken because he has been left by the woman he loves. At first he laughed it off, literally: “You know I laughed when you left, but now I know I’ve only hurt myself.” So now he is begging her to come back: “If you ever change your mind about leaving me behind, bring it to me. Bring your sweet lovin’, bring it on home to me.” He is making extravagant promises: “I’ll give you jewellery, money too.” And, in case she is not so much of a material girl, “You know I’ll always be your slave till I’m dead and buried in my grave”  — which we know, alas, will be all to soon.

Act 2: Carla Thomas – I’ll Bring It On Home To You (1962).mp3
Sam’s sweet-talk worked. Carla is packing her bags as we speak: “Darling, you’ve made me change my mind. I can’t leave you leave you behind. I’m gonna bring it to you, bring my sweet loving, bring it on home to you.” Carla is satisfied that he has learnt his lesson: “I heard you laughing when I left. So now you know, you only hurt yourself.” Sam gets forgiveness, even though it was he “who stayed out late at night”. She is not a material girl: “Don’t want your jewellery or money too and nothing else you said you would do. I’m just gonna bring it to you.” And then the poignant verse: “You said you’d always be my slave till you were buried in your grave, but you got a little time yet…”

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More answer records

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Here is the second volume of ’60s soul tracks. Some of these songs are pretty well-known, but many others are hidden or forgotten gem. Eddie Holland’s track is as much a gem as it is a historical curiosity; it’s one of the few records he released on Motown before Berry Gordy decided that Eddie, with Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, should work exclusively as one of the label’s in-house writer/producer teams, in particular for the Supremes and the Four Tops . Read more…

This mix is not a representative overview of ’60s soul. Some essential artists are not represented here: Sam Cooke, James Brown, Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield (well, he is very much present on Major Lance’s deceptively titled track. And the Five Stairsteps, with a song released four years before their famous Ooh Ooh Child, evidently have heard a Curtis song or two before). There are some well-known tracks on here – hopefully not too obvious, though – complementing some less famous tracks. Perhaps some songs will provide surprises. Dionne Warwick takes time out from bacharaching to provide a nearly camp girl-band type song. Johnny Adams gives Release Me, most famous in its Engelbert Humperdinck rancid cheese version, the soul treatment, showing that this is in fact a great song. Read more…