Turntable Talk #33 – One More For Under The Tree

Once again, it is time for Turntable Talk, our monthly musical topic hosted by Dave from A Sound Day. Most readers are familiar with this feature. Dave gives some of us musical bloggers a topic and we write about it. This month, he asked for our help in creating a holiday playlist.

Per his instructions: “Because of the time of the year, we’ll keep it simple – One More For Under The Tree. Just pick a favorite Christmas / holiday season song of yours and tell us a wee bit about it and maybe why you love it. If it’s a ‘standard’, old or new, pick the favorite version of yours and we’ll make a nice little Christmas playlist of sorts.”

A couple years ago, we did something similar. As someone who loves Christmas music, it is difficult for me to chose just one. I will try to keep it to no more than two. Maybe three. Surely, not four….

The song I want to feature is one that has never really been classified as a “Christmas” song. It is not one that you will hear often (if at all) on the radio in December. You will find it on a few 1970’s Holiday compilation albums, though. It was first released as a B-side of a single and released again as a posthumous single.

It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way

Jim Croce’s It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way was on his 1973 Life and Times Album. It was the B-side of One Less Set of Footsteps. He died in a plane crash in September of that year. It was in December that his label rereleased the song as the final single from the album. The song paints some wonderful images of winter and Christmas for the listener. Perhaps this is what the label was hoping to take advantage of when it was released again.

I was introduced to this song by a gal I was dating in the late 1980’s. I had never heard the song before and she had told me it was one of her favorites. From the opening guitar work and Jim’s vocal, I was hooked. The song is melodically beautiful. As beautiful as it is, however, it is a sad song.

Anyone who has ever gone through a break-up around the holidays will tell you how difficult it is. The festive decorations, the warmth and happiness of the season, and the overall feeling of love can really cause depression. No one wants to be alone at Christmas time.

The singer reveals himself to be a man who has recently ended a relationship. As the holiday season approaches, the Christmas atmosphere in his town is evident nearly everywhere. The lyrics attest to that. As he experiences his surroundings, he begins to wish that he and his lover could reunite. He professes that it was a mistake to end their relationship and that it can easily be rekindled.

The song ends in mystery. In a bold move, the man says he will be stopping by his old lover’s place to “get it together.” “It’s only right” for them to start the relationship again according to the song. We never do find out what happens. Perhaps the “happy” chimes at the end of the song elude to a happy ending.

The songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote over 70 hit songs together. They wrote songs in the 1950’s for The Coasters, Wilbert Harrision, Big Mama, Thorton, and Elvis Presley. One of those Elvis songs was the one that opened his first Christmas album…

Santa Claus is Back In Town

Elvis’ Christmas Album was released in 1957. It contained twelve songs – six on each side. Side A contained the more contemporary cuts like Blue Christmas, White Christmas and Santa Claus is Back in Town. Side B contained the more religious and sacred songs like Silent Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem.

For years, I was only familiar with his versions of Blue Christmas and Here Comes Santa Claus. You know, the ones that played on the radio. In 1994, I picked up the compilation “If Every Day Was Like Christmas.” It included early Christmas songs as well as his later songs. I first heard Santa Claus is Back in Town on this album.

The song is a basic twelve-bar blues song with three verses. I have always wished that Elvis would have recorded an album of all blues songs. The genre (and the mixing of blues and rock) is one that allows him to shine. This song is a prime example of this. It is a raunchy, raw, and dirty blues song that is misleading from the beginning.

The song begins a group singing the word “Christmas” three times. You get the feeling that you are about to hear this beautiful holiday song. Suddenly the drum kicks, Elvis growls his first lyric and the blues begin!

Elvis howls his was through the verses as “Santa Claus,” who has no sleigh, but a black Cadillac instead. He also tells his pretty baby to expect him to come down her chimney later that night. The chorus begs her to be a good little girl because Santa is back in town. Naturally, the lyrics and the song itself are meant to have that “double entendre” and “innuendo” to it.

Many people have covered this song, including Dwight Yoakam, Foghat, Billy Idol, and Joe Perry. Even Kurt Russell performed it in the Netflix special, “The Christmas Chronicles.” These versions never seem to live up to the energy and the grittiness that the Elvis version has. None of them have ever given me goosebumps when I hear it either. The Elvis version does. His version is the best!

The question I pose now is a simple one. Is it possible to make this song sound even better? Personally, I think so. When the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied Elvis on a Christmas album in 2017, it brought it to an entire new level! It is still gritty. It is still bluesy. It is still raunchy. But now, you’ve got this fantastic horn line that takes it up a notch. Mix the orchestra parts with the original arrangement and you have a much fuller and fresh sound. Now, there is a raunchy “sparkle” to it.

Dave, thank you for again asking me to be a part of this feature. To my fellow music bloggers and you, I wish you and your family a Happy Holiday season. May you and yours have a blessed and Merry Christmas! Here’s to an amazing 2025!!

Too Many Streams

Money hungry. That’s what they are. Money hungry.

I remember a time when we had Netflix and Hulu and that gave us pretty much every thing we needed to watch movies and TV shows. That’s not the case today. So many “parent companies” are pulling stuff off Netflix to add to their own streaming platform and quite frankly, it ticks me off.

All the NBC shows are now on Peacock, all Star Wars, Pixar and Disney is on Disney +, and so on and so forth. We’ll guess what? I’m not paying for all of them! We’re barely getting by with all of the inflation, gas prices, and life in general! I cannot afford $20 a month here and $15 a month there. The cable bill alone is high enough! To add more streaming services would put us in one big financial hole!

What really angers me is that there are things that I would LOVE to watch, but can’t because there is no way to justify paying for another streaming service. Paramount + has The Offer, a series about the making of the Godfather. I would love to see it. HBO Max has the new Christmas Story movie, which I hear is great! My list goes on and on. I just cannot in good conscience pay for something that I will only use to watch one or two shows.

The TV shows I would binge watch, well, many of them I have on DVD. I can pop them in whenever I want to. It seems to be more worth buying them outright at $40 and watching them for years that to pay $20 a month and maybe not even get the chance to watch them. And when you have them on DVD, you get the bonus features that don’t show up on streaming.

Actor Jack Palance once said, “The only two things you can really depend upon are gravity and greed.” The fact that there are almost as many streaming services as there are cable channels makes me sick. I’m sorry greedy streaming company – you aren’t getting my money every month.

I suppose I will hope that the one or two things I want to watch on their platform will end up on DVD soon …

Rant over.

I’m As Mad As Sally!

Earlier today it was reported that all of the Charlie Brown holiday specials will NOT be airing on broadcast TV this year! Instead, it will be moving to Apple TV (a pay service) for viewing. I’m not going to lie, I am sick of all of the various streaming options! I pay for cable and Netflix. Now there is Disney Plus, Hulu, Amazon, and others! CBS and NBC also have their own “pay” services! This just proves it is all about money!

I’m 50 years old, but I have always made it a point to watch the Peanuts specials (and many others). Now, I’m going to be forced to pay to watch it? No, thanks! I’ll go out and buy the specials on DVD. Then I can watch them when I want to! I’ve done the same with many of my favorite TV shows. If you look at my movie shelf, I have my favorites (not all, but most) on DVD.

Growing up, I remember it being a yearly tradition to sit down and watch Charlie Brown’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas specials. What a shame that after 60 years on broadcast TV, the almighty dollar has ruined it for kids of this generation!

The Halloween special is just fun. There are some great moments in it. I always thought it was cool that Charlie Brown was actually invited to Violet’s Halloween party! Of course, the story revolves around Linus and his belief in the Halloween entity, the Great Pumpkin. He vows to see the Great Pumpkin and convinces Sally to join him in the pumpkin patch.

I love when the gang goes out trick or treating! One of the things I always laugh at is Lucy’s witch mask! It’s hideous!

When the kids yell trick or treat at one house, the home owner passes out treats and the kids meet at the sidewalk excited to share what each of them got. It is here that Charlie Brown says the funniest 4 words in the special (in my opinion) – “I got a rock!”

As Sally and Linus wait for the Great Pumpkin, the two mistake Snoopy for the Great Pumpkin. Sally realizes that she has missed all the fun of Halloween and at this point loses it! She lets loose on Linus with one hell of a rant:

I was robbed! I spent the whole night waiting for the Great Pumpkin, when I could’ve been out for tricks-or-treats! Halloween is over and I missed it! You blockhead! You kept me up all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin, and all that came was a beagle! I didn’t get a chance to go out for tricks-or-treats, and it was all your fault! I’ll sue! What a fool I was! I could’ve had candy, apples, and gum! And cookies and money and all sorts of things, but no! I had to listen to you. You blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick-or-treats come only once a year. And I miss it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead. You owe me RESTITUTION!!

I guess I could easily go off on my own rant about the blockheads who made these classics unavailable to broadcast TV, but what good would it do? In the words of Charlie Brown….”good grief!”

Just my opinion…

Last night on ABC, Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel presented a live broadcast of two original scripts from All In Family and The Jeffersons.

I was working, so I only got to see bits and pieces of the show. I will give credit where it is due, however:

First, it was an all star cast, it almost had to be – look at the great people who were in the original roles! Some seemed to fit perfectly, others, well, not so much. Second, the sets we’re amazing! If I didn’t know, I’d swear they were shot on the actual set from the 70’s! Very well done. Lastly, kudos for doing it live. That takes guts.

Now, here’s my opinion:

I understand Jimmy Kimmel’s personal desire to do this. I also understand Norman Lear’s involvement. My question, however, is – why?

This wasn’t your typical reboot. With those, you either have the old cast reunite for some new episodes (like Rosanne, Will and Grace, and countless others), or you have new episodes with a new cast in a “updated version” of the show (Like the One Day at a Time on Netflix). This special, however, was a new cast in the classic roles doing a word by word rendering of an old script. That’s right – an old show, word for word, the only thing that changed was the cast.

I read an article about the reboot and Sally Struthers, who played Gloria on the original All in the Family, basically trashed the idea! She asked the same question I did – why? She stated that it would not be the same without the original stars. I tend to agree with her. Did we really need this?

Hollywood proves again that they are out of original ideas! It’s bad enough it’s a reboot, it’s also not an original story idea! It’s an old script! Sure, you could replace the Nixon references and make them Trump references and they still work. You can also point out that even though the script is 40+ years old, the story is relatable. That only proves my point of this blog (in my final thought below).

The characters of Archie and Edith and George and Louise will forever be associated with the actors who played them in my mind. (I was impressed with Jamie Foxx and Marissa Tomei’s performances, but they weren’t Sherman Hemsley’s or Jean Stapleton!)

Final Thought

While it was interesting to have these shows back with a new cast, I didn’t really understand the point. It was a word for word production of an old script. You know what? If you are going to do that….I’d rather you just air the original episodes. If they were good enough to copy word for word, then just play the original!

Thoughts?

Dr. Yank, D.D.S.

dykn_comdentaloffice

From the things you will never hear file: “I cannot wait to go to the dentist! It’s one of my favorite places to go!”

I recently had my dental cleaning and found that some old fillings needed to be replaced, and a new cavity had to be filled. It is hard enough for me to go to get the cleanings, although technology has made it a bit easier. The feeling of that metal scraper on my teeth is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard! Now, they do most of the cleaning with this high pressure of water, but they still end up having to come in with that metal hook. After they get done with the scraping, the actual dentist comes in and begins poking and prodding around in there. That’s when they spring the news on you. “You’ll need to have a couple of those filled”.

I need to be honest, they are really lucky that I go back to have it done. The only thing worse than that hook, is the drill. I tell them that I want the gas and the shot. I don’t want to feel any of that pain. I tried just the gas once, I remember you can still feel the pain, but you kind of don’t care. You sit there and say to yourself, “Ouch! You are really hurting me! You stupid bastard, If I wasn’t so out of it, I would punch you right in the mouth!” You also white knuckle it through the whole thing. I think my fingers left indents on the arm of the chair from squeezing it so hard.

The shot helps a bit, because it numbs you up. But you are more aware of other stuff, like the smell of the smoke from the tooth that they are drilling the hell out of to get rid of the cavity. I’m sorry, but that’s just not something I want to be aware of it. I usually need extra Novocain, which causes another problem – I’m numbed up for hours. There is nothing worse than accidentally biting your cheek because you’re still numb. It also sucks when you’re trying to drink a refreshing beverage.

So when I go – I get both. Call me a baby, I don’t care. I want to be in that “I don’t care” state when you give me the shots and I want to be numb when you carve up my tooth. This time they let me listen to music. They put on Pandora and I listened to Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack channel while they worked. The only problem is, at one point, the channel must have gotten to the “are you still listening?” screen, because the music stopped. Then I got to listen to the dentist tell the other gal about his weekend plans instead – a lot less entertaining.

One dentist office I went to had Netflix or a DVD player. I was able to watch Sanford and Son while they worked on me. Only problem was, at one point, you get so lost in the gas, that I remember missing chunks of the show. While that was nice, the downside was a dentist with bad breath. I kept thinking, “I know you have a stock pile of little Listerine bottles, because you give me two or three when I leave, try to swish some around before you come in to work on a patient.

The latest trend at the dentist is they take your blood pressure. I have hypertension that is controlled by meds, but they always tell me, “You’re pressure is a bit high.” I automatically think, “I see that damn metal hook on the tray right in front of me – of course, it’s high!!!”

As much as I have complained about the dentist, I will say that my last experience was a good one. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive. It seems to me that no matter where you go, dental insurance doesn’t cover squat. The bill is always a ton of money. It always seems to me that the insurance companies only want to cover like 10-20% of the bill and stick you with the rest. I hate that, but it does remind me of a good joke to close with:

A woman called up her dentist to complain about her bill. She yelled and screamed and told the dentist, “This bill is three times higher than what you normally charged and I want to know why!”

The dentist replied, “You screamed so loud while we were working on your teeth last time that you scared away two other patients and I had to make up the difference somehow!”