Noir Dame Blog

Retro-inspired culture and media – audio drama, classic TV and film

Christmas music. Some people hate it, most of us love it, but we get tired of hearing the same fifteen songs being recorded and rerecorded by different artists and overplayed on the radio. So I went on a hunt. Thanks to the generosity of folks who have placed rare gems on the web, I’ve collected a stack of fun videos that are not the same fifteen songs about Christmas, New Year’s, and enjoying the winter holidays… not the ones typically played in the US (the UK and Ireland seem to rotate more of their music, so some of the tracks may be more familiar to anyone reading in those countries!) They’ve been assembled into playlists, so you can crank up the volume on your computer speakers, or play it on your phone. All in all, it’s well over two hours of music. Consider it just one of our presents back to you!

There are fifteen interesting tracks from the 1940s you may not know as well here, bookended by the Andrews Sisters, who sing both “Christmas Island” and the “Merry Christmas Polka”.

And here’s a list of lesser-known 1950s Christmas and other holiday tunes, such as Stan Freberg’s “Green Christmas,” Gracie Fields’ “Little Donkey,” Joni James’ “Nina Non,” Cathy and Elliot Lewis (of OTR / radio drama fame) wishing us “Happy Holidays”, and Louis Armstrong’s “Cool Yule”.

The tracks spanning the 1960s, and into 1970 proper, are a wide range of musical styles, and show a little of what was going on in the world then. Some tracks include The Marcels’ “Merry Twistmas,” Paul and Paula’s “Holiday Hootenanny”, Bing Crosby’s fun “Christmas Dinner Country Style”, Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy,” and yes, the Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy’s Christmas”. This last was a sequel to “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” and reflects the real-life Christmas armistice of World War I.

Then this grouping, of the 1970s and 1980s, which contains as just a smattering, Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells,” David Essex’s “A Winter’s Tale”, Da Yooper’s “Rusty Chevrolet,” Jona Lewie’s “Stop the Cavalry”, Boney M’s “Zion’s Daughter”, Chris de Burgh’s “A Spaceman Came Travelling,” Merle Haggard’s “Santa Claus and Popcorn,” Sting’s “Gabriel’s Message,” “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas”, and “Santa Claus Must Be Polish” by Bobby Vee. It also has one cheat: it ends with “Christmas Wrapping,” by the Waitresses. While it’s been covered by the Spice Girls and by the Donnas, it’s still an offbeat classic, and while it hits heavy rotation in some markets, others don’t play it so often. This is an interesting article that goes into the “how” of “Christmas Wrapping” – hosted on the songwriter’s website.

I recently watched the miniseries of The Andromeda Strain, and though I admire many of the actors who were involved with the project, the reason for making such a remake still eludes me. The original movie was fine as it was, and plenty creepy — and some of those scary bits were removed in the 2008 miniseries. As political commentary, it was still nowhere near as witty or scary as the BBC’s End Day.

There’s word of a reimagined Blake’s Seven on Sky TV in Britain. That’s one SF piece that would be intriguing and worthwhile to see with new special effects – as opposed to Doctor Who, where the effects added to the overall charm. It’s also the most challenging aspect for new viewers of the show to deal with.

Otherwise, there’s no reason that Blake’s Seven couldn’t have the critical acclaim of the current and challenging Battlestar Galactica or Firefly. Certainly, with its emphasis on politics and morality riddles, it’s not a show that only science fiction fans could enjoy.

Plus, that means the original series would probably be released to the US on DVD. Amazingly, despite fans that have collected the show avidly since it was first aired on WGBH-Boston in the early 1980s, Blake’s Seven is still not available in the US.

“How to Get into Rebel Space Opera Blake’s Seven” is an excellent introduction to this series, which has been described as both “Robin Hood in space”, “witty” and “nihilist”. It arguably inspired such later shows as Crusade, but one fun way of viewing Blake’s Seven is to imagine that the Federation of Star Trek has become hopelessly corrupted… in fact, doesn’t the Blake’s Seven symbol kind of look like a side-turned Federation symbol? hmm.

While it’s not quite as difficult to imagine as a non-Shatner “Captain Kirk”, it’s interesting to speculate who would play Blake and Avon, as well as other pivotal characters such as Cally, Jenna and Vila. But particularly Blake. Like the character of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, his early appearance and character is deceptive. Anna Chancellor has already been bandied about as a worthy Servalan, the scheming villain of the piece.

Strangely, on a whim today I decided to spin my copy of Valley Girl in the old DVD. Such a surprise to learn that today is also the 25th anniversary of Martha Coolidge’s little indie film with wide-reaching appeal. More than most teen films, this low-budget gem, retelling the old tale of Romeo and Juliet in a romance between a Valley girl and a Hollywood high punk, retains its charm and gentle humor. Shot in under a month, it could have been broad slapstick getting mileage out of Frank and Moon Unit Zappa’s novelty hit “Valley Girl” — a Not Another Teen Movie for the 1980s. It ended up with fresh characters (who could forget the parents running the health food store?) and a bona fide star in the young Nicolas Cage. (Elizabeth Daily has also gone on to fame with many club singles, and as an in-demand voice-over artist.)

The L.A. Daily News has an article about the San Fernando Valley’s changing demographics since the film was first released. Star Deborah Foreman, originally a model for Maybelline, now teaches pilates and yoga, after time as a graphic designer and other roles. Foreman generated a lot of the movie’s charm and likability, and cameoed in Coolidge’s other fun teen epic, Reel Genius, which also costarred Valley Girl’s Michelle Meyrink, heroine to a generation of nerds.

And who could forget that music? A mix of gritty power pop and ironic synth-driven pop – it remains one of the best soundtracks of the 20th century, easily holding its own with Saturday Night Fever, Dazed and Confused (another great teen flick that has gained stature in the years since its first release) and American Graffiti. Modern English’s song “I Melt With You” seemed to take on a life of its own, resurrected from the dead years later, after its use in a Burger King commercial!

Interestingly, the opening song, “Girls Like Me,” is from Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo, a critically acclaimed new wave band from San Francisco. Hayes’ music, like the movie itself, is deceptively cute. Very accessible pop, yet unique – Hayes was known for using unusual rhythm and time signatures in her pop songs. You can easily download “Girls Like Me” and “Shelly’s Boyfriend” (another song in Valley Girl) from her website for free, since it’s very hard to get ahold of the songs otherwise – and learn what else Bonnie is doing.

It’s amazing that Rodney Dangerfield never guested on a soap, to my knowledge, during his long and colorful career. Like Rodney, some of the best storytelling of the past and present doesn’t get no respect. Yep, I’m talking suds, sirreee. Soap opera.

During the 1970s and 80s, soap opera was not only at the height of its popularity, but also a quiet innovator for social issues and troubles of the day. There were great performers of all ages — some of whom crossed over into the mainstream, like Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, and Meg Ryan. Even today, you’ll find some of the best performers anywhere working on soaps. You have to be good to work on a soap – you can’t last if you can’t get through a half hour or hour of script every day.

The question is, are the scripts, and storylines as fresh and as solid as they could be? If you really love soaps, today, the hottest place to find and enjoy them is online – through podcasts and internet radio… and soon, through indie film and perhaps web “TV”. (more…)

For at least another five days, you can listen online to the premiere episode of BBC2′s “Mad About the Boy”, a music documentary series about the dashing playwright and songwriter Noel Coward.
Coward, probably best known today for his drawing-room comedies like “Private Lives” and “Design for Living”, is a fascinating man described as the “missing link between Gilbert and Sullivan, and Lennon and McCartney”, and the documentary includes snippets of past interviews.

“Mad About the Boy” also has the charm of being hosted by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. Tennant started out as a music writer, so his role is not that of a fluffy figurehead announcing songs. You’ll hear new artists discuss Coward’s legacy, some modern “covers” (including a Pet Shops Boys cover of “Sail Away” in synth-pop style), as well as traditional versions of his tunes (best heard with a cocktail or bon-bon in hand).

And while Coward’s music has been overshadowed by his plays, I’m also waiting for the documentary or dramatization of his secret life as a spy in WWII, working for the Allies. At the time he came in for a lot of criticism about his supposedly lush, high living…even though it helped maintain his cover. As radio commentator Paul Harvey once said, Coward never lived up to his name.