Like a lot of good Christian folk, I’ve always had my own personal favorites when it came to Christmas Carols. The memories of the family singing them, or listening to the records while gazing at the aluminum tree with the color wheel shining on it, or the snuggly Christmassy feeling when December rolled around (back in the days before Mom died and my life turned to… ) has afforded me a lot of jollity over the intervening years.

As I became more immersed in the “one-man-band” shtik (proper use of the Yiddish, I hope), I realized that it would be neat to do my own versions of my favorite carols in a rock setting. The small matter of my favorites being more of the rather “liturgical” carols didn’t faze me a bit, on account of my being a Shtik Goy (that is, “one inclined toward heretical views") at the time.

The following two weeks were spent doing the actual recording – generally from 8PM until about 3 in the morning.

It was tremendous fun, and the whole project just fell together. In my opinion, it stands as an absolute pinnacle of the 4-track recording process: I have never done better work on 4 tracks, and I pushed that technology absolutely to the wall. The evening I did the final mixes, after I finished (about 3:30), I drank a final Scotch, put my headphones on, and started the tape playing. Laying back in the semi-dark, the thing sounded so good to me, and I was so happy that God had given me the ability to do what I do, that I just cried.

A decade and more later, I still feel that way.

Yes, that’s a water tuba you hear on “Angels”, by the way. It’s the only song I’ve ever actually played a water tuba on!

The Playlist:

1. What Child is This?
2. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
3. We Three Kings
4. Oh, Christmas Tree
5. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
6. Angels We Have Heard While High
7. Silent Night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Happy Christmas project actually consisted of two albums – the first in 1986, which consisted of about 14 carols. It was recorded at Stress Palace over the course of a week… and sounded like it, too. I was proud to have done it, but it really didn’t sound very good (I was, at the time, so destitute that I couldn’t afford guitar strings or new cassette tapes upon which to track the stuff!). It got nowhere near the vision I had in my head.

A couple of years later, in ’88, I was in a better position, regarding my studio and skills (at Casa Goofy)… and more importantly, it snowed early that November. November snow is absolutely the best – it lets you know that the season is on the way, and starts that snuggly jolly feeling going on early enough that you can do something about it -like buying your girlfiriend nice presents and sending out cards and getting a quintillion lights strung up on the house…

So, that year, I had enough of an impetus to take on the challenge of trying the project again. I bought a new bass guitar (to replace the Memphis), and a few cases of wine, and every night for a week after work I’d go down and lock myself in my room, practicing and working out the song arrangements. I concentrated on my favorite 7 songs, versus the larger list of the previous project.