1925- "At The Christmas Ball"

.....This is the oldest recording I've written about to date, but it sat around for fifteen years before it was ever released.

• 03:24 "AT THE CHRISTMAS BALL" (Fred W. Longshaw) 'vocal with instrumental accompaniment'
• -N/A- b/w "PREACHIN' THE BLUES" (Bessie Smith)
• recorded on [A-side] Nov. 18, 1925 and [B-side] Feb. 17, 1927
• original source: 10" [78 RPM] Columbia 35842 (US) 12/40; the B-side had previously been released as the B-side of "BACKWATER BLUES" on Columbia 14195-D (US) 03/27
• and my source: [A-side] 2CD THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS Volume 2 Columbia/Legacy C2K 47471 (US) 09/10/91 and [B-side] 2CD THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS Volume 3 Columbia/Legacy C2K 47474 (US) 10/27/92

.....Bessie Smith recorded for Columbia Records from 1923 until 1929, during which time she was both wealthy and famous on a scale most black Americans couldn't imagine. At the time many states mandated racial segregation and she sang in performance venues in which she couldn't attend as an audience member. As high as she was flying, it all came to an end during 1929 for all the familiar reasons: the stock market crash, the impact of talking motion pictures on live entertainment, the culture war under Hoover and organized crime mushrooming during prohibition. She did one more session in 1933, but by that time her Columbia recordings had inspired dozens if not hundreds of imitators. Fortunately, when Sony bought Columbia/CBS in the late 1980's they decided that one way to recoup their investment was to scrap the haphazard, piecemeal back catalogue of pre-World War II blues, jazz and country recordings and replace them with comprehensive, definitive packages. Sony created a new imprint for this called "Roots and Blues", which almost immediately became the template for the more general "Legacy" imprint. The "Legacy" imprint included their more lucrative pop and rock music as well as the long-out of print 78's that would have been the province of the "Roots and Blues" imprint.

.....Every Smith recording known to have survived was transferred to digital form and released in five installments of 2CD's each, which is how I found these recordings. That's an awful lot of lo-fi mono for one sit through, so I haven't heard the entire set for a while. While I was putting away some other CD's last month the Smith boxes caught my eye and I flipped them over to see how many of the tracks listed I could remember. Clearly, I didn't remember this one or I would have dragged it out earlier. I tried to see if there were any more contemporary various artists collections that included this recording so that any curious readers wouldn't have to invest in the two disc set for the one song. Amazon, which I know carries all five boxes, offered only three downloads in response to a search. I tried a search without the name 'Bessie Smith', expecting a few covers, and got two dozen albums, rarely of Christmas music, none of which had the song in any form. But at least if I ever want a five disc set of Andrew Lloyd Webber music I now know how to find it.

.....Allmusic was a little more informative, if not helpful for shopping. I found the song by researching its author, Fred Longshaw. Allmusic listed a few covers and mentioned that the Bessie Smith recording was the first. From what the article implies, Longshaw was also a recorded musician although not as often and mostly in sessions for other artists. He played piano for Smith, in fact, in a combo credited as 'Bessie Smith and Her Blue Boys':

• Bessie Smith- vocals
• Fletcher Henderson- piano?
• Fred Longshaw- piano
• Charlie Green- trombone

.....For this recording, oddly, Longshaw sat out. The original label on the 10" credits him as a composer but also lists the musicians:

• Bessie Smith- vocals
• Joe Smith- trumpet
• Charlie Green- trombone
• Fletcher Henderson- piano

.....These four, along with Buster Bailey (on clarinet) and Charlie Dixon (on banjo), also recorded as Henderson's Hot Six. Of the six, all but Charlie Green also played in a ten piece credited to 'Bessie Smith and her Band'.

.....Between the booklet in the box and various websites there's no shortage of information about Bessie Smith but much of it is devoted to the admittedly edge-of-the-seat soap opera that made up her life. Nothing specified why "AT THE CHRISTMAS BALL" languished until 1940 when the other song recorded in that session, "I'VE BEEN MISTREATED AND I DON'T LIKE IT" was released by February 1926, just three months later. I wondered if the explicit mention of alcohol in the context of Christmas might have had something to do with it. This was recorded during prohibition, after all, but all her Columbia sides were and some of them were far raunchier than this:

• "Christmas comes but once a year
• And to me it brings good cheer,
• And to everyone
• Who loves wine and beer."

.....By the time it was released in 1940 she had been dead for three years and Prohibition had been dead for seven. On the website Rate Your Music it was the latter of two posthumous singles in 1940 and the last listed overall. I had assumed that an online search for a comprehensive discography of an artist with her pervasive influence would be a snap but most only note albums compiling her recordings, not all the individual original singles. If this was her last original single it's not a bad way to close the door on a historic career.

1973- "Christmas For The Free"

.....For a stadium-filling, anthem-pioneering, pedigreed major label rock band, Argent seems strangely to have fallen off the map. I'm not a big video game player, so I have no idea if their songs have been licensed for games such as "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero" or their imitators and spin-offs. [Jan. 15 edit-- There's nothing by Argent mentioned on the websites of either game. Wow.] In light of that, it's not so surprising that their Christmas song, released off season as an album track and B-side, appears to have been forgotten.

• -N/A- "GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU" (Russ Ballard)
• 04:13 b/w "CHRISTMAS FOR THE FREE" (Rod Argent, Chris White)
• original source: 7" Epic S EPC 1243 (UK) 3/73 or 7" Epic 5-10972 (US) 1973
• as well as: LP IN DEEP Epic S EPC 65475 (UK) 3/73 or Epic KE32195 (US) 3/73
• and my source: CD ALL TOGETHER NOW Koch International/ Sony Music Special Products KOC-CD-7941 (US) 1997

.....Both sides of the single appear on the album LP IN DEEP, but the A-side "GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU" runs 6:41 on the album and is edited to 3:30 for the 7" single. "CHRISTMAS FOR THE FREE" is the same edit for both formats. The LP edits for both songs appear as bonus tracks on the budget release of the previous album, ALL TOGETHER NOW. In fact, that CD is almost half bonus tracks, providing every single A and B from 1971 to mid 1973 in addition to the 1972 album. Conveniently, the outer jacket photo from that earlier album had been used in 1973 to create the picture sleeve for this post's single when it was released in Holland instead of using art from the contemporary album on which the songs appear. I haven't found any picture sleeves online for the US or UK.

.....In the early days of the British beat groups a band named the Roulettes worked mostly as backing for singer/teen idol Adam Faith. When trends gravitated to smoother soul and R&B, two members of the Roulettes formed the band Unit 4+2. Two other members, Russ Ballard and Robert Henrit, helped out on their biggest hit, "CONCRETE AND CLAY" and later in the decade briefly joined them full-time. By that time, however, straight R&B in England had receded while both psychedelics and hard rock gained commercial ground. The Zombies had little to indicate that their last project, the LP ODYSSEY AND ORACLE, would yield their biggest hit ("TIME OF THE SEASON", #3 in US, 1969) since their first single ("TELL HER NO", #2 in US, 1964). They had made arrangements to disband in 1967 before it was released. Organist Rod Argent and bassist Chris White signed on as producers for the CBS label before hearing about the single's success in America and Argent wanted to get back into the game when he learned he still had an audience waiting. Vocalist Colin Blunstone already had a solo career and White preferred production. Argent made do with replacement bassist Jim Rodford (his cousin) for a brief Zombies tour before considering that total reinvention might be preferable to compromise. Argent and Rodford recruited guitarist Ballard and drummer Henrit to form the full-time band Argent. Argent and White fulfilled their label obligations by co-producing the group and co-writing many of the songs, with Ballard writing most of the rest.

.....A visit to Ballard's website (streamlined and easily navigable) provided a biography with career highlights. What little I knew beforehand included his reputation as a writer and producer, which was already in place by the mid-1970's. What he filled in for me was that activity grew out of a feverish work schedule. By his account, at some time during the band Argent's first three albums (1969-1972) he was not only playing live and in the studio for the band but writing for them and others and getting by on three to four hours of sleep per day. By the time of their fourth album, IN DEEP, he was writing and producing for both Leo Sayer and Roger Daltrey. It was only in retrospect that he could recognize all this, years later, as a manifestation of depression, an inability to break out of patterns. It came out in a plaintive flavor in his songs and sometimes flowed over into Argent's and White's writing, too, as was the case with "CHRISTMAS FOR THE FREE". The lyrics are currently available on the Zombies' website:.....

http://thezombies.net/lyrics/cftf.php

.....There's a combination of hope for what could be with despair for what is. Unlike Jethro Tull's "CHRISTMAS SONG" or Greg Lake's "I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS" it doesn't sound like it has an undercurrent of moral outrage over the disparity between what Christmas ideally should be and what our world has become (or had become; I have to keep reminding myself this is nearly forty years old). But it certainly doesn't have the optimism of John Lennon assuring as that "War is over...If you want it". It doesn't expect to find any of the answers inside. Or the blame, as with Tull or Lake. It looks outwardly for solutions, to Jesus, to others, "someone to smile", "the people who promised us comfort", etc. Even though it's one of the few songs not released seasonally it resembles more than most the ancient pre-Restoration carols in the sense that the self or the individual is dwarfed by the 'glory'. The romantic is ignored in favor of the epic, a trend that's been reversing since Dickens (in Christmas music anyway).

.....If Ballard's condition at the time was being reflected in Argent's and White's writing, I can't say for sure. I can say that illness prevented him from recording this track. The band turned to former Artwoods guitarist Derek Griffiths to fill in for him. The Artwoods had been less successful contemporaries of the Zombies who also included Jon Lord (later in Deep Purple) and Keef Hartley (later with John Mayall), so Griffiths definitely had his references. The final credits for the track were:

• Rod Argent- Piano, lead vocals
• Derek Griffiths- Guitar solo
• Jim Rodford- Bass guitar, vocals
• Robert Henrit- Drums

.....Amazon has a few compact disc editions of IN DEEP available, all manufactured since the 1997 Special Products CD I noted above. The song "CHRISTMAS FOR THE FREE" also appears on the budget compilation CD HOLD YOUR HEAD UP Sony Music Special Products A31052 (US) 2000. It also downloadable. A reunited Zombies released a newly recorded album in May 2011 entitled BREATHE OUT, BREATHE IN which includes a new recording of the song I haven't heard yet. Their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's television show (playing another number; you can see it online) last fall went well so it shouldn't sound too shabby. But I suspect that higher visibility will do very little to work this into many more Yuletide playlists.

1952- "A Child's Christmas In Wales" (Thomas)

.....[Re-edited from December 21st, 2011]

.....Persons like myself who delve into the history of rock music inevitably come across images of the Chelsea Hotel in New York, none of which call to mind Christmas. But long before the fates of Sid and Nancy (and others) came to define it for many of us, The Chelsea had long been a magnet for literary work. It was not merely a mecca for persons working in publishing but a site of actual creative production and, significantly for today's post, a catalyst for even more work that continued beyond its walls. Barbara Cohen and Marianne Roney met Dylan Thomas in the bar at the Chelsea Hotel after hearing him speak and after much cajoling convinced him to record his poems. Those recordings became the seed from which the Caedmon Records label grew. Later that year J.R.R. Tolkien recorded selected readings and the label became synonymous with spoken word recordings. Many of their releases became yardsticks by which future projects would be measured.

• 19:53 "A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES" (Dylan Thomas)
• performed by Dylan Thomas
• original source: LP DYLAN THOMAS READING A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES AND FIVE POEMS Caedmon Records TC 1002 (US) 1952
• and my source: CD A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES AND FIVE POEMS Caedmon/Harper Audio UACD 1002(1) (US) Nov. 12, 2002

.....Before kicking around New York, Thomas wrote for the BBC in his native Wales. In 1945 he submitted "MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS" for inclusion in "Children's Hour", a popular series. In 1947 Picture Post printed his essay "CONVERSATION ABOUT CHRISTMAS". When trying to establish himself to American audiences, rather than simply rehash existing works he cannibalized these two to produce a much fuller more living work, "A CHILD'S MEMORIES OF A CHRISTMAS IN WALES" the December 1950 issue of Harper's Bazaar.

See: http://www.bfsmedia.com/MAS/Dylan/Christmas.html

.....Thomas had been promoting his work in the U.S. when Cohen and Roney discovered him. The initial scheduled recording date (Feb. 15) never happened. An appearance at the Museum of Modern Art on Feb. 18 was recorded, but those were dramatic readings of "King Lear" and other works (eventually released ten years later as Caedmon TC 1158). Finally, on Feb. 22, 1952, Cohen and Roney welcomed Thomas to Steinway Hall, which was to serve as the recording venue, and introduced him to Peter Bartók (son of Bela) who would serve as the recording engineer for the session. It was about this time that he was building the Bartók Records label and as of 2010 was still on its staff.

.....According to the liner notes of the CD noted as 'my source' above, Bartók had prepared the recording equipment in anticipation of recording a speech but decided to adjust the settings "for a symphonic recording to accommodate Thomas' sonorous voice." Listening to it, that's actually not hard to imagine. To some today, Thomas' voice might seem comically anachronistic, like Rudy Vallee or William Jennings Bryan. But listening to Dylan Thomas at length is like sitting in the center of a house as it is built around you. You wouldn't want to live in the initial frame but once the final nail is struck you wouldn't want to leave the room. It wasn't until the fifth poem was completed that the principals, somewhat intoxicated by the results, realized that their ambitious project yielded less than a half hour of material. That would be slim pickings for a long-playing record, the format of choice for the educated adult market they viewed as potentially most receptive to poetry readings. Securing the hall a third time was one pricey option, haphazardly assembling more poems without consideration for balance with the ones just recorded was another. Before a regretful error in judgement was made, Thomas remembered the Harper's Bazaar essay. Hasty panicked phone calls uncovered a copy of the issue, by then just over a year old. The session was completed with about forty-six minutes of best takes. While the quality of material wasn't in question, existing labels understandably balked at the commercial viability of recorded poetry by the authors rather than celebrity actors or vocalists. Cohen and Roney created Caedmon to release it and that proved to be a very wise move on their part.

.....The title of the essay was shortened to "A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES" for the recording which, along with the poem "FERN HILL", filled side one of the LP. Caedmon got off the ground that same year, 1952, and after a few more albums of his readings that first album was reissued in 1957 as READINGS VOLUME 1. The essay and the poems continued to be repackaged together and separately for years, even after the Caedmon label was sold in the early 1970's. It changed hands a few times and is now at home with Harper Audio at HarperCollins. The CD I cited above reproduced the album in its original form and program order including both the original cover artwork and 1985 illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. Contemporary NPR coverage of the release can be found here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=866406

.....Dylan Thomas died of pneumonia at the Chelsea Hotel on November 9, 1953. Despite his short association with Caedmon, he left behind a wealth of recordings in that deep, Welsh accent that finally won him an American audience. On November 9, 2004 Harper released the 11CD boxed set DYLAN THOMAS: THE CAEDMON COLLECTION [UNABRIDGED] (ISBN# 978-00607-9083-7), containing not only all the tracks from the first and subsequent albums but also some material from the BBC and CBC.