1991- "Santa's Polka"

.....This is the fourth and final original song from Brave Combo's first Christmas album. I provided a few details about the album in the first of these posts (on Monday) but neglected to credit the band members. I'll rectify that now; note that each member is a multi-instrumentalist.

• Carl Finch
• Bubba Hernandez
• Jeffrey Barnes
• Mitch Marine

.....The fourth song is:

• 02:40 "SANTA'S POLKA" (Bubba Hernandez, Jeffrey Barnes)
• performed by Brave Combo
• original source: CD IT'S X-MAS, MAN! P-Vine PCD-2300 (Japan) 12/91
• and my source: CD IT'S CHRISTMAS, MAN! Rounder Records CD 9033 (US/Canada) 09/92

.....When Brave Combo's US label at the time, Rounder, showed an interest in releasing the album in the States, it asked if they could add a song about Hanukkah. This was not a problem (as if the band needed an excuse to record a hora). Rather than tack it on to the end, though, they placed the new song in the middle and relocated the secular instrumental "FROSTY THE SNOWMAN" from the end of the Japanese edition to after "HANUKKAH, OH HANUKKAH" (the new song), which would come after another secular number, "PLEASE COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS". The rest of the album's tracks experienced minor shuffling with two exceptions: "LITTLE DRUMMER BOY" went from track 3 in Japan to track 11 in the US and the brief instrumental version of "JINGLE BELLS" went from the opening track to the closing track. That could be because on the Japanese album it functioned as a feint that would have been lost on an American audience. The Japanese album begins with a 0:42 version of "JINGLE BELLS" reminiscent of Raymond Scott's intro to "POWERHOUSE", suggesting that perhaps this album might be perfunctorily framing standards within a polka/klezmer matrix. It then follows that with their now-famous arrangement of "MUST BE SANTA". The original version of that song was an Alma Cogan B-side of a novelty song that spent nearly a year at the top of the Japanese charts in 1960-1961, "HE JUST COULDN'T RESIST HER WITH HER POCKET TRANSISTOR". Cogan's version of "MUST BE SANTA" was the A-side in the UK, where it bombed and in America it was overwhelmed by the Mitch Miller & His Gang version. The Brave Combo version is a polka that grabs you by the ears and swings you around the room. Their arrangement was acknowledged by Bob Dylan as the basis for his 2009 recording and accompanying must-see video. That same year the song appeared again on Brave Combo's second Christmas album, CD CHRISTMAS PRESENT, which was unfortunately all-covers, including a third of the songs covered on the first album.

.....Oh, and "SANTA'S POLKA" is a pretty good, up-beat number as well.

1991- "Corrido Navideño"

.....This is the third post of original songs from the following album:

• 02:57 "CORRIDO NAVIDEÑO" (Bubba Hernandez)
• performed by Brave Combo
• original source: CD IT'S X-MAS, MAN! P-Vine PCD-2300 (Japan) 12/91
• and my source: CD IT'S CHRISTMAS, MAN! Rounder Records CD 9033 (US/Canada) 09/92

.....There's more information about the album in the previous two posts which I won't repeat here. Regarding this song specifically, my Spanish is a little rusty but I know the word "navideño" is the adjective form of the word "Christmas". If I had to guess (because I don't know who would take polls about matters like this) I would assume that Americans who don't speak Spanish are more likely to recognize the noun "Navidad". [In English we use one word to mean both the holiday (noun) and a description (adjective) of things related to it.] The word "corrido" as it is used here points up some of the idiomatic differences between European Spanish and Mexican Spanish. The use of the word originated in Europe and described songs meant to praise, lionize or flatter leaders or persons of power (deserving or not). In a way, when we see someone serenading a loved one in a sitcom what we're seeing is a tongue in cheek allusion to a European corrido, since that practice is now considered antiquated and engaging in it is even more of a quixotic romantic gesture than whatever words are being sung. On the other hand, the Mexican corrido had evolved into something of a public service announcement. It may have had its origins in publicly applauding the local governors but before the days of television and improved literacy rates the corrido became a means of passing on folk wisdom and life lessons of all kinds. "CORRIDO NAVIDEÑO" is a retelling of the birth of Christ and if I didn't already know that the band was based in Texas I still would have concluded that this leaned more towards the Mexican tradition. The tempo is designated ranchera, and not being a dancer I'll certainly take their word for it.

.....A little internet sleuthing leads me to believe that Bubba's given name is Cenobio, named for his grandfather as is his publishing company, Don Cenobio Music. Tomorrow I'll make a point of including the band's full line-up.

1991- "It's Christmas"

.....High on my long list of albums overdue for reissue on CD is the soundtrack album to the David Byrne film "TRUE STORIES". About a year ago I posted the details on my general music blog:

http://lgcmusic01.blogspot.com/2010/07/v03-t05-people-like-us.html

.....And here, a year later, it remains out of print. I didn't recognize the name twenty-five years ago but Carl Finch, the only member of Brave Combo to have been in every line-up since the beginning, had a couple of credits on that soundtrack album and Jeffrey Barnes arranged one of David Byrne's songs as well. Finch contributes one of the four originals on Brave Combo's Christmas album [see previous post], a cha cha with lots of minor chords that would not be out of place in a They Might Be Giants set.

• 03:39 "IT'S CHRISTMAS" (Carl Finch)
• performed by Brave Combo
• original source: CD IT'S X-MAS, MAN! P-Vine PCD-2300 (Japan) December, 1991
• and my source: CD IT'S CHRISTMAS, MAN! Rounder Records CD 9033 (US/Canada) September, 1992

.....The third original is tomorrow.

1991- "Christmas In July"

.....Christmas has taken on a life of its own in Japan where gift giving was already an art and way of life long before Americans started to worry about the holiday becoming materialistic. It's true that there has been a Christian presence in Japan for a long time now, but one has to wonder if the prospect of wrapping presents doesn't have an even stronger spiritual appeal for the Japanese.

.....It was probably in the hopes of marketing some of those presents that someone from the Japanese record label P-Vine approached the Denton, Texas based folk-dance band Brave Combo about releasing an album of Christmas songs familiar to Americans. After more than a decade as a recording unit, Brave Combo hadn't considered doing a Christmas album since, while still a niche market, it has become saturated with rerecordings of the same few standards. They had already done well in folk/klezmer/polka circles are weren't interested in what would amount to competing with Barbara Streisand and Johnny Mathis for name recognition. The prospect of reimagining and reinterpreting traditional songs from a new perspective was always intriguing though, and the opportunity to play them live to an entire nation with few or no preconceptions about the songs was even more of a lure. So, in the summer of 1991 they recorded the self-produced album at Inside Track Studio in Denton and toured with the album's release in Japan in December. The not-so-dirty little not-so-secret of Christmas music is that it's almost never recorded during the season which it's intended to evoke. To be in stores ahead of Christmas it must be recorded at least a few months in advance. Thus, the likely inspiration for one of several originals from this fine album:

• 02:12 "CHRISTMAS IN JULY" (Bubba Hernandez, Jeffrey Barnes)
• performed by Brave Combo
• original source: CD IT'S X-MAS, MAN! P-Vine PCD-2300 (Japan) December, 1991
• and my source: CD IT'S CHRISTMAS, MAN! Rounder Records CD 9033 (US/Canada) September, 1992

.....Unlike many of the songs on the album, this one is not designated by a dance tempo. There is a touch of zydeco in it, but it's definitely not one pure style. There's also an odd break where they rewrite the titles of well known songs and carols to reflect summer themes and sing each in the melody of the respective song. If this song hasn't caught on it's not likely due to Rounder's small stature as a label (they're routinely up for Grammys). It's more likely due to the requisite musicianship to even attempt a cover of it.

.....There are a few more originals here and I'll be noting them over the next few days.