Little Donkeys

First off, I'd like to apologize for the late post today. The morning/afternoon didn't go exactly as planned and I simply did not have the time until now.

Onward and upward...

I've seen the MP3 file of Camera Obscura's "Little Donkey" popping up on other blogs around the 'net (which is the same one I made for this blog, which is absolutely fine with me! Glad to share and get the great song out there!) and I've seen others say they never heard that song before. Oh, how can that be???? When I saw that I figured I had to rectify the situation and give you the original version.

Some background info to start: The song was originally recorded by Dame Gracie Fields, who is a noted entertainer and actress known for far much more than an obscure Christmas song called "Little Donkey." But she gave the world "Little Donkey" in 1959, and what a great gem that song was. It is a traditional Christmas poem, and I am uncertain who put music to it or exactly how far back the poem goes. The Wikipedia entry for the song is terribly brief.

I just came across the song this year, I believe about a month ago (so my previous statment that I had a "handful" of cover versions of this was incorrect...I more than likely listened to this track a handful of times since coming across it) when it was released on the 101 Christmas Songs collection. Some great stuff on there, too, by the way, that isn't found else where, if you can stand the price tag.

Gracie Fields-Little Donkey

Since I am on a donkey kick today, I decided to share another donkey Christmas song, this time by Johnny Cash, whose Christmas music isn't exactly obscure, but you hardly hear it played on the radio and in the malls, it seems. Which perplexes me, but that's how it is I guess.

Johnny Cash-Little Grey Donkey

And what better place to tell this joke.... Where is PMS in the Bible? Mary rode Joseph's ass all the way to Egypt!

Finally, I'd like to share another track from Kansas City's John Mitchell, which sums up how I've been feeling all day. Last week I posted songs about loving winter weather and blah blah blah. Yeah, well...the love affair is over. It sucks. I am ready for winter to be freaking over. It's been really horrible today, and the snow is just packing down on the roads regardless of how many times the plows go over it, and making for treacherous driving. This was NOT supposed to happen when the weather men in the area (Gary Lezak, I am looking your way...and he is mentioned by name in John's song...he's the local weather man for our NBC affiliate), who all predicted a blast of bad weather during the first ten days of December then things would be in more mild pattern. More mild my fat hairy nether region.

John Mitchell-I Hate Snow