First off, nothing to do with the actual topic, I went to the store tonight to pick up a few things. They have already removed ALL the Christmas stuff off the shelves in the seasonal section at Hy-Vee. Not that I should be too shocked here, I know. But to see Valentines Day stuff going up already really threw me for a loop. It's New Freaking Years EVE here, folks. I mean, I don't expect society to ever really observe the twelve days of Christmas, but can't they at least wait until after New Years Day to put that crap up? And yet they keep doing this year after year after year and that leads me to believe that people are buying the crap early enough to make them feel like it's justified to do this. So who ever buys this stuff early....it's all your fault!
Ok, I got that out of my system...on to the post...
I have four New Year's related tracks to share with you tonight. Starting from the more mainstream but rarely heard (at least in my parts....I understand some of you out there in the blogosphere live in areas with actual GOOD radio stations so you may get to hear stuff like this all the time) and going to the more obscure, I have selected four tracks to share.
First up really needs no introduction, and if it does, you're uncultured and please look into this man's music some more.
George Harrison-Ding Dong, Ding Dong
Next up comes from an import compilation I got from Barcelona, Spain. It has the generic title of "Holiday Magic" (yeah, try Googling that or searching for it on amazon.com, ebay or Alibris!) and it's a remarkable collection in that it compiles a lot of stuff that is not, as far as I have been able to find, on any other CD. The disclaimer on the back of the case reads, "Due to the obscurity of these tracks this collection contains songs that have been transfered from analog tapes and vinyl sources..." The compilation is much appreciated, but horrifically mastered in some places. One track cuts the song off and for a few seconds plays a bit from a completely different song before it picks the track back up. But I would not trade this baby for the world, it was hard enough to find.
I will more than likely be sharing tracks from this compilation in the future, but the first I'd like to share is from the Foundations. Now, I will be the first to admit I may be wrong on this. The track on Holiday Magic is credited actually to "Foundation" so if somebody is familiar with a different band from the Foundations that's called "Foundation" please let me know.
EDIT: It is likely NOT the Foundations, but another band called simply Foundation, that seems to evade Google or Wikipedia searches. As I suspected
Foundation-Alone on New Year's Eve
Next up is a My Space find by a band from Boston, MA called Laminated Cat. I really dig the sound of this track and I have to say their other tracks on their My Space page leave a little to be desired after listening to this one first, but I still will keep my eye on them to see what else they do in the future. They also have a version of "Silent Night" on their My Space page if you'd like to check it out before it's taken down.
Laminated Cat-New Years Is A Blast
Finally, I have a band from Lawrence, Kansas. This track was preformed live on the radio in the UK by lead band member, Christopher Tolly.
The Belles-New Years Resolution
Thanks for listening. And I hope to have a special present tomorrow for those of you who have been sticking with me through the true Twelve Days of Christmas tomorrow.
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2 comments:
I would say with 99% certainty that Foundation is NOT The Foundations. Parenthetically, I do own the Holiday Magic CD as well as most everything that's been released from The Foundations.
Foundation tracks on Holiday Magic are clearly the work of a doo-wop cover band.
The Foundations, on the other hand, were an amazing and unique combination of sounds and cultures (one of the first charting interacial bands, in fact). Given that Arthur Brown ("Fire") was supposedly one of their pre-charting members, its rumoured (and likely) that the group's formative (i.e. prior to recording anything) years featured a sound consisting of ska and rock rhythms--but certainly not doo-wop cover material. A ska background is also consistent with the unusually large horn section The Foundations featured (these are pre-Chicago and pre-Blood, Sweat & Tears years).
It is also unlikely that any well known group (even a one-hit wonder) could have, not one, but FOUR Christmas tracks avoid detection for nearly four decades--turn up on a low-budget CD--and then NOT be further anthologized elsewhere in the years following.
Sadly, groups with invisible pasts and non-distinctive names ("Foundation") are virtually impossible to google. So I don't know who they are/were, but there's nothing about them to suggest they were in any way associated with The Foundations.
The Foundations, if anything, were a band well ahead of their times. Such bands are unlikely to have ever flirted with straight doo-wop cover material.
By the way, I'm sorry Holiday Magic was hard to come by. But Dead Dog Records carries that title and a ton of other such "collectors" Christmas CDs.
http://www.deadog.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=x-mas
Also available at http://doowopshoobop/xmas.html
You can just see the money flying out of your wallet, can't you? Sorry about that. ;-)
Happy New Year!
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