Monday, December 17, 2007

SANTA CAME HOME DRUNK

Listen to SANTA CAME HOME DRUNK by Clyde Lasley and the Cadillac Baby Specials.

If there's any field of music collecting that has really been changed by the internet, it must be Christmas music. Used to be you'd have to scrounge around for the same three or four tapes you bothered to pick up. Maybe one or two novelties or obscurities here and there, but for most people it wasn't worth the effort or expense to get very much of music that you're only going to play once a year.

And while that's still true to a degree, there are some people that take the time to dig around for really great (or strange or shocking) Christmas music, and now it's so easy to find this time of year. If you read any music blogs, everyone always puts up their favorite tracks, and pretty soon you've got a real stable of Christmas horses.

The point is, we've got a few years of Christmas music collecting now, so this week we'll share some notable examples.

Today's is my personal favorite. I don't know anything about it or Clyde Lasley except what's on the tape. A ramshackle blues shuffle, about, you'd think, Santa Claus out on a bender drinking all sorts of gins and whiskeys. It gets pretty hard to follow Lasley's story though. But I have done it, and the best thing about it is it's not even about Santa Claus! Santa drops out after the first couple of lines and only reappears at the end. The rest of it is complete non sequiturs with names of liquors thrown in here and there! Awesome.

Photo: Beverly's Pancake Corner.

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10 comments:

soonergooner said...

Christmas music is great, once a year! Now where are those dusty CDs? When I find them, going straight to ITunes.

Sad note, "The Leader of the Band" has finished his "Run For The Roses." "Auld Lang Syne," RIP Dan.

bill said...

Yeah too bad. I played "Longer" at a bar last Wednesday. The bar didn't appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Best I can figure is that it stitches together various whiskey and gin brands into one winding story, a la the musical Mamma Mia, but starring Santa and booze. Great!

Corbett said...

Brilliant. This is a country blues we can all believe in! I love how "Santy" provides only the flimsiest of excuses to list every brand name of whiskey known to the average American (who spends most of the week in that liquor store on La Salle). Please post more like this...I'm begging you.

bill said...

Believe me, I wish I had more like it. I do have a bunch of songs about drinking & benders, but not too many Christmas related. And those are all "please daddy don't get drunk this christmas" sort of songs.

Mayur said...

"Please daddy don't get drunk at Christmas"? Let me guess. That's a Merle Haggard song, isn't it? (Or maybe the Louvin Brothers...)

This tune is all kinds of awesome. Wonder if George Thoroughgood knew this one to rip it off...

Anonymous said...

Hi Mayur - tell Kate I said hello. I looked at your blog and loved the pictures of her.

bill said...

"Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas": I was thinking of Alan Jackson, actually

Mayur said...

Hey, thanks so much Penny! (Comments are properly enabled on our blog now; so sorry about the messup!)

Anonymous said...

I understand Beverly's is moving to the NW corner of Indepence & NW Expressway. I hope they keep the sign.