Happy Holidays from 30 Days Out: Peace On Earth

REPOST from 2008 (with slight updating): – I remember when the Apollo 8 astronauts went into space, right before Christmas in 1968. That was a rough year – Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were shot, Vietnam was a bloody stain on the other side of the world. Violence boiled over into the streets. As Christmas week opened, three men in a little metal capsule hurtled through space toward the moon.

The astronauts of Apollo 8 were the first humans to reach the orbit of another planetary body. As they streaked across the dark side of the moon on Christmas Eve, they turned on their TV camera. A live audience of millions heard the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis while we saw our bright blue planet rise gracefully above the lunar surface. We looked so fragile, so small – how can we not find a way to live together?

Today we have family and friends in the military, fighting wars on the other side of the world. In nearly every corner of the world, there are people who dream of making war.  In our own country, mistrust and prejudice are alive and well. We end the year on a note of unspeakable tragedy, burying small children whose lives were cut short.

As we face a new year and new challenges, perhaps we can look at ourselves once again and learn a small lesson from the past.

So on Christmas day, this day of hope and promise, we leave you with Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman’s signoff from that night more than 40 years ago:  “Good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”

MP3: “Sleigh Ride” by the Ventures

MP3: “(I Saw Santa) Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “Natal” by Cesaria Evora

MP3: “I Believe In Father Christmas” by Greg Lake

MP3: “The Chanukkah Song” by Neil Diamond

MP3: “In The Quiet Of Christmas Morning” by the Moody Blues

MP3: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” by the Crystals

MP3: “2000 Miles” by Scala & Kolacny Brothers

MP3: “Mambo Santa Mambo” by the Enchanters

MP3: “The Rebel Jesus” by the Chieftains with Jackson Browne

MP3: “Fairytale Of New York” by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl

MP3:  “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” by the Weavers

MP3: “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Happy Holidays from 30 Days Out: Peace On Earth

REPOST from 2008 (with slight updating): – I remember when the Apollo 8 astronauts went into space, right before Christmas in 1968. That was a rough year – Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were shot, Vietnam was a bloody stain on the other side of the world. Violence boiled over into the streets. As Christmas week opened, three men in a little metal capsule hurtled through space toward the moon.

The astronauts of Apollo 8 were the first humans to reach the orbit of another planetary body. As they streaked across the dark side of the moon on Christmas Eve, they turned on their TV camera. A live audience of millions heard the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis while we saw our bright blue planet rise gracefully above the lunar surface. We looked so fragile, so small – how can we not find a way to live together?

Today we have family and friends in the military, fighting wars on the other side of the world. In nearly every corner of the world, there are people who dream of making war.  In our own country, mistrust and prejudice are alive and well. As we face a new year and new challenges, perhaps we can look at ourselves once again and learn a small lesson from the past.

So on Christmas day, this day of hope and promise, we leave you with Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman’s signoff from that night 40 years ago:  “Good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”

MP3: “Jingle Bells” by Celia Cruz (con la Sonora Matancera)

MP3: “Navidad” by the Gipsy Kings

MP3: “Jingle Bell Rock” by the Ventures

MP3: “On Christmas Day” by Brian Wilson

MP3: “Natal” by Cesaria Evora

MP3: “Boas Festas” by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso with Eliane Elias

MP3: “The Chanukkah Song” by Neil Diamond

MP3: “In The Quiet Of Christmas Morning” by the Moody Blues

MP3: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” by the Crystals

MP3: “Let’s Make Christmas Mean Something This Year” (Parts 1 and 2) by James Brown

MP3: “Mambo Santa Mambo” by the Enchanters

MP3: “The Rebel Jesus” by the Chieftains with Jackson Browne

MP3: “Fairytale Of New York” by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl

MP3:  “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” by the Weavers

MP3: “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (demo) by John Lennon

 

Free holiday downloads!

Free holiday downloads, courtesy of Paste magazine

More free holiday downloads at Amazon.com

Free holiday downloads from the Houston music scene, courtesy of the Houston Press

Best of 2011 free downloads from SPIN magazine

Veterans’ Day: Thank You

Today is Veterans’ Day in the United States – a day we set aside each year to honor and give thanks to the men and women who have defended our many freedoms.   Veterans’  Day is close to the holiday season that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that helps us to remember that many of these brave people in uniform will not be home with family and friends over that celebratory time.

Thank you for your sacrifice, and your patriotism.

MP3: “Sam Stone” by John Prine

MP3: “Born In The U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

MP3: “The Ballad Of Ira Hayes” by Johnny Cash

MP3: “Johnny Come Lately” by Steve Earle

MP3: “Red, White and Blue” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

MP3: “Soldier’s Last Letter” by Merle Haggard

MP3: “MIA” by Avenged Sevenfold

MP3: “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by the Pogues

MP3: “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” by Pete Seeger

Kiss me, it’s St. Patrick’s Day

Trying to recall St. Patricks’ Days past is always a hazardous endeavor.  If you can’t remember one for some, ah, reason … then you can’t remember any! For the past seven years or so St. Paddy’s Day shenanigans have gotten a little mixed up for me. That’s because it always falls in the middle of SXSW madness – the beer always flows anyway.

Well this year I’m taking some Irish music with me … not that there won’t be some playing around Austin during the festivities. Irish music is a lot like the Cajun music I grew up with – that shit rocks out. And you can’t seem to get enough of it. Nevertheless, here’s my St. Patrick’s Day mix that is good for drinking along to, or not.

MP3: “Irish Drinking Song (Drink And Fight)” by Buck O’ Nine

MP3: “As I Roved Out” by The Hit The Bottle Boys

MP3: “Celtic Rock” by Donovan

MP3: “Whiskey In The Jar” by Thin Lizzy

MP3: “I Useta Lover” by the Saw Doctors

MP3: “Ditch” by Irish Stew Of Sindidun

MP3: “I Know My Love” by Maura O’Connell

MP3: “March To Battle (Across The Rio Grande)” by The Chieftains & Ry Cooder w/Liam Neeson

MP3: “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2

MP3: “And A Bang On The Ear” by the Waterboys

MP3: “Thank Christ For The Kids” by the Mighty Stef

MP3: “Danny Boy” by the Three Irish Tenors

MP3: “Celtic New Year” by Van Morrison

MP3: “Haste To The Wedding” by the Corrs

MP3: “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Shane MacGowan & the Popes

MP3: “Celtic Storm” by the Mighty Regis

MP3: “Whiskey Makes Me Crazy” by The Tossers

MP3: “Tomorrow Comes A Day Too Soon” by Flogging Molly

MP3: “Paint The Town Red 2010” (The Fighter mix) by the Mahones

MP3: “Body Of An American” by the Pogues

MP3: “The Irish Rover” by the Dropkick Murphys

MP3: “Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced” by the Dropkick Murphys

Live: The Pogues, Houston

It wasn’t St. Patrick’s Day but Thursday night sure felt like it – or something like a wild, drunken Irish party – as the legendary Pogues rolled into town to play at the House of Blues.  This punk-Irish-rock unit hasn’t visited Texas in 20 years but here they were in all their glory and best of all, they were led by dissipated frontman Shane MacGowan, singing and smoking and drinking and slurring right where he belongs.

To see MacGowan in the flesh is to wonder how this man is alive at all. Obviously damaged by decades of boozing and whatever, MacGowan is a serious mess.  But he is also the brilliant songwriter who created the great songs that the Pogues are famous for.  And they rolled out one after another Thursday night: “The Broad Majestic Shannon,” “Sunny Side of the Street,” “A Pair of Brown Eyes,” “A Rainy Night in Soho” and so on.  As I said, brilliant – and MacGowan, magically, sang with growing strength as the nearly two-hour set wore on.  Was it the frenzy of the (obviously) alcohol-fueled crowd, or was it the glass of liquid he kept sipping (gin? vodka? water?) during the set?

Lost Classics! The Pogues

Just as clearly as yesterday, I can remember when I dropped the needle on Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, the second album by the Pogues.  The album appeared in 1985, and the Pogues were an unknown quantity: a Celtic folk-punk band?   “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn” starts out like just about any Irish weeper you’d punch up on a pub jukebox, but about 36 seconds in the punk frenzy takes over.   And I said: “Yeah!”

It turns out that Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, produced by Elvis Costello, is the first of the Pogues’ two acknowledged masterpieces – the other being If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988), which gave the world “Fairytale of New York,” one of the best Christmas songs of all time.   Certainly the highlight of Rum is Eric Bogle‘s antiwar song “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” the best version of that much-covered classic.  Costello liked the band so much, he married bass player Cait O’Riordan (and later divorced her).