Monday, December 21, 2020

RECORD SHOPS IN THE MOVIES: "GOOD SAM" STARRING GARY COOPER

This is just what it's like in our record shop at Christmas!

Gary Cooper plays a department store manager who takes in a suicidal record store clerk in 1948's "Good Sam", directed by Leo McCarey. In this scene Joan Lorring sings along to the latest hit record while Gary Cooper swings along. In the background we see some current records and an ad for the great Duke Ellington.

XMAS COUNTDOWN IV: "JUST A SAD XMAS" BY THE SOUL DUO


There are four more more days to Xmas and since it was the worst year ever we'r
e counting down the 10 most depressing holiday tunes of all time! Today it's "Just a Sad Xmas" by the Soul Duo from 1969. The Soul Duo was comprised of R&B diva Little Ida (Ida Sands aka "The Queen of Song") and Little Daddy Joe Webster, cut for Ida's home label Shiptown. A beautiful melancholy soul duet!

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Sunday, December 20, 2020

XMAS COUNTDOWN V: "NO CHRISTMAS IN KENTUCKY" BY PHIL OCHS

There are five more more days to Xmas and since it was the worst year ever we're counting down the 10 most depressing holiday tunes of all time! Today it's "No Christmas in Kentucky" by revolutionary and folk-rock giant Phil Ochs. The song was written after a trip to Hazard County, Kentucky in support of a miners' strike in 1963. Ochs performs at church rallies to raise money for the miners’ movement alongside other folk luminaries like Dylan and Joan Baez and spent his Christmas there with other New York students and organizers. It's a brutal protest song with a no-bullshit attitude. Ochs would have been 80  years old today if he hadn't hung himself in 1976!  

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Saturday, December 19, 2020

XMAS COUNTDOWN VI: "ANOTHER LONELY CHRISTMAS" BY PRINCE


There are six more more days to Xmas and since it was the worst year ever we're counting down the 10 most depressing holiday tunes of all time! Today it's "Another Lonely Christmas" by Prince, the classic weeper that Prince  performed live only once and ended up as the B-side on 1984's "I Would Die 4 U".


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