HAPPY HOLIDAYS - Christmas at the Cabin (Monsters Under the Bed, 1996)

 

Rich here, wishing my Season's Greetings, Happy Holidays, and a Merry Christmas to you all. No war on Christmas here. Only my best of wishes for everyone during this festive time. I hope that you and yours are able to celebrate whatever type of holidays you choose to observe during this time.

 

And here's my former singing partner Lance Morgan (aka Monsters Under the Bed) to reminisce idealistically about his own desires for the holidays -- holing up in the middle of the snow-filled forest in a warm, toasty cabin.

 

Feel free to sing along!

MONSTERS UNDER THE BED - "Christmas At The Cabin" 

KURTIS BLOW - "Christmas Rappin" (1979)

 

I was going to do Christmas "Eve Of Destruction" by Barry McGuire, a number one song exactly sixty years ago, with a message that still rings true today, but decided to be a little more upbeat tonight! 

So to quote Ray Charles, "What'd I Say?"

Here you go, it doesn't get much more upbeat than this!

From 1979, and the man himself, here's.....

KURTIS BLOW - "Christmas Rappin'"

LOS STRAITJACKETS - "Tis The Season For..." (2002)

 

Surf was up, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, but Los Straitjackets were still tearing it up, and decided to record it for posterity. Thank goodness they did!

From their 2002 release "Tis The Season..."

LOS STRAITJACKETS - "Here Comes Santa Claus" 

STEVE MILLER BAND - "Number 5" (1970)

 

Steve Miller's fifth album came out in the year 1970. Despite the fact that I've always heard that Steve Miller wasn't a real stoner, this is one of the most psychedelic songs you're ever going to be lucky enough to hear, and it's a protest song as well. It is just as meaningful today as it was 55 years ago.

Maybe even more so, "the space cowboy's back to tell you the score."

STEVE MILLER BAND - "Jackson-Kent Blues"

THE ASSOCIATION - "Renaissance" (1966)

 

"Renaissance" was the first album by The Association, and it came out on 1966. To my knowledge this album didn't have any hits on it. That wouldn't happen until their second and third albums when they came up with "Along Comes Mary," "Cherish," "Never My Love," and "Windy."

What's so odd about this album is that it's full of schmaltzy pop songs, but buried right in the middle of them all is this really good and very interesting psychedelic song with a crazy title.

THE ASSOCIATION - "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies"

JIMI HENDRIX - "Christmas Medley" (1969)

 

Well, Christmas is right around the corner and I guess it's time for me to start getting into it, so here's one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time!

JIMI HENDRIX - "Christmas Medley" 

 

CHOCOLATE WATCH BAND - "No Way Out" (1967)

 

Since Rich brought up the subject of garage bands, another one of my favorites from the same era is Chocolate Watch Band. They came out with an LP titled "No Way Out" in 1967, and this song just kills it!

CHOCOLATE WATCH BAND - "Let's Talk About Girls" 

 

I hope that anyone who reads this blog learns things, and one of the reasons I like doing it is learning stuff myself, so while in the process of writing this, I learned that believe it or not, in the same year 1967, there was a British band called The Chocolate Watch Band.

The only difference in their name is 'The."

That would sure not happen these days.

They were not nearly as heavy as Chocolate Watch Band, but they were still an interesting band, and it appears they never put out an album, but only this one single.

THE CHOCOLATE WATCH BAND - "The Sound Of The Summer" 

GARAGE ROCK CLASSICS - Talk Talk (The Music Machine, 1966)

 

Rich here, reminiscing on the fairly brief mid-Sixties phenomenon called Garage Rock, or "Punk" as Lenny Kaye referred to it in 1972 when he documented the highlights of the Garage Band movement in the now-classic double-album "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968." 

 

Kaye's use of the word "punk" to describe this kind of amateurish rock music is believed to be the first occurrence of the label many years before the alternative bands of the late '70s started calling their music Punk Rock.

 

For the most part, these original punk bands were comprised of teenagers who barely had a rudimentary grasp of playing their instruments or writing songs. No major record label would sign these awkward sounding bands, all of whom had a burning desire, even if not the actual talent, to be the next Rolling Stones or Beatles or Bob Dylan. Their records were recorded fast and cheap . . . often in the self-styled studio of somebody's garage; ergo: Garage Rock!

 

Despite the non-professional performances and recordings of the Garage Rock bands, a fair number of them got a decent amount of airplay; for example: "Dirty Water" (The Standells), "96 Tears" (Question Mark & The Mysterians), "Gloria" (Shadows of Knight), "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" (The Electric Prunes), and "Pushin' Too Hard" (The Seeds). 

 

And then there was one of my favorite garage rock songs of all by a band that wielded fizzy guitars and a fuzz-bass and were fronted by a snarling lead vocalist with an attitude (basically, he was angry that his girlfriend was pregnant and that it was ruining, get this, HIS reputation). So here's "Talk Talk" in its unbridaled glory by The black-clad and gloved Music Machine.

THE MUSIC MACHINE - "Talk Talk" 

THE FUZZTONES - "Green Slime" (1986)

 

And while I'm on the subject of The Fuzztones and cover tunes, they did a pretty good one that was on more than one of their releases like this one called "Bad News Travels Fast" in 1986.

 

It was the theme song from a 1968 Japanese movie with a wild vocal sung by the drummer for the surf band "The Challengers," Richard Delvy,

 

It's the perfect song for the holiday season, and they really do the song justice too.

THE FUZZTONES - "Green Slime"

RUDI PROTUDI - "It's A White Trash Thing" (1993)

 

Rudi Protudi was the lead singer in The Fuzztones, but he also recorded solo and came out with this album called "It's A White Trash Thing" in 1993.

 

On Rudi's record he does a cover of a song recorded by country legend Wanda Jackson back in 1961, and it's a song that has been recorded by others too like Cyndi Lauper, but I like Rudi's version the best.

RUDI PROTUDI - "Funnel Of Love"

NILSSON - "Nilsson Schmilsson" (1971)

 

I don't often use the term musical genius, but I think in the case of Harry Nilsson it's appropriate!

From love songs, to children's songs, to seriously rockin' tunes, Harry was able to do it all, and do it all very well.

Here's what I consider to be a stunning example from his 1971 album "Nilsson Schmilsson, and one of my favorite songs of all time featuring the detuned bass of the phenomenal Herbie Flowers.

NILSSON - "Jump Into The Fire" 

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY - "On Telerock" (1973)

 

"Today" was the last album by the San Francisco band It's A Beautiful Day, and it was released in 1973. Founding members David and Linda LaFlamme were no longer with the band, and the band at this point was composed of Pattie Santos, Bud Cockrell, Val Fuentes, Fred Webb, Bill Gregory, and  Greg Bloch.

Bud Cockrell went on to be one of the founding members of Pablo Cruise, and after three albums, he quit the band and formed the band Cockrell and Santos with his loving wife Pattie. 

It was on this day, December 14, 1989, that Pattie Santos died in a car wreck at the age of 40.

Bud passed away from complications of diabetes on March 6, 2010. He was only 59. 

I was lucky enough to have them as neighbors and best friends for a couple of years in the late 70's! 

Better people I've never known!

I still miss them! 

Here's a choice video that shows how very talented they and the rest of the band really were!!

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY ON TELEROCK (1973)

DEVO - "I'm A Potato" (1974)

 

This song was recorded by The Spud Boys in 1974, but was just a demo so it wasn't really released until 1990 in a set of demos. I don't know why it took so long because it's a good one.

DEVO - "I'm A Potato" 

GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION - "Can You Handle It?" (1974)

 

Larry Graham is the king of funk bass players as far as I'm concerned. There might be bass players out there that are more talented, but nobody can get any deeper than Larry, plus, he's got a killer voice to match!

Here we go!!! 

I hope you can handle it!!

GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION - "Can You Handle It?" 

The McCoys - "Genesis Through a Window" (1969)

 

Rich here. You think you know who The McCoys are, right? They were the band of teenagers whose record "Hang On, Sloopy" stormed the charts back in 1965 and was subsequently adopted in the set list of every teenage dance band for years to come. However, except for a single or two nudging into the lower reaches of the charts in the next year or two, The McCoys mostly disappeared after "Sloopy."

 

But in the late Sixties, a handful of listeners of the newly emerging free-form FM radio format may have heard "Jesse Brady" -- a surprising single that featured an extended blues guitar solo, a brassy horn section (thanks to producer Fred Lipsius, who was the saxophonist for Blood, Sweat & Tears), and the macho bragging sentiments of "watch out, fellas; your girl knows me 'cause I get around." The FM deejays asked, "This is The McCoys???"

 THE McCOYS - "Jesse Brady" 

 

Obviously, The McCoys weren't the teen-dance group of "Hang On, Sloopy" fame, anymore, and their 1969 album, "Infinite McCoys," was full of the kinds of experimentation associated with the post-"Sgt. Pepper" Era of Rock. Psychedelia, blues, jazz, and folk all combined to demand that this new iteration of The McCoys be taken seriously. And in the middle of it all was the band's leader, a hotshot guitar player who would later become a star in his own right when he changed his name from Rick Zehringer to Rick Derringer. 

Here's a taste of the psychedelic McCoys:

THE McCOYS - "Genesis Through a Window"

GLEN ARMSTRONG - CZARS - "Sounds Of The Czars" (2003)

 

I can never say enough good things about the music of Glen Armstrong! 

From trading tapes in the 90's to the time years ago when I read on the internet that he was dead, not, or the times I would wear my "Dirty Clergy" Tee shirt to work and get looks from people who looked crazier than me, he has been a staple in my musical library, and for good reason, and yet here's a freakin' amazing song that has been on YouTube for ten years and has only had 35 views, c'mon, what's wrong with the world?

What's worse is the whole CD is this good, not just this one song!

CZARS - "Hollywood Hills" 

THE MAVERICKS - "Dance The Night Away" (1997)

 

I am deeply saddened to tell you that there's one less beautiful person in the world as of yesterday. After fighting for his life for months, Raul Malo of The Mavericks has passed away at the age of 60 on December 8, 2025.

At least he's no longer in pain. 

In my humble opinion, Raul had one of the best voices of anybody I've ever heard. Lots of people can sing, but not many can emote like Raul could.

It's just not fair! 

THE MAVERICKS - "Dance The Night Away"

HERMES FONTANA - "Três Tons" (2018)

 

Hermes Fontana is cool guitarist from Brazil. He brought out this album titled "Três Tons" in 2018, and it's full of fun music like this.

If you've got an Amazon Prime account, you can listen to the whole thing for free, or you can probably find most of it on YouTube too. 

HERMES FONTANA - "Rock Ford"

THE NICOLS - "I Can't Forget Her" (1967)

 

The Nicols were a Dutch band that recorded in the sixties. They didn't make any albums, but released four singles in three years before changing their name to Fairy Tale.

This is the flip side of their first single that came out in 1967.

THE NICOLS - "I Can't Forget Her" 

MR. PARTRIDGE - "The Lure Of Salvage - Take Away" (1980)

 

In 1980 Andy Partridge made this solo album of remixes of XTC songs. They're not remixes as much as they are destructions and reconstructions of stuff he just couldn't walk away from, so you've got one side called "Take Away, and...... 

 

.....One side called "The Lure Of Salvage," which to me is the easier side to listen to.

Here's one of the crazier songs you're ever likely to hear in your life.

This beast is completely untamed and wild.

MR. PARTRIDGE - "The Rotary"

REV. TOM FROST - "A Christmas Funeral Coat" (2025)

 

Christmas comes a little bit early this year because my buddy in Paris, Rev.Tom Frost, just released this single. You can get your very own, or any of his other amazing work on his Bandcamp Page

It's pretty rowdy so in case you can't understand some of the well thought out lyrics,

Here you go!!

 "She left a note on the fridge with lipstick and rage,
Said “merry Christmas baby, I’m turning the page”.
The cat knocked down the plastic star,
And the landlord is singing at the dive next door,
And I wrapped up a poem in a paper bag.

The jukebox wheezed out “Silent Night”
While a drunk sang along, picking a fight.
The city wore frost like a funeral coat,
And the angels were late, stuck in traffic or broke,
And I wrapped up a poem in a paper bag.

Whiskey bells and cigarette snow,
A toast to the saints we’ll never know.
The tree’s half-lit, the rent’s past due,
But I saved a match just for you,
And I wrapped up a poem in a paper bag.

Judas came back in a thrift store coat,
Asked for a smoke and a five-dollar note.
He said “love is a war and peace is a joke”,
Then vanished in steam from a manhole smoke,
I wrapped up a poem in a paper bag.

Christmas bells and tango snow,
A toast to the ghosts who never show.
The night is cold, the world’s askew,
But I saved this song just for you,
And I wrapped up a poem in a paper bag."

 

 The easy part is, all you have to do is enjoy! 

REV. TOM FROST - "A Christmas Funeral Coat" 

THE DEFINITIVE JANGLE OF FOLK ROCK - Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds)

 

Rich here, continuing to write about the songs that define their genre. This time, I'm making a case that The Byrds 1965 recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man" is the definitive Folk Rock song. Not songwriter Bob Dylan's original, folky acoustic version of the song, but rather the electrified rock version by The Byrds, with its gleaming vocal harmonies and the sparkling jangle of Jim McGuinn's electric 12-string guitar. 

 

Now it's true that before The Byrds, there had been a handful of proto-folk rock records that featured harmony and jangly guitars -- "Just a Little" and "Laugh Laugh" by The Beau Brummels and "Needles & Pins" by The Searchers come to mind. And George Harrison's electric 12-string guitar (a gift from Rickenbacker Guitar Makers, the second they'd ever made at the time) had been featured on Beatles records for well over a year. 

 

And folk musician Jim McGuinn (later known as Roger McGuinn) was paying attention. He loved The Beatles, and as an accomplished acoustic 12-string guitarist himself, he was particularly fascinated by Harrison's use of an electric 12-string guitar. So when McGuinn teamed up with a couple other like-minded folkies (Gene Clark and David Crosby) to start the band that would evolve into The Byrds, he traded in his acoustic guitar for an electric Rickenbacker 12-string. 

 

After hearing an early demo of Bob Dylan's new folk song "Mr. Tambourine Man," The Byrds set about to recording it as their debut single. McGuinn changed the time signature of the song, Clark & Crosby would add their ethereal harmonies to Jim's voice, and McGuinn created the song's signature melodic introduction featuring the sound of his heavily compressed electric 12-string guitar that emphasized the instrument's jangly high frequencies. And once bass and drums were part of the mix, "Mr. Tambourine Man" was no longer the folk song it had been born as.

 

The results were electrifying. The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" was unlike anything else on the charts at the time. It became a Number One hit and helped to break the stranglehold of The British Invasion bands that had dominated the American record charts for almost a year-and-a-half. The Press dubbed the new sound "Folk Rock," and, suddenly, there were other folk-rock groups all over the airwaves. Even The Beatles paid attention, filling their next album "Rubber Soul" with folk rock-ish songs. 

 

And "Mr. Tambourine Man" started it all.

THE BYRDS - "Mr. Tambourine Man" 

TAV FALCO'S PANTHER BURNS - "The Unreleased Sessions" (1992)

 

Hallelujah! Christmas comes early this year!

Leave it to the French to be cool enough to release an album like this!

Here it is, from 1992, a record by Tav Falco And The Panther Burns titled "The Unreleased Sessions." 

This song has the phenomenal Alex Chilton and Jim Dickinson on it, and it sounds like Tav, Alex, and Jim are all playing different songs in some places.

I'm not quite sure how something could be this disjointed and still stay together, but with talent like this, I guess it's obviously possible! 

TAV FALCO'S PANTHER BURNS - "The Bug" 

MERLE HAGGARD AND THE STRANGERS - "His 30th Album" (1974)

 

Sometimes I struggle to pick out these songs, and sometimes it's just real easy. 

Tonight's an easy night!

Merle Haggard was real, and as far as I know, was one of the few country performers who had a sax player in his band.

What they call country music today is so slick and polished I can't listen to it for even a minute, but Merle Haggard, that's another topic. 

If there's a song with a hoot, or a holler, or a whistle in it, then that's for me.

It just sure sounds like they're having one Helluva good time! 

MERLE HAGGARD AND THE STRANGERS - "Old Man From The Mountain" 

DAVE STURGEON - "Wild 'n' Tender" (1967)

 

This album is just one of those things you need to know exists. Is it great? I'll leave that up to you, but one thing is that it's pretty dang unique.

I mean, this guy Dane Sturgeon is so obscure, you can't even find anything about him on Wikipedia.

 

And I quote from "Forced Exposure

"...like Del Shannon singing with Joe Meek's Blue Men on the dark side of the moon."

I can't come up with a better explanation than that! 

DANE STURGEON - "Ghost Of Bardsley Road"