HV041- Christmas Mashup

Hearing Voices from NPR®
041 Christmas Mashup: Holy Days & Silent Nights
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-12-22 (Originally: 2008-12-10)

“Christmas Mashup” (52:00 mp3):

Holiday cheer and holiday weird, a mix of lotsa holiday stories, found-sound, and sprinkling of sampled songs:

A home-recording of a “Christmas Gathering 1947” (4:08 excerpt), on an unlabeled 7″ Wilcox Gay Recordio Disc, was found by Bob Purse. The complete recording is posted at the 365 Days Project, “Christmas Gathering 1947” (6:32 mp3):

John Beltran remixes Bing Crosby “The First Noel” (5:02), on the compilation Holiday Chill – The Christmas Remixes.

“Dad and Sam” (4:43) is Jay Allison‘s story of father and brotherhood, from his series Life Stories.

Simon & Garfunkel mixed “Silent Night/7 0’Clock News” (2:05) back in 1996, on their album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme.

Every year at the Mall of America, you can hear “Arthur Jackson: Singing Salvation Army Bellringer” (4:54), a reformed drug addict now serving the Lord. The piece was produced by Todd Melby (KFAI Listening Lounge | Twin Cities Daily Planet | 2 below zero).

“Carrie Conley” (2:06) talks about raising six children as a single mom, and rounding up Christmas dinner and presents for everyone. Her son, Jerry Johnson, interviewed her for the StoryCorps project.

Every year, from 1963-1969, the Beatles sent their Fan Club members a Christmas message on flexi-disk record. The “Beatles Fan Club Christmas” (excerpts 6:41) messages were collected on The Beatles Christmas Album. Several sites have them posted online; there’s hi-fi (320kbps) mp3s at TheBeatleSource). And here’s the first and last of the seven years from The Internet Beatles Album…

“The Beatles Christmas Record 1963” (5:03 mp3):

“The Beatles Christmas Record 1969” (7:45 mp3):

“Christmas Kids” (4:25) tell the stories, myths and rumours of the Holidays, from a 2nd-graders POV: Mrs. Beasley’s class at Emerson School in Bozeman, Montana, recorded in 1986.

At an orphanage in South Africa, some “Zulu Kids” (2:14) belted out a few songs for producer Jake Warga.

The late, great sound-recordist, Tony Schwartz, takes us on an audio tour of “Christmas in New York” (6:04) in the late 1950s. For more TonyS: Library of Congress | WNYC | WFMU | TonySchwartz.org | HV from NPR | Amazon.

HV’s Barrett Golding tours his hometown of Bozeman looking for “The T in Xmas” (2:55): A toy-shop owner displays her wares, a Jewish man recounts the story of Hanukkah, a Salvation Army captain tells the history of bell-ringing, and the Sweet Adelaides choir offer a-capella carols.

Seattle’s Captain Smartypants and the Seattle Men’s Chorus yodel and line-dance their country-style Brokeback Dreidel, aka, “Kislev Cowboys” (excerpt 2:06) by Eric Lane Barnes. Recorded live by Tom Speer of the Seattle Channel, the video is posted onYouTube.

George W. Bush speeches are captured and placed in the extraordinary rendition program of mashup artisan Rx, who wishes you a “Happy RXmas & Whole Lotta Love” (Bush vs. Led Zep- excerpt 2:31). Here’s the full version from WFMU, “Happy RXmas” (3:23 mp3):

One more Rx crash up, GWB & friends “Imagine” a “Walk on the Wild Wide (John Lennon vs. Lou Reed):

And we end with a Mahalia Jackson “Silent Night” (excerpt 2:41), remixed by King Kooba (bassist Charlie Tate and producer Matt Harris, aka DJ Shuff). The song is floating around the net free. In this HV Hour we only had time for a couple minutes, so here’s the full version, Mahalia Jackson “Silent Night (King Kooba Mix)” (5:06 mp3):