Obscure Music History

Obscure Music History


HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA: An Obscure Music History Christmas

December 22, 2018

Tom has a candid interview with music historian (and regular guest) George Greggenmeyer, looking at several unorthodox holiday songs whose other work we'll be hearing from over the next few episodes. That includes vocal group The Pink Smudges, lovebird duo Mary L & James R, country hero Subtle Sam, and the spectacular Josh Cameline. || All songs are available on the EP "An Obscure Music History Christmas", available on Spotify and iTunes. https://open.spotify.com/album/2PbpWMYJskNdRUiokrKoja?si=A8t3UgrQTDeAZa3OYPQ4jw || Special thanks to Ellie Downing for the title "Leave A Glass Of Whiskey For Santa (Leave The Bottle Out For Me)". Additional thanks to Frank Loesser, as I used an arrangement of his for the horn blasts and the solo, which I converted to MIDI and tweaked around a bit. I couldn't get a reply from the two emails I found so... if you're out there Frank Loesser, get in touch and let's sort something out! || Added note: I refer to Jesus as "some bastard kid" during one of the songs - this was a reference to the Jewish tradition of Mary & Joseph being pledged to each other, but not technically "married", at the time of Jesus' birth (Although since writing and recording the song, I've come across some variations on the understanding of the pledging ceremony). It's a deep joke about religious semantics, but probably just comes across as an insult. I'd just thought I'd clear it up while I could. Incidentally, I think Jesus sounds like a pretty cool dude, and he had to have had a sense of humour to have such regular dedicated friends, so I think he'd probably just laugh it off with a bit of a "that's a terrible joke, now please pass the wine" kinda way. Aaaanyway, let's move on. || https://obscuremusichistory.com/The-Pink-Smudges-Leave-A-Glass-Of-Whiskey-For-Santa-1942