Christmas Top 5 2010: first song

My must have Christmas album of last year, apart from Dylan’s festive offering, was “In The Christmas Groove”, with a fantastic James Brown inspired cover, which you can see here.

This album is a collection of rare Christmas themed 60s & 70s funk and soul. I had to order it in from the US and it arrived only a few days before Christmas, so too late for me to use in last year’s Christmas Top 5. So, here is a sampling of what I grooved to around the Christmas Tree last year. Enjoy!!

Focus on Song for a Friday

I love it when things flow on from one another, and since we had the progression from Chad and Jeremy to Peter and Gordon, let’s continue on with this logic and turn the attention to another player in this week’s vinyl triptych, namely Jan Akkerman.

The train is late…

But at last it is here. The cover that I have on my copy of Night Train is this:

I think it is a better cover than the original one. Furthermore, it is more in keeping with the overall display as all the covers have illustrations of trains, which is what made me bring them together in the first place.

 And as for how all three look together…for the first time since I started blogging about what I display in my lounge room, here is the actual display from the mantelpiece.

Here’s My Trains A-Comin’

Living near a railway line, as I do, I have been meaning to do this display for some time, and so here it is. Choo-Choo!

However, I could not find an image of the cover of the copy of Night Train, that I have, which actually works better with the whole display. I might have to repost this with that actual cover.

Happy B-day Zim

The display for this week is in honour of the b-day of Bob Dylan. As anyone can easily tell from a quick perusal of my bookshelves and record and cd stacks I am quite a Dylan fan. I don’t have any of his recent work on vinyl, but I  am able to diplay one record each from the 60′s, 70′s and (shudder) 80′s. I would have preferred to show Infidels, but I used that record last year for a sunglasses display.

Christmas Top 5 -Must Be Santa

The Christmas Top 5 is here, and I hope that these are all songs that you have not heard before, but, oh well, if you have, I think they are worth a repeat listen.

Let’s kick off with Bob Dylan. Regular followers of this blog will know that I did a piece on his then upcoming Christmas album, so it seems appropriate to revisit his festive offering at this time. This is the single from the album Christmas In The Heart complete with a film clip, and what a weird film clip it is, and I don’t just mean the wig Bob wears. Some Christmas gatherings do end in a fight, but usually it as an argument taken too far or a dispute over Monopoly rules but this film clip features something more.

I Wear My Sunglasses In Colour

The display this week is a riposte to last weeks. Now, where are my sunglasses?

Podcast News

The big question of course was where do the podcasts go once I save them?

A: the hard drive. So all the cool things that I discovered in the session are still on that computer. Just as well then, that I had an earlier play around at my work station so I have a few things already saved.

Firstly, where do I start with iTunes U? There is so much stuff, that I have to stop and think just what exactly do I want to look up? Music of course!

It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

Or the Croon is still waiting at the Chimney

I ask who’s in the fireplace
And you tell me Santa Claus

On the Road by Bob Dylan

Only now, it’s Dylan himself in the fireplace, trying to keep warm on a cold December night.

All you newsy people , spread the news around; Dylan does Christmas. Once he advised us to buy her a drum for Christmas, and now he’s singing the Little Drummer Boy. And why not? On the “Love and Theft” tale of Floater he mentioned ring dancin’ Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve, and if ever we wondered what he meant by that, then Mr Zimmerman is going to show us.

Last Night’s Record Hunt

Last night was the start of the annual book sale of the south of the river branch of Save the Children (does any one else think of a certain Laura Nyro song when they read that? No? Must just be me then). It lacks the renown of the north of the river branch that have held their annual book sale at UWA for yonks.
The south of the river branch book sale is small in comparison and a lot more laid back. Recently they have latched onto the Cannington showgrounds. The hall they use there is spacious and airy, and nothing like the hotbox that the South Perth Civic Centre hall was.

Of course, at these book sales they always have a few boxes of records, and that’s why I was in the line 2 hours before the 6pm opening.