This is it Christmas Eve, day 12 of my 12 days to Christmas series of posts. The final one that brings you famous people from history featured in a song, obviously they have all been real and today is no exception. I bring you the bearded weirdy, the fat bloke in the red coat, yes old saint Nick or as I prefer to call him, Father Christmas. He is real ok, don’t let anyone hear you say otherwise! Father Christmas first appeared in the 17th century and until the Victorian age he was seen as a symbol of adult merry-making and feasting. It was around then that he became the bearer of yuletide gifts, especially to children. Santa Claus is an American traditional name for the Christmas figure. Father Christmas’ coat was depicted as green, brown and even blue. It was a big advertising campaign by Coca Cola in 1931 that switched to the now far more common red robes. As it’s Christmas I won’t be focusing on any particular artist today, but I have selected a diverse set of Father Christmas and Santa Claus songs. Finally I would like to wish all of my readers a very happy Christmas, or happy holiday, or a happy life, whatever floats your boat. Just be happy! If you would like to track Father Christmas’ progress in your area click here.
Before Roxy MusicBryan Ferry once took an audition to join classic UK band King Crimson. This was just after the late, great Greg Lake left to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I am not sure how the audition went but given Byron Ferrari’s (as the NME used to refer to him) later success with Roxy Music I assume that he wasn’t offered the job. The gig was given to Gordon Haskell.
I would like to say a big thank you to all of you who read my blog and to wish you a wonderful Christmas and a fab 2017 for you and all of your family and friends!
It’s the 21st December, we can almost count down to Christmas in hours now. I am guessing that many of you have finished school, college and work for the holidays. I haven’t broken up yet; I am a money grabbing bastard so I’ll be working right up to Christmas Eve! Anyway all this means it’s day 21 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem advent posts. So by now the regular readers among you will know that today will therefore bring you two songs with the number twenty-one in their title.
Battersea’s finest hip hop collective, the So Solid Crew kick us off today with their 2001 UK chart topper “21 Seconds”. The song comes from their début album ‘They Don’t Know’ which reached number six in the UK album chart. That album spawned three more UK top 20 hits; “They Don’t Know” UK no. 3), “Haters” (8) and “Ride Wid Us” (19). MC Harvey, MC Romeo and Lisa Maffia all appeared on ‘The Games’ a Channel 4 reality TV show in 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively. Lisa and Romeo could only manage a bronze medal from the show. But Harvey bagged himself a gold medal. In 2012 Harvey and Romeo also made an appearance in two separate series of Celebrity Big Brother. Yes there were two series of it in one year; how awful is that? The group have had their fair share of controversy too with their former producer Carl Morgan convicted of murder in 2005. Band member Megaman was also accused but he was cleared after a retrial. The full album version of the song gives everyone at least a couple of lines in this order of appearance; Megaman, Asher D, Mac, Kaish, G-Man, Harvey, Romeo, Lisa Maffia, Face and Skatt D.
The second song of the day is “21st Century Schizoid Man” from King Crimson. Is this the first time ever that So Solid Crew and King Crimson have been mentioned in the same blog post? I’ll take the credit for that if it is! If you thought that So Solid Crew had a lot of members it’s fair to say that the Crimson have had plenty over the years too; 18 band members plus three lyricists. I reckon King Crimson should have sponsored a revolving door manufacturer with that kind of turnover. Robert Fripp is the only band member to have been with them since they began in 1968. “21st Century Schizoid Man” is from King Crimson’s 1969 album ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King‘. The track was released as a single in 1976 which failed to chart. It had been included on a compilation album that year entitled ‘A Young Persons Guide To King Crimson’. Greg Lake off of Emerson, Lake and Palmer played bass and provided the distorted vocal on the song.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 