by Oisin #5
The Kingston Trio "The Last Month of the Year" (1960)
01 - Bye Bye Thou Little Child
02 - White Snows Of Winter
03 - We Wish You A Merry Christmas
04 - All Through The Night
05 - Goodnight My Baby
06 - Go Where I Send Thee
07 - Follow Now, Oh Shepherds
08 - Somerset Cloucestershire Wassail
09 - Mary Mild
10 - Around About Christmas
11 - Sing We Noel
12 - The Last Month Of The Year (What Month Was...
Although we seem to be in The First Month of the Year, we can't turn a deaf ear to persons who got into trouble in high school, can we? After all these years this may be the ultimate antidote...
So for some it may come a day after the fair, but others may already have started collecting for some X-mas in the future...
01 - Bye Bye Thou Little Child02 - White Snows Of Winter
03 - We Wish You A Merry Christmas
04 - All Through The Night
05 - Goodnight My Baby
06 - Go Where I Send Thee
07 - Follow Now, Oh Shepherds
08 - Somerset Cloucestershire Wassail
09 - Mary Mild
10 - Around About Christmas
11 - Sing We Noel
12 - The Last Month Of The Year (What Month Was...
Although we seem to be in The First Month of the Year, we can't turn a deaf ear to persons who got into trouble in high school, can we? After all these years this may be the ultimate antidote...
So for some it may come a day after the fair, but others may already have started collecting for some X-mas in the future...
posted by Lizardson at 8:19 PM
3 Comments:
I guess I have to tell the tail. ‘Tis a story of the days before Americans lost their innocence and had this terrible sense of conformity.
I was and am a transplanted New Yorker, at the time resentful of having my family remove me from that great cultural center to the sticks, i.e. Southern California where I’m surrounded by hicks, who are mostly transplants themselves from the Midwest and South. I missed the 1964 World’s Fair and Disneyland was a poor substitute.
My new peers laughed at my accent and puzzled over my colloquialisms (most memorable being the use of “crapper” for toilet, which many thought shocking and profane.) Problems with the accent caused my parents to force me to take painful elocution lessons, thus rendering my normal speech to that of a radio announcer. Come High school this voice qualifies my for a new pastime, DJ for the school radio station (about an hour of programming broadcast over the PA/intercom during the lunch period). My taste in music differs greatly from both my peers and the administration; I am not enamored with what passed for popular music with my peers, (mostly Elvis & the Beatles as I recall) and I mounted a campaign to expand their horizons, with the Stones, R&B and Folk. The school admin considered the first two subversive and my peers found the latter foul, as you could not dance the twist to it.
Comes the Christmas season and out is trotted the old standards, totally unacceptable (well to me anyway) and I scoured the libraries and record stores for substitutes, obtaining the Kingston Trio’s “Last Month of the Year”. After two days bedlam breaks out, I have insulted not only the supporters of Frosty the Snowman & Rudolf, but also the Christians for not extolling the birth of their messiah! Then the big “secret” comes out, “Oh NO he’s a Jew! He doesn’t celebrate Christmas! He hates Jesus. Why is allowed to roam free?” I am the subject of hate letters in the school paper, grist for the hallway rumor mill and laughing my ass off at the hubbub. Yes, I am Jewish, but even then I ceased to work at it; I celebrated Christmas like all good children of the age, waiting for Santa to bring me nice toys and while having no real relationship with Joshua bin Joseph, I bear him and his followers no ill will, just don’t try to tell me about him, it bores me.
T’was a hell of a ruckus that record raised for me, and I love it to this day. I wore out my vinyl copy (or somebody stole it, I don’t remember)
Thank you.
MJF
I remember well how the Kingston Trio (and other similar white-bread folk groups of the time) sounded - lots of production including Carnegie Hall style reverb. This one does not disappoint.
I hope you won't think me ungrateful if I mention this - it is sad that this copy from LP was given rather heavy handed digital noise reduction. It sounds like they're singing from bottom of a large barrel, with a blanket over the top. Personally, I'd rather hear the background noise, but others may disagree.
Nevertheless, thanks for making it available.
thanks for putting -- and keeping -- this up!
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