Wednesday, December 27, 2017

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #9: The Greedies - A Merry Jingle



This week's entry comes in between Christmas and New Year's so let’s do a holiday song!   It isn’t exactly a new wave song or a synthpop song … or even an 80s song for that matter … but it’s close enough!  

First, it appears on the infamous CD “Punk Rock Xmas”.  Punk Rock?  Well, there is a CD called “New Wave Christmas” … but it’s just OK.  It does have the absolute classic “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues on it (which isn't exactly ”New Wave” either) - but for the most part the songs are forgettable (I’m looking at you Pretenders and 2000 Miles).  

"Punk Rock Xmas" on the other hand is filled with a abundance of yuletide joy, and contains such heartwarming holiday nuggets like “Homo Christmas” by Pansy Division, “Daddy Drank Our Christmas Money” by TVTV$ and that heartwarming chestnut “Fuck Christmas” by Fear.   Sure, great songs all, but the best song on the CD is “A Merry Jingle”.   It’s a hummable zinger from a short-lived band called “The Greedies” that was crafted in 1979.  It features Sex Pistols Paul Cook & Steve Jones (punk rock royalty!) along with Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy (!).  The song combines “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” into a tuneful romp through the holiday season and is one of the more upbeat songs on the disc (as you probably already guessed from the other titles). The band is clearly having a blast doing it and living in the moment… despite the Sex Pistols having disbanded and Phil Lynott still being 5 years away from the high-water mark of his career …  which was of course the day in 1984 that he gave the annoyingly self-righteous Morrissey a sound thrashing on the music trivia game show “Pop Quiz”!   

So yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus .. and today he brings us “A Merry Jingle”!   Happy New Year!

-WAS

Bonus: A plethora of New Wave artists playing Pop Quiz!

3 comments:

  1. Ho Ho Ho ! Merry (Synthpop) Christmas & Happy New (Wave) Year !

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    1. Same to you, WAS. I forgot to comment on the Song of the Week due to the partying and Christmas-ing and etc. The song is great, downloaded it and into my holiday playlist it went!

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    2. Glad you enjoyed MD! The whole Punk Rock Xmas CD is worth a listen IMO ... think you would like most of it, there is lots of tunefulness mixed with "attitude" ... in a good way! Thanks for making for a great 2017 with your blog !

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