John Lucas

I work with words.

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Vancouver-based writer and editor driven by a passion for telling a good story and inspiring others.
  • Holiday music video countdown Day 17, featuring Paul McCartney

    Holiday music video countdown Day 17, featuring Paul McCartney

    For some reason, I have been seeing a lot of online discourse about “Wonderful Christmastime” this year. It seems, shockingly, that not everyone loves it. Some have even suggested that it’s one of the worst Christmas records ever made.

    Bah! Humbug! I won’t hear it! In a world—this ever-changing world in which we’re living—where Wham!’s “Last Christmas” exists, Paul McCartney’s 1979 single could never be the worst. Truth be told, I was never a fan of “Wonderful Christmastime” until recently. It grew on me. But, seriously, listen to those late-’70s synthesizers! Listen to that choir of children singing their song! They’ve practiced all year long!

    Fun fact: there is no children’s choir on the track at all. In fact, every sound heard on the song was performed by McCartney himself. All the members of Wings do appear in the video, which suggests that McCartney’s idea of having a wonderful Christmastime involves getting plastered at the local pub. Hard to argue with that, I guess.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 16, featuring PIQSIQ

    Holiday music video countdown Day 16, featuring PIQSIQ

    I wanted to kill two birds—two turtle doves, perhaps—with one stone today. Metaphorically speaking. None of our avian friends were harmed in the making of this blog post.

    I thought it might be fun to see if there were any new Christmas releases that I could spotlight here, and while the pickings were slim, I did find this one gem—and it’s by a Canadian artist, so that’s a second bird down. Metaphorically speaking.

    PIQSIQ is an Inuit throat-singing duo made up of sisters Tiffany Ayalik and Inuksuk Mackay. Rooted in traditional katajjaq, their music mixes those age-old vocal techniques with beats, loops, and electronic effects. Their recently released version of “Jingle Bells” eschews the original lyrics in favour of minor-key melody and haunting atmosphere, employing crystalline harmonies evocative of deepest winter.

    That’s not a music video, though, so here’s another seasonal treat from PIQSIQ; their version of “Coventry Carol” from four years ago.

    For more seasonally appropriate music from PIQSIQ, check out the duo’s 2019 Christmas EP, Quviasugvik: In Search of Harmony. Do yourself a favour and read the enlightening liner notes, which delve into how this music reflects the complicated history of Inuit peoples and the Christian church.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 15, featuring the Jingle Cats (and a Bird)

    Holiday music video countdown Day 15, featuring the Jingle Cats (and a Bird)

    So, my diligent monitoring of non-Christmas holidays and observances finally pays off today.

    I realize I said the same thing yesterday, but today I mean it in a different way. You see, according to the one website I keep checking because I’m lazy, today is something called Cat Herders Day. And while that’s probably a reference that I’m not getting, it’s a great excuse to post this:

    I’m not going to apologize for this. I love the Jingle Cats unashamedly. Nor will I post a second video to make up for the fact that this is really a novelty song. I have a cold and I’m tired and… okay, fine. Have this. It’s also fun and doesn’t feature samples of cats meowing.

    It’s Andrew Bird’s version of Vince Guaraldi’s “Skating”, which is of course from the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. There’s no actual video per se, just Bird with a mug and a book and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in the background.

    I like to think he’s reading A Christmas Carol and sipping on a mug of Smoking Bishop that he heated up with a red-hot fireplace poker.

    Also, yes, you can ice-skate at Rockefeller Center, as anyone who has seen the movie Elf could tell you.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 14, featuring Neil Diamond

    Holiday music video countdown Day 14, featuring Neil Diamond

    So, my diligent monitoring of non-Christmas holidays and observances finally pays off today.

    No, not because it’s National Bouillabaisse Day or even because it’s Monkey Day, whatever that might be. Turns out December 14 is actually the start of Hanukkah. It’s also the start of Chanukah. Likewise Hanukah, Chanuka, and Chanukkah. That’s a lot of different English spellings for one holiday, but then again, there isn’t just a single spelling in Hebrew, either, where it’s written as both חֲנֻכָּה‎ and חֲנוּכָּה.

    However you spell the name of the Jewish holiday, it gives me an excuse to post Neil Diamond’s cover of the song Adam Sandler wrote about it, which is mostly a catalogue of famous people who happen to be Jewish. The fact that Diamond himself falls into that category didn’t stop him from releasing four Christmas albums over the course of his career. Give the people what they want and all that.

    Chag Sameach!

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 13, featuring Lady Gaga (and Ron Sexsmith)

    Holiday music video countdown Day 13, featuring Lady Gaga (and Ron Sexsmith)

    The Christmas season is a time for second chances. After all, the entire idea of the holiday is to honour a guy who sacrificed himself so that humankind would have a path to choose that would spare us from God’s wrath.

    And that’s good, because the last time Jehovah got really pissed off with humanity, he flooded the planet and drowned literally everyone except Noah and his immediate family. Jesus’s dad is known for a lot of things, but being merciful isn’t one of them.

    In the forgiving spirit of the season, I have decided to give Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree” another shot. This is a song that I (despite having previously described it as “a filthy electro banger“) once called “the most heinous atrocity ever committed in the guise of holiday music“.

    Lady Gaga has impressed me with plenty of her other songs since then, and I would go far as to describe her as a pop genius. So, surely, “Christmas Tree” deserves another listen, another opportunity to change my opinion of it?

    Nope. I still hate it.

    Since I can’t really justify dedicating this day of my countdown to a song I don’t actually like (and also because there’s no actual video for “Christmas Tree”), here’s Ron Sexsmith with “Maybe This Christmas”. Appropriately enough, the lyrics of this song are all about giving people second chances during the holidays.

    And maybe forgiveness will ask us to call
    Someone we love, someone we’ve lost
    For reasons we can’t quite recall
    Maybe this Christmas
    Maybe there’ll be an open door

    Thanks, Ron.

  • Holiday music countdown Day 12, featuring Chuck Berry

    Holiday music countdown Day 12, featuring Chuck Berry

    Listen, I’m trying to keep this countdown family-friendly and make it inclusive of holidays and observances other than Christmas. In order to achieve the latter, I have been referring to this website—which , to be honest, isn’t making things easy.

    Apparently today is National Ding-A-Ling Day, and also the Festival of Unmentionable Thoughts of Taboo Day, which is a mouthful. Possibly more than a mouthful.

    Both of those things bring Chuck Berry to mind, for different reasons. Or possibly for the same reason, depending on what you think this song is about.

    As for why rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Berry comes to mind when the topic turns to “unmentionable thoughts of taboo”, I will simply direct you to Google, which holds many answers to questions you may immediately regret asking.

    Because, you see, I’m determined to keep things family-friendly. Like I said. And what better way to do that than with a song about everyone’s favourite red-nosed reindeer? (Apparently the animators missed the memo about the colour of Rudolph’s most defining feature, but that’s okay.)

    Berry penned this song, but Johnny Marks gets a songwriting credit for writing the original song upon which this one is based. The character of Rudolph, incidentally, was created for the Montgomery Ward department store in 1939 by Robert L. May. If you read yesterday’s installment of this series, you probably won’t be shocked to learn that May was Jewish—but you might be surprised to find out that Marks was his brother-in-law.

    Interesting, right? I urge you to think about that rather than pondering what the creator of this video was implying by having the little girl—you know, the one who asked Santa for a doll that will “wet”—unwrap her gift to discover that it’s a Chuck Berry doll.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 11, featuring Brenda Lee

    Holiday music video countdown Day 11, featuring Brenda Lee

    I feel like some of my selections thus far might be somewhat alienating to people whose taste in holiday music is rooted in the classics. And when I say “the classics”, I of course refer to songs written in the mid 20th century—mostly by Jewish tunesmiths like Johnny Marks, Irving Berlin, and Mel Tormé. It’s a whole thing; there’s even a documentary about it, which you can watch on Kanopy if you have a library card.

    Marks was particularly prolific in this area. The guy was practically a one-man Christmas-song factory, churning out hits like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “A Holly Jolly Christmas”, and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.

    But back to the matter at hand: my personal redemption. I mean, yes, I’ve included Bing and Frank (separately) in this countdown, but I have also indulged my personal fondness for indie rock, 1980s rap songs, and Tim Burton movies.

    Today I will attempt to make up for that by bringing you “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, Brenda Lee’s surprise No. 1 hit from 2023. Which you will no doubt be shocked to learn was written by Johnny Marks.

    Okay, yes, the song originally came out in 1958, when Lee was just 13 years old. Although the tune is a perennial favourite, it didn’t hit the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 until two years ago. That was when Lee finally got around to making a video for it.

    This was a big deal for a lot of reasons, the two main ones being that, at 78, Lee became the oldest artist in Billboard‘s history to have a No. 1 single and that “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” took a record-setting amount of time to make it to the top of the chart. (Sixty-five years, but who’s counting?)

    The record still sounds great today, which is hardly a surprise given that it was produced by the legendary Owen Bradley and featured performances by members of Nashville’s A Team, including guitarist Hank Garland, pianist Floyd Cramer, drummer Buddy Harman, and saxophonist Boots Randolph. Those guys knew what they were doing.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 10, featuring Tom Waits

    Holiday music video countdown Day 10, featuring Tom Waits

    According to the Internet (which would never lie to us), December 9 is officially Christmas Card Day. And while that sounds like an observance fabricated by Hallmark to move more product, it would have provided me with the perfect excuse to post this video.

    Well, I’m a day late. No one’s paying me to do this, so you get what you get when I want to give it to you. That’s the deal, unless someone would like to negotiate a better one.

    Anyhow, here’s Tom Waits from an Austin City Limits episode recorded on December 5, 1978. It’s a Christmas song! It has the word right there in the title: “Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis”. He even sings—well, slurs might be a better word—a bit of “Silent Night” while he’s at it.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 9, featuring the Raveonettes

    Holiday music video countdown Day 9, featuring the Raveonettes

    You know what’s been missing from this countdown do far? Don’t answer that; it’s a rhetorical question. There has been a distinct lack of indie rock, the genre of music that is probably closest to my heart.

    There are actually some pretty great indie-rock Christmas tunes, but unfortunately most of them don’t have videos. Thank goodness for the Raveonettes, who provide us with not just an original song (albeit not an original title, and the estates of Mel Tormé and Robert Wells would like a word), but also a video to match. Plus a cameo appearance by Jack Skellington, sort of.

    What’s “The Christmas Song” about? I have no idea, to be honest. It’s a bit of a jumble of contradictory sentiments: “I wish that I could stay” followed closely by “I wish that I could walk you home.” Also something about how “Santa’s coming into town/With a suitcase in his hand.”

    What town? What’s he got in the suitcase? Is this how he delivers presents now? Not by popping down the chimney with a sack filled with toys, but by taking an Uber down Main Street with an American Tourister stuffed full of Amazon gift cards?

    So many unanswered questions.

  • Holiday music video countdown Day 8, featuring Run-DMC

    Holiday music video countdown Day 8, featuring Run-DMC

    According to the Internet (which is never wrong), December 8 is Take It in the Ear Day. I’m not making that up, nor do I have any idea what it means. But if there’s anyone who does, it’s probably this guy, because of course he’s had it in the ear before.

    Since that’s not a real holiday song by any stretch of the imagination (or ear canal), here’s Run-DMC’s deathless classic (I’m not being facetious for once), “Christmas in Hollis”. I don’t have much to say about this one, apart from the fact that it was written for the very first A Very Special Christmas compilation, and that it was featured in Die Hard. Which is not a Christmas movie and I’m not even going to listen to any arguments to the contrary, even as I enjoy my Die Hard–themed Sons of Vancouver whisky advent calendar. (With thanks to my lovely wife, Erin.)

    “Christmas in Hollis” features prominent samples of Clarence Carter’s 1968 funk hit “Back Door Santa”, a song that is definitely not about taking it in the ear. I will say no more about that in the interest of keeping this blog family-friendly for the holidays. Some might argue that I’ve spoiled things already by posting “Lust for Life”, but let us not forget that Royal Caribbean apparently found the song sufficiently wholesome to advertise family cruise-ship vacations with it.