Music Reviews: Top Ten Innovative Holiday Tunes You Did Not Know

Published 12/25/24 at 3:25 a.m.
By Andre' GW Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Manzanita, Oregon) – You may find it's the holiday list you didn't know you needed. (Above: Jethro Tull's esteemed Christmas album, courtesy Jethro Tull)

Oh, the deluge of Christmas tunes. It's the bane of many, hurled into evermore annoyance by its propagation over store Muzak speakers. Already artistically suspect, these wimpy ditties can become like nails on chalkboard, especially to those with more discerning leanings.

But what if there were more innovative choices out there? After all, what is music if it's not moving ahead? That's why Oregon Coast Beach Connection has put together this list of more demanding pieces in the holiday realm where edges are still being cut and borders pushed – often even some 50 years on. Besides, in these days of especially-heavy corporate slop influence we all need a good dose of the avant garde or the edgy to open up the brain a bit.

Santa Dog by The Residents: a 1978 wacky one.. There was another “Santa Dog” in the legendary mystery band's catalog, but this obscure single was released a bit later in the '70s and features the hilariously surreal and enigmatic chorus of Santa Dog not having any “presence” or “presents” ….”in the future.” You don't know which they're talking about! Like everything these wondrous oddballs have ever done, it's a disjointed and jarring little tune, but surprisingly catchy.

Robert Fripp's 1979 Silent Night. At that time, King Crimson's Robert Fripp had gone off a remarkable deep end, taking to the road with his wildly esoteric Frippertronics. This was a pioneering method that had been born earlier in the decade when he worked with former Roxy Music keyboardist Brian Eno, consisting of layering ambient tracks of guitar swooshes onto reel-to-reels and then playing that tape through two tape machines live. He then would noodle around on top of that, laying the groundwork for sequencing tech in general and also creating one of the more oddball but striking experiments in avant garde music history.

Silent Night was recorded live on this tour, and then sent out that year as a little plastic 45 through a major magazine at the time and as a Christmas card from the label E.G. Records. The latter is how I received it in 1980 or so, and it blew my mind. It was and still is light years ahead of most music.

The original works better with its rather cold, robotic beeps and boops, but the one DGM Records released on video is this reworked version with human voices. Not as much as fun as the weirdo original. The actual song starts about two minutes in if you want to avoid manager David Singleton's explanation, but that part is actually super interesting.

The Pogues' Fairytale of New York is widely regarded as the pinnacle of hip 'n cool rock Christmas tunes, both raw and lilting with a narrative that's unusually literary in feel. Probably no other holiday number starts off by talking about spending Christmas in the drunk tank. It then moves to such an uplifting effect, with singer Shane MacGowan's gnarled vocals in a surprisingly romantic duet with pop singer Kirsty MacColl. You get sucked into the storyline as much as the Irish-tinged festiveness of it all.

Roxy Music – Christmas Dream and Giddy Up. Well, it's sort of Roxy Music. Who in Roxy Music was involved other than Phil Manzanera is a bit unclear: some say Bryan Ferry was involved and others say Eno. Either way, they released these Christmas oddities under the fake name The Dumbells in 1980, somewhere between the sleek pop of Flesh & Blood and the beginnings of their slinky funk with the album Avalon. “Christmas Dream” sounds a tad Eno-esque with its synth-driven vibe, rather gleefully so, and definitely like something between those two landmark albums.

The highlight is the last few seconds of the song where you hear them joking around with another holiday classic.

From the '90s comes “Christmas” by Scottish band The Blue Nile. Really, no one has ever blended electronica with soul quite like this Scottish trio and managed to create something that was all at once funky, minimalist and yet ethereal. The Blue Nile were one of a kind, lasting from the '80s to the early 2000s. Christmas was an obscure, largely unreleased tune tacked onto the re-release of their '90s pinnacle “Hats,” and like much of their material it's simultaneously joyous and yet peppered with raw real-life. As heart-wrenching as things can get with The Blue Nile, it's always offset by that general twinkly feel they achieve through their unique electronics, and with this rather grounded holiday ballad it dunks you into a holiday atmosphere.

Chris Squire and Alan White – Run With The Fox. A true hidden gem, it's a fantastic one-off by Yes' Alan White and Chris Squire in 1981, not long after the Drama version of Yes fell apart. Squire's “Fish Out of Water” album in the mid 70s is widely regarded as likely one of the best solo outings by any band member to this day. For those hungering for another taste of that exceptional moment, this song is a nice little pick-me-up morsel.

It's full-on, glorious Prog.

Not long ago, Patty Gurdy and Fiddler's Green released The Yule Fiddler (Christmas Time Is Coming 'Round Today). . An amazing and somewhat new chanteuse on the international scene, Gurdy (like the band Fiddler's Green) is part of a handful of German musicians who specialize in Celtic rock. Yule Fiddler is a catchy little ditty dominated by that ebullient Celtic feel but with almost a 1950s holiday vibe at moments. It's a bouncy one with a potent performance by Gurdy and the guys in Fiddler's Green, where she and the band's Ralf Albers shine.

And oh that fiddler. Oh yeah. Tobias Heindl knows how use the fiddle for good (and not evil like ….ugh....country music.)

Jethro Tull's Myriad Christmas Tunes. Out of all the Prog rockers, Tull were the masters of holiday tunes, both acerbic and festive, while still remaining true to the sophisticated edges of the genre. There's a lot of them: too many to mention here (so it occupies spot 8 and 9 here), but their very best come from the original Celtic traditions that created the holidays we know. “Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow” and “Jack in the Green” take you into the ancient UK countryside like an episode of Outlander. 1977's “Ring Out, Solstice Bells” is a magnificent, sweeping opus filled with tingly chimes and classical as well as Celtic strains – probably their most uplifting yule tune. Their rustic, woodsy vibes make them perfect listening while driving around Oregon's coastal forest regions year-round, actually. https://jethrotull.com/ (Below: Tull's Ian Anderson in Portland - Oregon Coast Beach Connection photo)

Greg Lake – I Believe in Father Christmas. Prog monsters Emerson, Lake & Palmer had a mammoth hit in the UK with this one in '75, but it didn't really gain traction here until after it was included on '77's Works Volume II. All that jangly acoustic guitar, soaring yet haunting melody, and Emerson's Prokoviev quotes on Moog probably make this the ultimate holiday rock classic. Slightly biting lyrics by Pete Sinfield keep it firmly in the rock 'n roll fold, even if it has now become sort of sonic holiday comfort food. It just gives you the warm 'n fuzzies and yet stays interesting with its obvious classical influences.

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