It’s the second installment of our inexplicable self-inflected psychological experiment, August Got Run Over By a Reindeer! Our theme for these started out as “grandparents being run over by other, non-sleigh vehicles”, but we discovered a variety of common threads. “Grandpa Got Runned Over By a John Deere” by Cledus T. Judd and “Grandpa Got Run Over By a Beer Truck” by Da Yoopers both turn the tables on grandpa, and also, they’re both bad!
Our ranking music is… well, you’ll understand.
Well, it’s come to this. Welcome to our first installment of “August Got Run Over By a Reindeer”, a month-long “celebration” of the many, many mutations of Elmo and Patsy’s 1979 novelty hit, “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”. We ease our way in with two covers recorded by some familiar, nostalgic musical acts – Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish.
This week’s ranking music is “Everything Sucks” by Reel Big Fish!
It’s Ian’s birthday (soon)! So he’s running the dang podcast!!! For his Birthday Boy’s Choice picks, he lands on two classic-adjacent tunes from years not yet covered on the show. “Happy Holidays” by Bing Crosby (with the Music Maid and Hal and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra) seems like a commercial for hotels masquerading as a Christmas song, but it’s actually a stealth New Year’s song masquerading as musical theatre masquerading as a Christmas song. “Winter Weather” by Benny Goodman (with vocals by Peggy Lee and Art Lund) is a refreshing clarinet-heavy palate cleanser.
The ranking music in this episode is the medley from history’s greatest film, Muppet Family Christmas.
We’re back on our bullshit! Our bullshit being “discussing listener requests”. We take a look at two songs with a surprising amount in common – “Lonely Christmas” by WALLIS and “Alien Christmas” by Tay Zonday. Both are 2020 Christmas songs by artists who got their start by going viral on youtube – and both beg the question, “ok but is this good actually?”
The ranking music in this episode is “Chocolate Rain” by Tay Zonday.
Thank you to our #1 Fan TimeMachine for these requests!
The ranking music in this episode is “Chocolate Rain” by Tay Zonday.
Thank you to our #1 Fan TimeMachine for these requests!
We’re going to be taking our next scheduled episode off because we’re doing some traveling this month. To help prepare us for our trip to the U.S., we’re taking two requests for some good old fashioned American country music. “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” by Emmylou Harris is a song from a country tradition we enjoy, namely bluegrass. “364 Days to Go” by Brad Paisley is … Well, it’s definitely better than his other entry on our list.
This week’s ranking music is “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” as performed by Bill Monroe.
Thank you to James for the requests!
This week on HARK, we’ve got two songs with the same title and very different stakes. By request, we cover “Santa Please” by Bill Medley, a tale of alcoholism, regret and reconciliation at Christmas that leaves us troubled. Then, we discuss “Santa Please” by Toni Braxton, which is basically just four minutes of the singer sexily asking to speak to the manager about travel logistics. The manager is Santa Claus.
The ranking music in this episode is “Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas” as performed by The Decemberists.
Thank you to Misty for requesting the Bill Medley song!
Sometimes we take requests, and sometimes we take a while to cover those requests. And sometimes, sometimes, someone who’s waiting to hear us cover their request sends us back-up requests in case their first requests were not holidays-ish enough. Thus, sometimes — specifically this time — Ian uncerimoniously schedules those backup requests for an episode several years later even though one of them is about a incredibly sad real-world tragedy. Soooo, we’re talking about “Christmas Eve Blues” by Blind Lemon Jefferson and “1913 Massacre” by Woody Guthrie.
The ranking music for this episode is “Solidarity Forever” as performed by The Mountain Goats.
Thank you to Myles for these (backup) requests!
Listen. When the universe gives us two songs titled “Feeling Like a Right James Blunt at Christmas” (by Death of Guitar Pop featuring James Buckley) and “Merry Christmas James Blunt” (by Wash Your Dirty Money With My Art featuring Martin Meincke), what are we supposed to do, NOT theme an episode around it?
The ranking music in this episode is, I mean, exactly what you’d expect.
It’s that time of year again, baby! Blaze it up with us (figuratively) as we discuss two weed-related Christmas songs, “Green Christmas” by Snoop Dogg featuring Jenn Em, and “Merry Christmas Mary Jane” by Katie Pruitt.
The ranking music in this episode is “Roll Me Up” by Willie Nelson featuring Jamey Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, and of course, Snoop Dogg.
Easter and Passover are fast approaching, so as is HARK tradition, we listen to two more traditional, religious songs – one for Christmas, and one for Hanukkah. Except this year, we kind of blew it? You could call these songs religious, and they’re both of a tradition, but we’re going more folk festival than liturgical this year. “I Saw Three Ships” as performed by Sting offers us some whimsy from his weird phase (~1990-Present). Then, marking the second recontextualized Leonard Cohen song on our list (and thankfully, this time for Hanukkah), HAIM delivers a beautiful, haunting rendition of “If It Be Your Will”.
The ranking music in this episode is “Sad Trombone” by Sting and Shaggy.
The ranking music in this episode is “Sad Trombone” by Sting and Shaggy.