Welcome back, friends, to round 2 of the unusual Christmas/holiday music series. Up for discussion today is a gem from those quirky purveyors of old-time jazz music, the unforgettably-named Squirrel Nut Zippers. (Named for an old candy, made by Necco. The same people who make the bland Necco wafers, which Catholic children have used to play “Communion” for decades.)
Necco’s Infamous Wafers
Hailing from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, this band of musical gypsies makes music that refuses categorization, but got swept up in the Swing Revival of the late nineties. Their biggest hit was the nefarious tune “Hell,” which injected a little fun into fear-mongering, and some syncopation to sin. But today we’re talking about a yuletide number, from their 1998 album “Christmas Caravan.”
Hanging Up My Stockings
Based on a short song written by the drummer’s grandfather (the original recording is included as a bonus track on the album), this is a meandering and playful tribute to keeping the joy and the innocence of the season. It’s a paean to Santa Claus which begins with the line, sung in chorus: “Want to show old Santa Claus that I believe.”
Then the acoustic guitar and the clarinet come in, dancing over a tinny old piano, while ol’ Jimbo Mathus croons:
Silent Night, the stars are bright;
the fields are white with snow.
Christmas trees are waiting,
lights are turned down low.
It’s a very homey, old-fashioned feel, the musical equivalent of a Norman Rockwell painting: the sort of Golden-Age memories so many strive to recall but none ever really lived.
Then, suddenly, all but the bass and the clarinet drop out; the chord drops into an accidental minor and they launch into the chorus, which is (only slightly) a bigger, brassier declaration: the lyrics state the singer’s intentions:
Want to show old Santa Claus that I believe!
I want to see his reindeer
come dancing through the snow
hope their bells will wake me up so I will know!
Suddenly, all the instruments drop out, and a susurrus of voices comes through in stereo: “Christmas! Christmas!” they murmur, one over the other, while sleigh bells rustle and cymbals conjure flurries of snow, over a swirling piano.
A hush. Then the piano plods on beneath a serpentine clarinet, picking up a hint of the ominous. “Now I lay me down to sleep, upon this joyful night/Angels will watch over me until the morning light” the singer intones solemnly. The line repeats, this time joined by the murmuring voices. (There’s plenty of self-aware humor here, although it does call to mind the many parallels between sleep and death, brought into sobering clarity by the classic child’s bedtime prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take.”)
The instruments trill themselves into a nice little bow (and a classic turnaround chord), when the singer again launches into the chorus, this time his voice crackling as though heard on an old radio, and he ends the song with a slight twist on the prior lyrics:
Santa Claus has been here;
that’s one thing I believe
Now I’m puttin’ up my stocking ’til next Christmas Eve!
This nice little twist gives vindication to the opening line, and sets up a happy end to the song and rewards the hope that is the hallmark of the season.
