Author: DOuG pRATt

Lennons without John celebrate Christmas

Christmas, 1968, with the Lennon Sisters, Glen Campbell, and Bing Crosby. Now this is special! But how the heck did John Byner get in there?

Here’s more with the lovely Lennons from 1968. Months later, the Lennon Sisters’ father, William, would tragically become the first Lennon to be murdered by a deranged fan.

And the Lennons sing, “How’d you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island?” Isn’t that what President Obama is doing?

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2012/12/ChristmasIsland.mp3|titles=The Lennon Sisters: Christmas Island]

P.S. Here’s Byner doing his Bing impression.

Christmas time is here again!

Beatles Christmas

For Christmas of that phantasmagorical, psychedelic year of 1967, the Beatles produced Magical Mystery Tour for BBC TV, and the equally zany Christmas Time is Here Again, my favorite of the records they made for their fan club.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2012/12/BeatlesChristmas1967.mp3|titles=The Beatles 1967 Christmas record]

Listening to this, you shouldn’t be surprised that the boys also recorded You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) in 1967, but it wasn’t released until 1970, as the flip-side of the Let It Be single.

Elmer Fudd says, “I’m the NRA”

Twenty five years ago, when the NRA had a public relations campaign featuring some famous people saying “I’m the NRA,” I drew this cartoon for the Comics Buyer’s Guide, with a famous gun enthusiast that the NRA had neglected to include. Elmer J. Fudd.

ElmerFudd

From what is known so far, Adam Lanza had access to the guns he used in slaughtering a classroom full of children because his mother apparently thought the way that Wayne LaPierre wants everybody to think. The NRA’s position is “you can’t beat us, so join us,” and I resolutely, absolutely refuse to accept that.

White Christmas in a Flash

A very popular online Christmas card is an animated version of the song White Christmas, from a 1954 (or perhaps ’53) recording by the original lineup of the Drifters. The animation was done by Joshua Held in 2002. This is the video he posted on YouTube.

The YouTube video has better sound than in Held’s original Shockwave Flash file, which has the advantage of better image quality. Here’s the SWF for comparison. Note: Once it starts playing there’s no pause option.