Merry Beatmas!

This is it, people! Merry Christmas! I'm taking a few days off so see you all then! Don't eat too much (stuff that's bad for you) and remember to Give Big (no, I'm not affiliated with Harpo)!

I Wanna Be Santa Claus

Well, I did tell you I was in the Christmas mood, didn't I? And what better way to celebrate it than with Ringo's very own Rock 'n' Roll contribution to the seemingly hundreds of thousand Yuletide-themed records that seem to exist in some form or another out there?

And what a perfectly charming record it is. You know, the thing I love about practically all of his solo musical output is that it's very straightforward, musically speaking. No unnecessary musical flourishes, just good old musicianship and songwriting. I guess he got tired of all those studio hours the Beatles devoted themselves in the last few records to, huh? Well, whatever reason,it's music played with complete honesty and total unpretention, something we are sorely lacking nowadays. I mean, you have to agree with me that all these indie bands that try to pretend that they're only in it for the music are making it very hard for us to believe in them, especially when they play all coy in interviews. I mean, come on!

Before I stray too much from the point of this post, let me just redirect you to the right side of the blog where you'll find the link to download through rapidshare the album you see above. As always the password is amrao.

Oh, and a big thank you to a special friend of mine who very wisely (and also very sweetly) recently gave me a Yellow Submarine vinyl sticker kind of like the one you see on the right! Very much appreciated!

Yuletide Follies

Oh, God - I'm such a sucker for Christmas... and don't get me started on one of my most embarassing obsessions: weird Christmas albums... only some of my friends know about this and let's just say that they're not proud...

Some people complain about consumerism running wild in this season and a lack of true Christmas feeling but when I look at something like this on the left, I give up hope of ever stopping myself of buying junk that I have no real need for. Isn't it just the cutest thing you've ever seen? McFarland toys is the big culprit behind this and besides Ringo, you can also find all the other Beatles as well as some Blue Meanies too.

Anyway, now that I'm in the Christmas mood, expect some more Yuletide-themed posts coming your way right here in the coming days. See you soon.

1978 Ringo TV Special

Christmas is just around the corner and don't you just love how somehow all over TV we get innundated with Holiday Specials? Well, me neither with some notable exceptions, of course (I admit being a fan of Sonny and Cher's Holiday Specials and Dame Edna's too! Nothing wrong with a bit of camp in your life, that's what I always say).

This 1978 Ringo TV Special was very kindly brought to my attention by the man behind the For the Love of Harry blog, you know, the nice chap I keep telling you about. And I couldn't thank him enough because now that I have some free time in my hands, I was able to watch it and boy, was it worth it! And now's your chance - go ahead, you know you want to.