12 Comments

1. 

   That last one in the first strip doesn’t even scan. “Bang on my drum” and “eat stuffing” don’t even have the same number of syllables, let alone the same cadence.

2. 

   There just aren’t that many great, or even good, Thanksgiving songs. “Alice’s Restaurant” is a classic but the whole story could have happened anytime of the year. One of the people to get the mood exactly right was a Brit, Sir Raymond Davies in his song “Thanksgiving Day”. Here he is singing it on Conan back in 2010: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22thanksgiving+day%22youtube+%22ray+davies%22&sca_esv=3c659fc7041cb947&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1134US1134&sxsrf=AE3TifMwbDYcJmNPbG4BlVizbXPUMMYZ3A%3A1763840834160&ei=QhMiadnFCajk0PEPluuBgAo&ved=0ahUKEwjZ7vCSw4aRAxUoMjQIHZZ1AKAQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=%22thanksgiving+day%22youtube+%22ray+davies%22&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJiJ0aGFua3NnaXZpbmcgZGF5InlvdXR1YmUgInJheSBkYXZpZXMiMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKsCMgUQIRirAkijTlDvCViwTHACeACQAQCYAXmgAdAOqgEEMTkuM7gBA8gBAPgBAZgCF6ACzQ7CAgkQABiwAxgHGB7CAgsQABiwAxgHGAoYHsICBxAAGLADGB7CAgUQABiABMICBhAAGBYYHsICCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFwgIIEAAYgAQYogTCAgUQABjvBcICCBAAGKIEGIkFwgIIEAAYFhgKGB6YAwCIBgGQBgqSBwQyMC4zoAevhgGyBwQxOC4zuAfHDsIHBjIuMjAuMcgHIg&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5d6bc2be,vid:sYB22jmw3YY,st:0

3. 

   Good selection of funnies here today!

4. 

   Over the River and Through the Wood was at least originally a Thanksgiving song.

5. 

   When I was a kid, the radio stations would always play “There’s No Place Like Home For the Holidays” by Perry Como over and over and over again. I guess because “Alice’s Restaurant” hadn’t been written yet. And probably the only people listening were people traveling by car to places far from home,

6. 

   Back in the 80s the “Murphy’s Law” books were popular, listing a bunch of other fake laws of the universe as well. One of the ones in the book was “Cole’s Law: Thinly shredded lettuce.”

7. 

   “Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song too.

8. 

   Xine Fury: *cabbage

9. 

   Ah, yes.

10. 

    It seems unlikely that “Jingle Bells” was either a Christmas or Thanksgiving song. It is definitely a winter song, singing about winter activities not particularly associated with Thanksgiving or Christmas. Whereas “Over the River and Through the Woods” has them going to a particular destination, Grandmother’s house, in “Jingle Bells” they are just racing in their sleighs and bragging about who has the faster horse.

    “The One Horse Open Sleigh”, to use its original title, requires four-part harmony to sing the chorus. Oddly, the melody we sing today (E E E, E E E, E G C D E) does not appear in the original sheet music. So where did this melody come from? I have been unable to find out. It appears to have been well established by the time recordings began to appear.

    There are four verses. When I was a little kid, the Christmas record we had was “Christmas with Arthur Godfrey and All the Little Godfreys.” On it, Arthur Godfrey sings three of the four verses. That’s the only recording I know of with more than the first verse. “A day or two ago — this story I must tell — I went out on the snow, and on my back I fell! A gent was riding by in a one-horse open sleigh. He laughed to see me sprawling there and quickly drove away!”

11. 

    Mark, that’s interesting. I hadn’t noticed the original refrain was different. Wikipedia notes its chordal structure is similar to Pachelbel’s Canon. It also states that the more familiar refrain is of unknown origin.

    There are numerous recordings that include at least the second verse. Just off the top of my head, there’s Barbra Streisand’s from 1967.

12. 

    The fourth verse of Jingle Bells needs a bit of explanation for the modern listener. We talk about miles per hour for cars, but in the old days a horse’s speed was measured in minutes per mile, i.e. how long it takes the horse to run a mile. “Two forty is his speed.” A mile in two minutes and forty seconds is a fast horse as far as farm horses go, though hardly Kentucky Derby speed.