The Fourteenth Day of Mellowmas: Jingle Blues

mellowmaslogosmall.jpg

We’re back with another day of Mellowmas – Day 14, to be exact. Is this as painful for you as it is for us? Just curious.

James Taylor – Jingle Bells (download or stream below)
From James Taylor At Christmas Amazon iTunes

jamestaylor.jpg

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Jason: Hey, fake horses!

Jeff: Monty Python horses!

Jason: AUGH!

Jeff: Whoa.

Jason: I hate when JT sings like this.

Jeff: What happened here? Did he record this after a trip to the dentist?

Jason: He sounds like he has Livingston’s balls in his mouth.

Jeff: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Jason: I can’t believe I just said that.

Jeff: I think it’s usually the other way around, but yeah.

Jason: Ha ha ha!

Jeff: “Steamroller Jingle Bells Blues.”

Jason: “The James And Livingston Taylor Teabag Album.” Just a collection of songs with Livingston singing and James cock-walloping him.

Jeff: See, this is what happens when you sell as many records as James Taylor has. No one has the guts to pull you aside and say, “James, I understand what you’re after here, but this is neither the time nor the place.”

Jason: Yes. I mean, this is not a cover.

Jeff: “Quit fucking around and play ‘Jingle Bells’ the way it’s meant to be played.”

Jason: This is some kind of pretentious re-interpretation.

Jeff: “And I swear to God, if you do that New England ‘blues’ growl again, I will hit you in the Adam’s apple.”

Jason: I like his cover of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” But yeah, this is him saying, “remember when I used to be gritty?” And I don’t, so this isn’t doing anything for me.

Jeff: I think it’s him saying “I’m bored, la la la, I’m making a Christmas record.”

Jason: Holy shit. I just got to the scat.

Jeff: A one, a one, a one…And now the fadeout.

Jason: Jingle Bell ba fa fa ba fa ba

Jeff: I think the engineers got sick of listening to it.

Jason: Gee, I wonder why they couldn’t just end it definitively. Maybe because they never had any structure to begin with.

Jeff: I bet he did. I bet he was like, “Chicken chokin’ motherfuckin’ jingle baaaaay-heeeeells…”

Jason: ha ha ha ha!

Jeff: And everyone clapped, knowing they had faded it out already. And James Taylor hasn’t listened to one of his own albums in 30 years, so he never knew.

Jason: JT is capable of so many beautiful things, Jeff. Why did you send me this one? Thanks for the marble-mouthed Christmas carol, James. You suck.

Jeff: Boo!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Thierry

    That was pretty terrible (and this is coming from someone who bought the most recent Taylor disc). If nothing else, that picture kept his twelve-year-plus-long streak of baldness-free covers intact. Well done, James!

  • http://www.pykorry.com Py Korry

    It sounds like JT had been eating a peanut butter sammy before the engineer hit “record.”

  • http://www.danray.net Dan

    But yeah, this is him saying, “remember when I used to be gritty?” And I don’t, so this isn’t doing anything for me.

    LOL! “I was a junkie once! Take me seriously!”

  • http://mostlymodernmusic.blogspot.com Beau

    Sounds like the old Bobby McFerrin-Robin Williams duets where Robin would just go into wacky improv mode. Except JT isn’t quite as wacky as Robin.

  • David

    Is that an album cover or a Gap dangler?

    … And by “dangler,” I meant “point-of-sale signage that hands by a wire from the store ceiling.” Though I could just as well be furthering the teabag joke.

  • pan
  • http://www.jeffvrabel.com Jeff VRabel

    JT looks like he’s trapped in some form of mechanical exoskeleton.

    Lucky.

  • Dw. Dunphy

    “Is that an album cover or a Gap dangler?”

    I was thinking Old Navy, but kudos for the train of thought.

  • Curt

    Of all the Christmas songs to fuck up with pretentious, jazzy, mush-mouth meanderings, why this one? This is the worst version I’ve heard since Barbara Streisand’s “JING-gle bells, JING-gle bells, JING-JANG-GLE” pieco-o-crap came out years ago.

    Does he have grandkids yet? That’s the only reason I can think of for doing this.

  • Dw. Dunphy

    I doubt his grandkids are this square.

  • Wiloe

    I just found this website and I have been cracking up. This is going to make the holiday season much brighter. Thank you for being funny. Oh and yes I think this is the worst James Taylor ever. The cover alone is enough to make me cringe.

  • Old Davy

    OK, so this is not the best version of Jingle Bells to ever be recorded, but in my book, JT gets a permanent nut guard for writing the immortal lyrics “Churnin’ urn of burnin’ funk”.

  • Dw. Dunphy

    “Churnin’ urn of burnin’ funk”

    He should be forced to accept that as his epitaph.

blog comments powered by Disqus