For AGES I've been thinking about writing a song about EITHER Easter (The Adults' Holiday) OR the bit between Christmas and New Year when all the work and hassle is done with and you can actually RELAX and enjoy yourself - especially if, like me, you get that week off work anyway.
SO here it is! It was written this morning, the 14th Day Of October 2010, though most of the ideas have been floating about beforehand for about a month. The sudden impulse to actually WRITE it came about just as I was crossing Bedford Square on my way to work, when I realised that the tune I'd been singing it to (i.e. the non-written version that went "Thing thingy thing thing, thing thingy thing - the 29th Day Of December" was ALSO the tune to one of the main songs I'm writing about for "Moon Horse". "Better come up with something else", I thought, and my MIND alighted on Justin Currie from Del Amitri singing "Nothing Ever Happens" on a BBC4 programme we watched last night. "I love that song", i thought, "Maybe something like THAT?"
What popped into my head then WAS in waltz time, but otherwise isn't much like it at all - it's a LOT more like a Christmas carol, in fact, than any of my other Christmas songs, and also (IN MY MIND) features orchestration not unlke the much maligned "Frog Chorus" (DO NOT get me started on THAT one). Happily, this being a Thursday when I usually have the office to myself, there was nobody around to mind me LUSTILY singing it, and so it all got written and sung onto my mobile phone answering machine in about half an hour. Peasy!
The next stage, in this MULTIMEDIA production, was to produce a VIDEO. This took a LOT of planning, but when done looks, i think, PRETTY ACE. The only trouble was that the words and images didn't fit together quite as nicely as I'd hoped. I'd not been ENTIRELY 100% fully happy with the words though, so I sat down and did a RE-WRITE, using the best bits of what I already had and MOULDING them to not only fit the onscreen occurrences, but also to tell a more clearer story themselves.
At the same time I was putting together the track in the most FUTURISTIC way possible, doing some parts at home but having the vast majority of the music done by The Validators in THEIR homes, and the HUGE choir done by various people on my mailing list who sent me their vocals by email. This took a LONG time to mix but the end results, i think, were very much worth it. It's MEGA CHRISTMASSY!
lyrics
All the cards have been written, addressed and dispatched
On the 29th Day of December
All the lists have been ticked off and presents unwrapped
On the 29th Day of December
All our worries are over for eleven months
So at last we can do what we actually want
Goodwill, peace on earth, when you're not back at work
On the 29th Day of December
Let's all talk about walking, then stay in instead
On the 29th Day of December
There's a pile of books that'll need to get read
On the 29th Day of December
The Freeview box is full of Christmas TV
But let's watch two series of US DVDs
Fetch that whisky gift set that we've not started yet
On the 29th Day of December
Is it me or does the world smell vaguely of beer?
On the 29th Day of December
I'm off back to bed for the rest of the year
On the 29th Day of December
As the frantic festivities come to an end
I can't wait to start planning the whole thing again
The spirit of Christmas is finally here
On the 29th Day of December
On the 29th Day of December
Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing
credits
from Christmas Selection Box,
released December 13, 2010
Choir: John 'n' Caz, David Griliopoulos, Steve Hewitt, Driek Heesakkers, Kristin Johannesson, John Kell, Tom Morton, Lily Overton, Edie Pattison, Lola Pattison, Daniel Ransome, Amelia Shuttleworth, Jen Singleton, Charlotte Wadsworth, Iren Wadsworth, Matt Westcott and Gerard Wood.
MJ Hibbett & The Validators have performed live on Radio One, had a Record Of The Year in Rolling Stone, an Album Of The Day
on 6Music, released one of the first ever viral videos, toured the UK and Europe, featured in an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, and recorded a science fiction rock opera, all while maintaining their complete independence from outside record labels....more
supported by 20 fans who also own “The 29th Day Of December”
Another great album - dean wareham, joanna gruesome, lonely tourist, dorotea, the chills, manhattan love suicides & spearmint are all highlights but the whole lot is pretty darn great really martin kiosk
