We don't want to be known as the band that does holiday songs, but we did want to do a Christmas song. One day we'll do an entire Christmas album, but this will start you off. Anyway, you'll have to wait a while before we eventually do the Valentine's Day song and Harbor Day song, cause we figure two holiday songs is enough for the upcoming first album... only eight songs to go!
Rusty had recently purchased ABBA's Voulez-Vous album and really liked the song "As Good as New." It was was never released as a single, so that meant when Rusty ripped it off for the chorus of his song, not too many people would say, "Hey!" But, yes, it's a rip. The original idea was to use a sample, but then it sounded better for Rusty to make it himself. The verse music is original, however.
The music for the song was recorded on December 11, which is pretty late for a Christmas song release to begin with, but then there was only a few days before Christmas that we actually got to see each other, since Rusty was seeing parents in Mississippi and Carrie seeing parents in Florida. Certainly this is where the "apart at Christmas" idea for the song came from. Anyway, we never actually felt like recording the song during those few days, so decided to release it whenever the hell we felt like it... which ended up being mid-January. So now it's a Christmas song for next year, whatever.
The first thing that was finished for this single was "I Walk the Line." We went to Memphis a little after New Year's, and we recorded one of their karaoke singles at Sun Studios. The Hipster Bingo guy that recorded us was really nice (though we forgot his name) and he liked us and thought we were funny. He had recorded Topher Grace a few days earlier and said he was "almost as funny" as we were. We realize this song has nothing to do with Christmas, but it fits for us. Here we are at Sun Studios:
We had to do a chipmunk version. The robot version came about when Rusty was playing with effects. The MIDI version was a result of wanting an instrumental that was kind of different. The slow version was a result of wanting a vocal version with a little something underneath, but slower for prettiness. There.
The cover of the album is a combination of three photos. The room with the tree is at Graceland. Carrie's head was originally looking down Beale street. And the picture in the frame (you see it?) is an outtake from our Christmas card photo session. Here're those three pictures in their original forms:
The inside photo is also from the same day as the last one, as is the photo on the back. Now you know. Here are some more photos taken during the recording session:
The title for the song was originally "It's Christmastime (War Is Really Over)," but that was sort of a joke. We knew we didn't want the song to be called "It's Christmastime," even though that would have been the obvious choice. Rusty wanted to call it "Our First Christmas Song" or something like that, but we ended up with this title at the very last minute.
So Merry Christmas, whatever time of year it is...
Copyright (c) Jan 2005 by The Strawberry Explosion and Love and Letters Music