“The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written back in the 80s when AIDS was a definite death sentence and there was a well-publicized condom recall (they weren’t up to the ‘new’ standards – which is a whole ‘nother piece…concerning those of us who depended on them to prevent pregnancy). It’s one of the pieces on my chris wind’s Christmas Album.
I had a lot of fun making that album. It’s in the line of The Art of Juxtaposition and ProVocative. Quite different from my instrumental stuff (stillwood, for Amelia, Ruby Rose) and my electronic stuff (Rocks and Trees). I hoped it would take off as a cool Xmas gift, but…maybe now…
My inspiration? I hate Christmas. I especially hate Christmas singalongs. The whole Walton/Rockwell hypocrisy thing just makes me sick.
Recording process? I used a Tascam 244. I miss those days. I’ve since bought a Roland VR1880, but I have to confess, mastering the new tech is partly what’s kept me from doing more – it’s just too damned complicated. When I first got the Roland, I spent several days with it and could not for the life of me complete the process from first track to final CD for even a simple two-track piece. Turned out there was some update that hadn’t gotten loaded, but it meant a long drive and, worse, a lot of frustration I just haven’t had the heart to recover from, I guess.
What else…I loved gajoob’s review of it – someone said The Twelve Days “should become a classic”; the album as a whole was said to be “loaded with social comment…direct and pointed wit, powerful and cutting sarcasm…”
Gajoob, you guys were so good to me – ya listened to my stuff, liked most of it, and told people so!
Chris Wind
We reached out to 100 or so of our closest recording artist friends to make an mp3 CD of music and discussions around the making of each track. The full album is available as a free download on the Internet Archive. An index is HERE on dabodab linking to pages of discussions. Discussions Vol. 2 is open for recordings. Submit your discussion HERE.
