The Legend-News

Monday, 2000 December 4 : Volume 3, Number 45

What We Got Here

Christmas Presents for the Critters; Ed. makes Some Observations At The End Of The Year; Fan Mail from overseas; and the Song A’ Th’ Week, "Sing Silent Night".

Christmas Presents

About a month back we mentioned "Chat Room", a parody of "Convoy" by Bob Rivers of Twisted Radio. You can hear the song (in Windows Media format) and view the Flash animation on Bob's site; but Alan Chafin has contributed a copy of the song in MP3 format, which we've placed on the FTP site. But don't just download that file! Go To Bob Rivers' Site and Buy Bob Rivers' CDs. You'll also find on Bob's site a new animation, "The Twisted Chipmunk Song", based on the song of the same name from his new album Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire, which has absolutely nothing to do with C.W. McCall. And if you're looking for Bob's collected view of the Winter Solstice holidays, check out Twisted Christmas.

Alan's big gift is a copy of a song for which we've been looking since we first heard about it over a year ago: "Convoy G.B." by Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks, who were actually a couple of DJs in England. Some of the words are difficult to understand (must be those strange English accents), but it's really good. We'll transcribe the lyrics over the Christmas vacation; in the meanwhilst, you can grab the MP3 from our FTP site.

Some Observations At The End Of The Year

Hi! Ed. here, eschewing the usual editorial "we".

In two weeks I'll be celebrating the real beginning of the new millennium. Those of you who partied too early last year ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You really must learn to count. :)

This is a strange situation that I'm in. When I first constructed my original C.W. McCall site, it was mostly an excuse to do something useful with HTML. I just happened to pick a subject that no one else seemed to cover. And in the process of building the site(s), I've actually managed to meet with and talk with the man who inspired all of this, Bill Fries. Talk about a Brush With Greatness™!

And I have somehow managed to publish an almost-weekly newsletter on the subject of C.W., despite the current lack of media attention that he receives. I hope that I've kept him in the public eye; I do know that I get a lot of mail from people who tell me "I was surprised to find your web site!" I'll bet that the Britney Spears fan sites don't get that sort of comment.

So here's to another year, and maybe this will be the year in which I'll get my hands on the Holy Grail: those Old Home Bread commercials that started the legend of C.W. McCall.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Riotous Saturnalia, or whatever it is that you celebrate at this time of the year. — Ed.

Fan Mail

'Way back in February (the 14th, and that issue is still over at the 'old' site), we mentioned a country group called "Jimbob Convoy". Well, we've received a message from Niklas Karlsson:

I found your page about C.W. McCall since you linked to ours at mp3.com in The Legend-News on February 14th.

I myself am a fan of C.W. McCall and was very proud to see that you mentioned us on a page about him. Fact is our name "Jimbob Convoy" was inspired by Convoy, but that was before I even knew who wrote it. I just had it on tape and was a fan of the movie when I was little, and I just bought it on VHS. Pity that it isn't the widescreen version.

Anyway, we got some new songs up on our page at <http://www.mp3.com/convoy> and would be glad if you checked our official site out at <http://www.jimbob-convoy.com>.

Their MP3.com page has five songs available: "When This Day Fades Away", "This Ol' Town", "Building Up And Tearing Down", "Beans N' Beer" and "Shake Them Thoughts". Good stuff, IMHO. Click on over there and make some money for them.

Trivial note: your editor Ed. is half-Swedish. I think that my surname, "Floden", means "river" in Swedish. Now the other half is Polish, but please hold the jokes. :)

Song A’ Th’ Week

Only one week to go. Remember the good times.

Sing Silent Night
(C.W. McCall, Bill Fries, Chip Davis)
From the album Rubber Duck

When the snow falls on Christmas Eve,
And everything's white
I sit by the window,
And remember another night
When Mama played the organ,
And we turned off all the lights
And we all stood around her
And sang Silent Night

The organ is quiet now,
And Mama's gone
The sound of that Christmas Eve
Will live on and on
We sang all the old carols,
The hymns she loved to hear
And she played them over, one by one,
From memory, and by ear

And then she'd find the ancient album,
With its pages turned gold
And the crayon-colored paper star
I made so long ago
But brighter than any star
Was the love in Mama's eyes
As she said, "Merry Christmas, kids",
And she kissed us goodnight

And the organ's quiet now,
And Mama's gone
But the sound of that Christmas Eve
Will live on and on
The years have gone by now,
Since that last Christmas Eve
But the joy is still with me,
And the love will never leave

When Mama played the organ,
And we turned off all the lights
And we all stood together
And sang the last Silent Night