For those who thought Bing Crosby and David Bowie was a pairing of hallucinatory unlikeliness, a bit of Grace Jones + ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ + Pee-wee Herman + something that’s (ostensibly at least) a kids’ TV show= FULL NORMALITY INVERSION.
First thing of note: Jones has been wrongly delivered to Pee-wee, having been originally destined for the White House; in winter of 1988 the president of the United States was George Bush Senior. Do we really think that Bush deserves to get Grace Jones delivered to him in the mail at Christmas, or ever? We all know he wasn’t a good boy.
Thing of note #2: “Sorry, Grace. Back in the box.”
Third thing of note: the absolutely ridiculous, unabashed mutual glee of both Pee-wee and Grace at about 1:30 is wonderful and is also in my opinion probably one of the few genuinely joyful Christmassy things in recent history.
Final thing of note: ‘Little Drummer Boy’ (AKA ‘Carol of the Drum’) was first brought to general public awareness when it was recorded in 1955 by The Trapp Family Singers… yes, the real world inspirations for the fully upholstered, Nazi-dodging aristocratic children of the emotionally unavailable Klingon General Chang in ‘The Sound of Music’. A reminder that the world is weird, as if we didn’t know that already. Other unprovoked assaults on this song include those perpetrated by The Dandy Warhols, Kenny G, Marlene Dietrich, Boney M, Joan Jett, Sir Christopher Lee (holy shit, what were they thinking?) and the cast of Glee (ditto, also applies to any other song wrestled to the ground and choked with syrup by the cast of Glee).
PS I’m not a naïve, unobservant or non-analytical person, quite the opposite in fact, but I’m taking this opportunity to confess something: it took me about 25 years to realise that Grace Jones’ 1981 song ‘Pull Up to the Bumper’ is not really about the joys of motoring.
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