The Advent Jukebox, Day 9... Christmas In America, 1952.

In America, Christmas 1952 was the time of Eisenhower rising.

It was also the time of Nelson Algren:

...So accustomed have we become to the testimony of the photo-weeklies, backed by witnesses from radio and TV, establishing US as the happiest, healthiest, sanest, wealthiest, most inventive, funloving, and tolerant folk yet to grace the earth of man that we tend to forget that these are bought-and-paid-for witnesses and that all their testimony is perjured...

Of course, Mr. Algren wrote about a very different America.

I realize now that...

When I listen to the story songs from Iantown the ghost of Algren is there too, hovering, wordsmithing, and character sketching in the wings.

Here is my version of young Ian's (he of the Felice Brothers who will cover absolutely anything brilliantly), only Christmas tune (I think):




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Image at the top of the post is of Nelson Algren at the Chicago YMCA, located at the corner of Division Street and Milwaukee Avenue in 1956...For those who have read 'The Man With The Golden Arm' it is not an unfamiliar locale...
As always, you can peruse the entire Advent Jukebox oeuvre, and read a bit more tune/theme-related tidbits...Here.


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