Just to set this up properly, I've had a lot of doctor stuff all this past week. And I'm a little tired of it. And I'm tired of getting stuck with needles and the whole thing. I'm just...a little grumpy this week. 'K? So I'm listening to a free Christmas comp--which I will mention, and I know you're going to download the whole thing, and that's cool, but I'm not going to talk about the whole thing. So I'm listening and making mental notes--this is cute, that's interesting, I wish this one had done that. And then...this. This is the one.

But what do I feel? I feel I'm a middle-aged man, lying in bed on Christmas Eve, thinking back to Christmases years ago when I was a child. And we'd wake up Christmas morning and go down and there was excitement and joy and family and... And I'm lying in my bed. And I'm not a child anymore. And I don't live with my family anymore. And Christmases aren't like that anymore. And I've got to go to work in the morning...Christmas morning, What exactly did I do wrong? Why has Santa abandoned me just because I got older? And, yet, it's Christmas. It's still Christmas. Gotta hang onto that.
Now I'm not saying that's me or my life. But that's what the song makes me feel. And, if I'm honest with myself, I can identify with that, sometimes. Maybe we all can. But it's the whole dichotomy of Christmas I've often talked about--the best Christmas songs are the ones that are both happy and sad. And this song feels like the whole psychology of why that's so in a nutshell.
Ricky, by the way, is a band, not an individual (no one in the band is named "Ricky"). "A Few Christmases Ago" comes from last year's edition of "A NotRock Holiday Compilation", NotRock being a North Jersey DIY label. Last year's was Volume 9. We covered Volume 7 in 2015. And, yes, you can go back to the beginning, if you wish. All 9 Volumes are "name-your-price" at Bandcamp. But, that said, Ricky is not an easy band to track down online. Have you ever tried googling "Ricky New Jersey"? Yeah, funny, huh. With all the search terms I tried, about the only thing I discovered was that--son of a gun--Jon Solomon featured this track on his 25 hour Holiday Marathon last year, too. That Jon Solomon, he's really on the ball. And he's not paying me to say that (although...Jon? I keed). So I love "A Few Christmases Ago". It makes me feel. Good music should do that. And I don't know what the band's intentions were--what they meant the song to mean--but maybe finding out would be like finding out there is no Santa. Like..."Nah, dude, it's just about me and my girlfriend hangin' at the Willowbrook Mall. Ya know?" Yeah, I'm better off in the dark.
Well it looks like "the big boy is comin' down the chimney", so I'd best skedaddle ("skedaddle?" It's official; I'm my Dad). Sweet dreams, y'all.