Without doubt, one of the
best Christmas albums of the year is 'It's A Holiday Soul Party' by
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. After two Christmas singles, the
terrific 'Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects' from 2009 (with BinkyGriptite's 'Holiday Breakdown '09' on the flipside) and last years
'Just Another Christmas Song (This Time I'll Sing Along)', with 'Big
Bulps', featuring Saun & Starr, on the B-side, this album is the
first Christmas full length for Sharon Jones and 'her' Dap-Kings. All
the aforementioned hits are featured on this album, and also their
2015 single, '8 Days (Of Hanukkah'). Although it is featured on a
Christmas album, technically speaking, it is not really a Christmas
song, as it is about a Jewish celebration, that also happens to take
place in December.
I was not familiar with
Hanukkah, to be honest, and only learned about this celebration
through what I read on Christmas music blogs (which proofs reading
about Christmas music makes you a smarter person – so you'd better
continue reading this blog). Although we do have a large Jewish
community in Holland, this fest is not as general known as it seems
to be in the US – at least not under the name 'Hannukah' , although
I also doubt if I ask 'the man on the street' about the light fest,
that he will know what I am talking about. Of course, I educated
myself a little bit about Hanukkah, and now I know that Hanukkah
celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the larger Seleucid army
and a miracle that happened during this time, where the menorah (lamp
stand) of the Temple in Jerusalem remained lit for eight days,
although the supply of olive oil was just enough for one days. This
is the reason why Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days. During the
celebration, each day a candle is lit, which makes the candle holder
with nine candles (the one in the middle is lit first, and all the
other candles are lit using the fire of the central candle) the most
wellknown symbol of the Hanukkah celebration.
The title of Sharon Jones
song '8 Days (Of Hanukkah)' is referring to this aspect of the
celebration. The song starts with a shouted and funky
'1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8' and continues with the more soulful sing-a-long
'Days of Love, Days of Hanukkah, Everyone of them glows with love',
and after repeating the 8 day count again, continues in this soulful
way, to tell us what happens on each of the eight days. The second
day, when the dreidel (a four-sided spinning top) is spinned, seems
to be Sharon's favorite, because in the second half of the song, it's
the dreidel that gets all the attention. The B-side is called 'What
Does Hanukkah Mean To You?', and there we get the opportunity to tell
Sharon what Hanukkah means to us... it's basically the same song,
with only the chorus present, and the opportunity for us to sing what
each of the 8 days means to us – that is also what Sharon ask of
us, after having thanked us for turning the record... a cool way of
making this more than just an semi-instrumental version of the song!
The song was – of course
– released on the great Daptone Records, and came on blue vinyl
(but, alas!, it is totally sold out) and on traditional black vinyl
(still available!). There is a lyric video of the song to be found on
Youtube, I think it's really nicely done, and helped me to understand
the song and the Hanukkah celebration even better. All in all,
another cool Christmas single from Sharon, and I hope over the next
years, many more will follow!
Watch the video on Youtube:
And get the 7” from all
the better indie record shops or directly from the label, here:
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