In December 1965 Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were far, far from Home.
They were astronauts – the crew of Gemini 7 orbiting The Earth on a 14 day mission.
Naturally as they looked down on their home Planet their thoughts turned to the upcoming Christmas celebrations.
So when they were asked by Mission Control if there was any music they wanted to hear their reply was unhesitating – ‘I’ll be home for Christmas’.
It’s the wish, the fondest hope, of every soldier who has soldiered in every war since Christmas was first celebrated.
Nothing makes the heart yearn for Home like the approach of Christmas.
Whether it’s your childhood Home or the Home you’ve made for yourself as an adult, Home attracts with a primordial power.
And, if you can’t make it Home in person because of a War or the tides of life then you can, you can, be Home – if only in your dreams.
I don’t know which version of Kim Gannon, Walter Kent and Buck Ram’s Song the Gemini 7 Crew listened to (probably the masterful Bing Crosby original) but the one I always turn to is by the enigmatic Leon Redbone.
Rarely for me I’m going to give you no disquisition on Leon except to say that you will be doing yourself a great favour if you invest in his records forthwith!
I’ll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I’ll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
I hope you make it home for Christmas wherever you may be today.
And if you just can’t make it Home I hope that the Home you find in your dreams is the one you have always been searching for.
The Immortal Jukebox 
https://loshame.com/2017/12/10/jeans-un-successo-intramontabile/
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Probably one of the more obscure numbers one could select as part of a Christmas compilation, but that’s no more than what I’d expect from this excellent blog. I’d been aware of Leon Redbone since the mid-seventies when articles and the odd photo started to emerge that had him and Dylan together at some obscure folk festival, but the first I really heard him musically was in 1989 at the sadly missed Andy’s Records in Colchester, where whilst I was browsing the racks, Leon’s then new album, “No Regrets” came through loud and clear on the shop’s sound system.
I’d always thought Leon was a somewhat Canadian music hall, vaudeville type artist, but this was country music, albeit of an old timey acoustic nature with a good dose of the blues thrown in. On enquiring at the counter and looking at the record sleeve, found the album was on the Sugar Hill label, and was recorded with the likes of Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor and Cindy Cashdollar. I brought the album then and there, and have since acquired most of his stuff, (including some of the earlier releases, “Double Time” and “Champagne Charlie” on vinyl. Have to say, I prefer the more recent stuff, “Up A Lazy River” and “Whistling In The Wind” to those earlier seventies recordings, but that’s just a personal opinion.
I also have to confess to never before even hearing “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, I have (apart I think from Dylan and John Prine), no Christmas albums in my collection, but this sounds incredible, (Amazon UK have it in stock, but it’s not cheap), will hopefully be able to pick up a copy sometime at a better price.
Very interested to hear your next selection in this series Thom, fascinating stuff. Last thing, could I be very unoriginal and put in a word for “Christmas Tonight” from The Band’s
“Islands” album, a far from great record, but one of Rick Danko’s very finest vocal performances
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Thanks very much Steve. Lots to think on.
Regards Thom.
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I love Leon Redbone! Saw him live in concert twice in Santa Monica and L.A. He sang a song I had only ever heard my dad sing. I thought my dad had made it up! It was “Smokey Mountain Bill.” You are only the third other person I’ve ever met who knew who he was. Plaudits.
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Thanks Judy. More Leon next year. Regards Thom.
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