I was in a musical-comedy duo in University called Yodacock.
The band name stemmed from a late-night drunken conversation around whether or not there were any female Yodas in the galaxy and, if there were, how fornication between the two Yoda genders would take place.
That’s probably enough said about the name.
We played coffee-houses, the campus pub and, mostly, for our friends. We hit it big in our residence with a song called “Necropheliac”, sung in the style of 1950’s doo-wop about a guy who didn’t let death stand in the way from continuing his relationship with his girl, and the song was catchy as hell. “Shelby”, a song about unrequited love for a girl who worked the same shift at McDonalds as my partner, was also full of heart and had everyone singing along. We reached a modicum of success around campus and enjoyed making people laugh.
At the end of the school year we made a tape in our dorm room using an old four-track system borrowed from a friend and sold 300 copies. Proceeds funded our top two priorities: more blank cassettes and beer.
After the early success of “Shelby” and “Necropheliac” we thought we could do no wrong and proceeded to write a Christmas song and took it to various floors of the residence as the term wound down and the holidays approached. Our other songs had been happy, hopeful, bouncy, wistful even… “Christmas Mourning” took all of that and set it aflame. Some got the darker side to our humour and loved it but for many it was just depressing as fuck. It went on to become our least requested song, so I find it funny that it is the first Yodacock song to appear on this blog.
Written in December, 1997 and appearing for the first time on Youtube, I present, Christmas Mourning.
I haven’t thought about this song in years and it is still a secret favourite of mine on the whole tape. As I listen to it again now I am instantly transported back to the first time we performed it and the shocked look on everyone’s faces, jaws dropped, not knowing how to react or whether or not to even laugh.
Singing to a pub full to the brim of people singing along to the chorus of “Necropheliac” doesn’t even compare in my mind to the reaction this song got out of people.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
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Further Listening – Some Happier Music
For those who maybe need a palate cleanser, here are my two absolute favourite songs to listen to at this time of year.
Dominick The Italian Christmas Donkey – there is simply no happier Italian Christmas song than this.
And for the sentimental side of the holiday season, there is no better song than this in my books, and no better version of it.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, as sung by Rowlf and John Denver.