15: The Little Drummer Boy

If you are in the Little Drummer Boy Challenge, you might want to look away. Or at least, don't click on the YouTube link.

I go back and forth. Sometimes I think The Little Drummer Boy is just appallingly horrible pablum, and sometimes I rather like it. It has been recorded A LOT. The Wikipedia page for the song lists an impressive number of recordings, but the one I picked is not on that list. [Maybe I should add it!]

Gregg Miner is a multi-instrumentalist with a deep collection of musical instruments, self-styled as the Miner Museum of Vintage, Exotic and Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments. As a way of showcasing his "museum", he recorded two disks of Christmas music. The Little Drummer Boy is done on sitar and tablas, "which turned out quite interesting."



The drone of the sitar is quite effective, given the inherently repetitive nature of the song.

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After I had written this, but before it posted, an old friend (like, I've known her since she was about 5) sent me a link to a wackadoodle sultry Grace Jones appearance on Pee Wee Herman's Christmas show, once upon a time. So, in case you need it too, here's Grace Jones singing the Little Drummer Boy to Pee Wee: