Bah & the Humbugs: Bigger Than Santa - X25

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BAH & THE HUMBUGS: BIGGER THAN SANTA
A 25th Anniversary Humbug Tribute

Featuring Humbugs songs performed by the following bands:

X25

Pop Christmas

Read the Lyrics | Listen to the Song

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Never heard of X25? That's not surprising — they were a short-lived spinoff of the much better known Brit-pop band HelionWillz, who had worldwide hits with songs like "The Comptroller of Simpleton" and "Jeer God."

The boys from Swinburne, England first became aware of America's Premier Satirical Christmas Rock Band when their (non-Christmas) song "Snowman" was mistakenly programmed in a Christmas concert in lieu of the Humbugs' "Snowmen." A pending lawsuit was dropped after the Brits heard some Humbugs tunes and found kindred spirits.

It was shortly after this that lead singer Angel Partridge made the fateful decision to stop touring for good due to "the disheartening and soul-crushingly high cost of petrol," and the band decided to relax and have some fun in the studio in their alternate X25 persona.

Their resulting Christmas album Parked Star — with the title track and its B-side, "Pop Christmas" receiving warm reviews — included X25 originals such as "Wait Till Your Sleigh Goes Down," "GreenAndRedMan," "Always Christmas but Never Winter," and "Thanks for Nothing, Jesus."

After this acclaimed album, the side band turned to the "25" portion of their name and released a very strange album in 2005, Five and Twenty Blackbirds which comprised songs and song cycles relating to the number "25." Covers ranged from Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4" to Zager & Evans' "In the Year 2525" to the Dukes of Stratosphear hit, "25 O'Clock." Much of the remainder of the album was taken up with a suite of songs from 90125 with numbers standing in for parts of the titles, including "Owner of a .45" and "86 It" as well as the haunting "Chan9e5."

Five and Twenty Blackbirds did not, unfortunately, receive the same enthusiastic welcome as X25's Christmas album, and after a couple more HelionWillz albums retreading the same tortured themes and melodies they'd been spinning ever since they stopped touring, the band broke up and returned to their earlier jobs as bricklayers in and around Swinburne.

Pop Christmas

(Lehmkuhl)

A proper English father
Ages old and venerable
But his ancient costume's a gaffe
With a staff?
What a laugh!

Now the old guard have deserted
And left it to the youth
Who are uncouth and T-shirted
His very name they've perverted
to

Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas
They all go
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas
Yeah they're all like
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas

They all love Uncle Santa
Christmas now means US of A
Pop can only get in the way
Well OK
So he cashes out his fortune
For all the toys he hauled
Gives it all to all the orphans
Except for those wankers who called
him

Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas
Everybody goes
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas

He bids adieu to yieu and yieu and he's on a ship to the tropics

Let Uncle Santa deal with naughty, nice and all those topics

He starts his new life out of reach
Of rascal lads and babes that screech
There's nothing left to preach or teach
Just zoning out on the beach

With a glass raised to the sunset
Doesn't feel a smidgeon of loss
His job was always fun, yet
Now he's really his own boss

For his previous state of glory
This Tory doesn't give a toss;
In the quiet, deepening blue
The tiny stars shimmer and blossom

like,

Pop pop pop pop
pop pop pop pop pop
Pop pop pop pop pop pop
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas
They're all like
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas
Yeah they all go
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Pop Christmas

(He's coming back, he's coming back,
He's coming back to kick your ass)