Bahamian Rhapsody – Joseph Spence and Santa Clause

Without a doubt, it's the most bizarre and jarring version of a traditional holiday song ever recorded. You're not sure if it's serious, a joke, really bad, or genius. Joseph Spence's cover of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" certainly has its own sound.

Before you pass judgment on this song, consider this. Joseph Spence was born in the Bahamas in 1910, and he is considered a musical hero to the Bahamians. Most of his songs deal a lot less with actual…what do you call them… words, and focuses more on impromptu vocalizations. It's not like he forgot the words to the song, or doesn't speak English very well, that's just his style (you should hear his version of Sloop John B. It's worth the 99 cents on Amazon). Spence also became one of the pioneers of tuning his guitar differently, a technique called "Drop D Tuning". There are some that consider him the "Thelonious Monk of Folk Guitar".

That being said—

Just because something is revolutionary, it doesn't mean that it's genius. Jimi Hendrix strung his guitar upside down. That was genius. An insurance company uses a lizard to sell its product. That's not genius. Spence's musical style falls somewhere in between this spectrum. Granted, it's strange to hear this song as "Sandy Clarw is Coming Heaaaaaaan"; however, there is wiggle room for interesting interpretation for this song. It's not a Shakespearian Sonnet, it's a crappy Christmas song for the love of all things holy. It's a nice curve ball to the mundane repetitive drone we hear from the day after Thanksgiving until 11:59pm on December 25. However, I don't think it's much more than that.