Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!
1995 · Tario U-41133M · Allston, Massachusetts
- Artist
- The Showcase Showdown
- Title
- Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!
- Release
- Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!
- Year
- 1995
- Label
- Tario # U-41133M
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Country
- Allston, Massachusetts, USA
- Songwriter
- The Showcase Showdown
- Genre
- Punk · Punk Rock
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Punk Rock group, formed in 1993 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Disbanded 2000. Members included Victoria Arthur (bass), Tom Cloherty (guitar), Albert "Ping Pong" Genna (vocals), and Steve Maxwell "Chez Nips" (drums). The song "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!" (Tario Records # U-41133M) took a novelty approach, declaring that "we don’t need your Santa Claus, cause we’ve got Uncle Ho". It also suggested that the toys would be delivered via tunnel, presumably a reference to the Ho Chi Minh Trail: "Uncle Ho tunnels, when he brings your toys".& Vietnam War: Punk Songs
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — Christmas Songs
Punk Rock group, formed in 1993 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Disbanded 2000. Members included Victoria Arthur (bass), Tom Cloherty (guitar), Albert "Ping Pong" Genna (vocals), and Steve Maxwell "Chez Nips" (drums). The song "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!" (Tario Records # U-41133M) took a novelty approach, declaring that "we don’t need your Santa Claus, cause we’ve got Uncle Ho". It also suggested that the toys would be delivered via tunnel, presumably a reference to the Ho Chi Minh Trail: "Uncle Ho tunnels, when he brings your toys".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: We don’t need your Santa Claus / Cause we’ve got Uncle Ho / No three wise bourgeois gentlemen / Or sleigh bells in the snow / Santa may wear red, but don’t believe what you see / Cause Uncle Ho distributes presents equally / Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh / He comes down from the North / Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh / All the presents he brings forth / Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh / He’s a jolly man they say / Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh / Smash the state on Christmas day / That fat man he don’t understand / How his elves work / His laissez faire philosophies / Leave his workers short / Uncle Ho tunnels, when he brings your toys / And he lives with his workers in Hanoi oi! oi!
Notes
Tario Records, 45 RPM, red vinyl with a green-and-white label; no catalogue number printed on label or sleeve. The front sleeve shows Ho Chi Minh in a Santa hat against strings of Christmas decorations, with the title in red cut-out letters. The back prints the full lyrics ("We don't need your Santa Claus / Cause we've got Uncle Ho"), credits Ping Pong (vocals, bells) and Victoria (bass), states "Recorded by Bill T. Miller at Straightjacket Sound, Allston, MA, August 6, 1995" and "All songs © the Showcase Showdown, 1995", gives the band address 23 Pomeroy Street, Allston, MA, and reproduces an AP clipping, "Brief abduction, long sentence", about a Houston man who forced two women on a tour of Christmas lights. [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
Punk Rock group, formed in 1993 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and disbanded in 2000; members included Albert "Ping Pong" Genna (vocals), Tom Cloherty (guitar), Victoria Arthur (bass) and Steve "Chez Nips" Maxwell (drums).
Themes
Anti-Capitalism · Anti-Government · Christmas · Communism · Hanoi · Ho Chi Minh · Ho Chi Minh Trail