Death May Be Your Santa Claus

[brianrost]

In 1971, Mott the Hoople released their fourth LP, "Brain Capers". Leading off side one is a song called “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” which never made any sense to me, especially since nothing in the lyrics suggests such a title.

Today I was listening to “Goodbye Babylon”, a 6 CD box set of early gospel music recordings. One of them was entitled…surprise…”Death Might Be Your Santa Claus”! It’s a short sermon by Rev. J.M. Gates where he keeps repeating the title phrase. It was recorded in 1926!



Here’s what the Mott the Hoople song sounds like.



While searching for more info on the origin of the title I found yet another recording from 1971 by a UK prog band called Second Hand. The album as well as it’s first track is entitled “Death My Be Your Santa Claus”. This album was not released in the USA until 2023, BTW.



So whatever led two UK rock bands to record two different songs with the title borrowed from a sermon recorded 45 years earlier?

 

[J Wilson]

I'd offer a guess, but it would be terribly rude of me to put it in print.

 

[ardgedee]

So whatever led two UK rock bands to record two different songs with the title borrowed from a sermon recorded 45 years earlier?

Because it was a meme. They had memes back then too y'know. There was no Instagram or Tiktok to spread them, so memes traveled more slowly by record or tape (or mimeograph, for text and images). Usually they stayed local, to a bunch of friends or a community, and once in a while one of them would get public attention because a popular radio DJ would latch on to it.

 

[Pyrrho Epoche]

Google Image Result for https://preview.redd.it/211ro7onw6761.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=41e5734cd0070a1931b7a026e44fe1f1dc28d788

 

[brianrost]

I googled around some more and found this British film from 1968. Second Hand is in one of the scenes, playing an early version of their song which is also used as the theme song. Whether they wrote it special for the film and recorded it later or not I guess is the question.

The film is available on YouTube but is age restricted so I can't attach it here. I suggest smoking a large quantity of pot before watching