Much to the dismay of everyone with an end-of-the-semester deadline, November has come in full force. With the costumed revelry of Halloween behind us, many are left with a “Monster Mash”-shaped hole in their hearts that they too-quickly fill with sleigh bells and Christmas carols. Instead, we ought take the month to listen to and appreciate the plethora of Thanksgiving music out there that goes unrecognized.
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Just kidding! There are actually exactly zero Thanksgiving songs (unless you count Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown piano shit). If you never make your way down to brick and mortar shops, you might not know about the jingle-bell consumerist hellscape that is Christmastime in the USA, (which can last up to a third of the entire year at its most egregious). Directly opposed to the Thanksgiving ideal of contentment with what you already have, Christmas according to the commercials tells you that no one in your life has enough, that every friend and relative is missing something that can only be bought. Besides those kitschy physical ornaments, holiday cheer encroaches on our eardrums playing five different versions of the same song every year.
Despite this bleak diagnosis, I’m committed to providing you all with a generous helping of vaguely Thanksgiving related music.
1. DJ Rashad – “Pass That Shit (ft. Spinn & Taso)”
Okay, so this is a real stretch, but with a little imagination you can easily transform this footwork stoner anthem into a quaint tune about table manners. Just think of “that shit” as referring to “the egg salad” and the “it” in “light it up, motherfucker” as referring to the grill. Yum!
2. Flying Lotus – “Turkey Dog Coma”
Just about a month ago was the three year anniversary of FlyLo’s psychedelic trip of an album, “You’re Dead!” and “Turkey Dog Coma” remains a standout track. Funnily enough, I’ve never had turkey dogs on Thanksgiving. Someone let me know if cranberry sauce is a good replacement for relish.
3. Thankygives – “Sayin thanks”
Thankygives, aka Adrian Orange, aka Thanksgiving, is a Portland, Ore. singer-songwriter once described by Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum as “an actual real-life lounging grass-grove poet who went on to write the best songs in human history.” Phil is a total fucking liar, but this song is decent.
4. Anything from the “Master of None” S2E8: “Thanksgiving” soundtrack
If you’ve ever watched it, you know this show’s soundtrack bangs. This episode in particular (a standout in the second season) has some of the series’ best cuts. There’s nothing like R&B and soul to make you burst out in love for all the people that keep you sane, and the saccharine nostalgia that saturates the soundtrack will leave you overwhelmed with homesickness.
5. Kanye West – “Family Business”
For one, it ties into my theme! “They don’t mean a thing, all these fancy things.” And secondly, it’s one of the best songs of all time. Full stop.