Ricky Ricardo and the Hell Gods of Christmas (1988)

Staying on the subject of Christmas, today's post is Ricky Ricardo and the Hell Gods of Christmas – although there really is no connection to Christmas other than in name. I wasn't going to share this but it's just too funny not to, even though it's pretty embarrassing. Actually, the most embarrassing part to me is that I look like a total guido...if my shirt were any tighter it'd be under my skin.

Back in the early days of Barking Spiders my mother asked us to perform at my sister's grammar school graduation party. But the day of the party Kevin was "grounded". He kinda had a run-in with the law the night before so his dad wouldn't let him out of the house – that's why Kevo got coal in A Barking Spider Christmas. With no bassist we asked Joe Kollar to step in. Joe pretty much knew our songs from hanging out during jams, plus we'd be playing a bunch of covers that Joe basically taught me.

Since we viewed this whole thing as a joke we decided to change our name for the day. Ricky Ricardo and the Hell Gods of Christmas seemed to fit the bill. The rest is straight out of a Fellini film. Here we are playing for a bunch of water balloon tossing 12 year olds...

"Spin"

"Spin" was a new Barking Spider original at the time. So new that we were still working out the middle "breakdown" section which caught Joe by surprise. Joe also nearly falls down laughing at the end over the absurdness of the situation.

"Time Has Come Today" (The Chambers Brothers)


"Street Fighting Man" (The Rolling Stones)

That was Dave S man-handling...I mean dancing with Cathy Emrich around the 1:50 mark.

About four songs in my neighbor complained about the noise so we moved the party indoors to The Lovely Basement. Here we are getting cut off...

"Paranoid" (Black Sabbath)


At this point a bunch of my friends arrived so it basically became our party...

"New Kind Of Kick" (The Cramps)


And here's an impromptu Intellectuals reunion with Joe, Eric Hoffman and Dave S – sans Kevin...

"No Rules" (The Intellectuals)


To end the festivities Hoff stayed behind the drums and I picked up the bass for "Purple Haze"...

"Purple Haze" (Jimi Hendrix)


Ricky Ricardo and the Hell Gods of Christmas
Jim Burns - vocals
Frank Fusco - guitar
John Hoffman - drums
Joe Kollar - bass