Naked Ugly Christmas Babies

Introduction by John Caelan

Naked Ugly Christmas Babies is a collection of fourteen songs that I wrote from scratch or completed during a three day period before Christmas, 2006, when I happened to find myself alone The recordings were made on a single mic between 6 PM Christmas Eve and 4 AM Christmas morning.

. John Caelan

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They consist of all one-take tracks, each solely by me, and are composed only of my old Fender acoustic guitar (which finally passed on after 22 years on the road) the lead vocal, and harmony vocals. The harmonies were stream of consciousness, though I would have to admit I'd been humming them in my subconscious for some time.

The recordings were shared with a few, and the band quebb has picked up some of the songs in performance, but generally, not many knew of the NUCB. This is probably a good thing, as those three days--during which I barely slept and subsisted on coffee and cigarettes--were arguably not my healthiest moments. Having completed the songs, my walls spackled with college-ruledpaper covered in lyrics, I had some kind of breakdown over the process and buried them for the last two years. The title, Naked Ugly Christmas Babies, was a nickname, an admittedly masturbatory one--there was no intention to make an album.

These are not polished at all--they are the exact mixes from that Christmas morning--but for those who find fascination with aberrant psychology, well, this is what fourteen songs sound like when they are written and composed in three days. Mostly, our friend Janet's father died recentally and I was pulling up It's Over Now to send her. I ended up just saying what the hell and pulling them all. I hope they are useful to you in some manner. John Caelan

This is the order in which they were recorded and notes on their development. And if you want one, you can download for free.
The Root of it All		The chorus was written in San Fran a few months earlier, while at dinner. Someone had broken my heart. The rest of the song was written during the NUCB days.
A Matter of Reason		Reason was written entirely on the first day. The Whiskey/Wine theme had popped into my head several weeks earlier. Quebb quickly adopted this song and its much livelier, and angrier, version is one of the band's most requested.
The Invitation		The music was something that I had started several years earlier-at its core, and the lyrics were completed the second night.
The Broken Stride		The Broken Stride was written straight through during the three days. It just came out of nowhere.
The People Sang		Speaking of coming out of nowhere, the behemoth People Sang, a history lesson for all practical purposes, also just kind of came out of nowhere. The music I had been tinkering with for several months. I would later record this song again, and even make a little video to explain it.
The Choice Before		Another brand new one, The Choice Before would later be remade by John & Mikel.
Come Down on Your Own		This song was mostly written ten years ago, while driving back from San Fran after, surprise, someone broke my heart. I love San Fran but the cities always tough on me. That particular relationship was with a drug addict, or so I would find out, I wasn't that bright in retrospect. The counterpoint in the chorus was written during the three days.
Middle of My Soul		This song actually was almost complete. Most of it had been written over the preceding few years.
Prose and Poetry		The chorus was written during the three day stretch. The verses were actually written on a napkin at Denny's in 1989. Some songs take twenty years to finish. I admit, shades of House of the Rising Sun influenced the composition, but I was much younger and it was one of my first songs, so I claim innocence.
Don't Wanna Serve		The versus were more or less finished earlier that year. The crazy bridge was created during the NUCB days. Quebb also picked up this song and plays it often now.
It's Over Now		Ah, this song...this song was written in a slightly different form in 2003, after a friend of ours named Tyler died from a freak accident in Venice, falling from a balcony and hitting his head on the pavement below. He died at the scene. He was a very young man, as were his friends, and for most of them, it would be the first time they faced death. I'm older, it was not my first time, and I wrote this and played it at Tyler's local memorial gathering to remind people that tough times pass.
A Few Thoughts		A Few Thoughts, also known as No TIme, actually began back in 1989...and was finally finished during the NUCB experience.
Treacherous		This song was written when I was 25. It was the first and last time I visited my father's grave. He died when I was 3.
The Last Poem		This was the last recorded as well, and it is the only one of the set that I did not sing my own harmonies to. It did not want it. It was a fitting end to the three day madness, as it reflected, oddly enough like the first song, the root of it all.