BAH & THE HUMBUGS: BIGGER THAN SANTA
A 25th Anniversary Humbug Tribute

Featuring Humbugs songs performed by the following bands:



IRON REINDEER

DËF NOËL

Who is Iron Reindeer?  After eight albums, six international tours, and no fewer than three different documentary films titled "Who Is Iron Reindeer?" we still do not know.  The notoriously secretive band wears masks onstage (iron reindeer masks, of course), avoids all contact with the press, and has managed to reveal nothing about their true identities.  An abundance of clues, including scraps of backwards audio on their records, Sanscrit scrawls on the inner grooves of LPs, and no end of enigmatic lyrics, have provided fuel for countless conspiracy theories about the band.  But the fact that the three aforementioned documentaries came to three different conclusions about Iron Reindeer's home country (Belgium, UK, or Canada?) shows that we're not even beginning to zero in on the answer.

Whoever they are, Iron Reindeer bring a unique brand of heavy psychedelic rock to the Christmas season. For their Bah & the Humbugs tribute, these enigmatic rockers provided their take on "Deaf Noel" -- a title that they insisted on re-spelling, capitalizing, and umlauting as "DËF NOËL."  Another clue?

Water droplet image by nxb; used under a Creative Commons limited license.


DËF NOËL

(Nordquist)

It's bound to be
a Def Noel
'cause the Christmas bell
is loud as hell!

The bus that brings
our fresh hors d'oeuvres
careens and swerves
It wrecks my nerves!

I'll sue the pants
off shirtless elves
They stand on shelves
in tens and twelves!

Wassailers come
and ring the bell
with tales to tell
of Def Noel!

Swing low
Sweet gingerbread
Coming to carry me away
Swing low
Sweet gingerbread
Who's carried away?
You're carried away!

You're carried away
on a barge of coal
with a merry old soul
named Old King Cole!

With an all for one
and a one for all
we'll deck the hall
with a wrecking ball!

Success is such
a bitter pill
That's why I'm still
completely ill!

That man in red
is smoking crack!
He just came back
with a great big sack!

Swing low
O Tannenbaum
Coming to carry me away
Swing low
O Tannenbaum
Who's carried away?
I'm carried away!

I'm carried away
in ropes and chains
They beat my brains
With candy canes!

My Wii went up
in a burst of flames
but no one blames
the reindeer games

In dead of night
my face grows pale
with the ghostly tale
of the humpback whale!

Wassailers run
They ring the bell
They break the spell
of Def Noel!