You’re going out tonight?

Christmas night once was an excellent time to hit the bars.

By the time all the gifts are unwrapped and dinner is eaten, many young people have had their legal limit of their family for one day. That’s the way it was back in the late ’70s, and I doubt it’s changed much.

At that time, Wisconsin’s drinking age was 18, so the bars were full of college students fleeing their homes.

We gathered — of all places — in a tiny restaurant lounge. It seems an unlikely place for that, but if you went to the bar at Nino’s Steak Round-up, you ran into someone you knew almost every night during Christmas break.

The lounge at Nino’s seemed a vaguely sophisticated place. It had exactly one beer on tap. Special Export, brewed in Wisconsin, was a bit of a premium brand. It came from the same brewery as the more popular, less expensive Old Style. (It was as Michelob is to Budweiser.)

There you were — 18, 19, 20 — and drinking a beer that wasn’t something you drank in high school. If not Special Ex, then mixed drinks. Save for a brief and still inexplicable flirtation with the Vodka Collins, my mixed drink of choice was the whiskey sour. I couldn’t begin to tell you what brands of liquor went into them. Some sophisticate.

I spent many nights at Nino’s, but it wasn’t a place for music. It was a place you went to chill out, to shoot the breeze. Lots of people went there for a quiet drink. There was a stereo behind the bar, and I vaguely recall albums being played. It was the time of late-night free-form FM radio, so maybe they played that.

Truth be told, Nino’s was a place to go to escape the dreadful music played in central Wisconsin — and lots of other places — in the late ’70s. It was enough to drive anyone to drink, even on Christmas night.

One look at the WLS charts for the week of Christmas 1977, when I would have been home from school during my junior year in college, and I know why drinks were in order. Shaun Cassidy has two singles and two LPs in the charts. Two LPs titled “You Light Up My Life” are in the charts, one by Debby Boone and one the movie soundtrack.

So there will be no music from the week of Christmas 1977. There will, however, be music in the spirit of those Christmas night gatherings.

“Christmas Night In Harlem,” Louis Armstrong with the Benny Carter Orchestra, 1955, from “Santa Claus Blues,” 1993. It’s out of print.

Harlem is nothing like central Wisconsin, but this vibe is much the same.

“Oh, everyone is gonna sit up until after 3/Everyone will be all lit up like a Christmas tree.”

Yeah, that’s pretty much how it went after you fled the house on Christmas.

Just one under the tree

Whether you celebrate Christmas or something else, here’s hoping you enjoy the time spent with friends and family.

Because you just never know.

Twenty years ago, we did our best to enjoy Christmas. But my mom was rapidly becoming lost to Alzheimer’s disease. She was diagnosed in the early ’80s and we’d learned to go with the flow, to savor the good days and manage the bad days, but this was different. Much different.

I vividly remember thinking: “So this is what Christmas is going to be like from now on.” Not in the sense of feeling bad for myself, but rather what we would need to do for family gatherings — how would we make memories — when Mom is there, but not really there at all.

It never came to that. Mom died the following July.

You just never know.

On a winter day almost 40 years ago, Louis Armstrong went to work in the den at his home at 34-56 107th Street in Corona, Queens, New York. That day — Friday, Feb. 26, 1971 — he recorded this:

“The Night Before Christmas (A Poem),” Louis Armstrong, 1971,  from “The Stash Christmas Album,” 1985. It’s out of print, but you can find the original 7-inch single (Continental CR 1001) on eBay.

There’s no music. Just Satchmo’s warm, gravelly voice and Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem.

“But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, ‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night. A very good night.’

“And that goes for Satchmo, too. (Laughs softly.) Thank you.”

It was the last thing he ever recorded. Satchmo died the following July.

You just never know.

Embrace the moment.

Three under the tree, Vol. 44

This has been a dreadful year for finding new Christmas music. I can’t remember the last time it was so hard to find something I really liked at the record store.

Thankfully, this has been a pretty good year for finding some good Christmas music around the blogs. Read on, and fill your sleigh.

– Blondie is offering a free download of a new recording of “We Three Kings.” It’s pretty good. Give it a listen or watch the video, then go get it.

– Nils Lofgren is offering free downloads of three Christmas tunes he did in the late ’90s to benefit United Cerebral Palsy in Arizona, where he lives. They’re laid-back versions of “O Holy Night” and “Do You Hear What I Hear,” and then Margo Reed joins him for a duet on “Silent Night.”

Listen to “O Holy Night,” from “Merry Arizona 97: Desert Stars Shine At Christmas,” then go get ‘em.

– Did you have an Advent calendar when you were a kid? Ours had one part of the Christmas story each day. Our son Evan gets a piece of chocolate in his Advent calendar each morning. It’s breakfast.

In any case, each day of Advent 2009 brings a new song over at the Punk Rock Advent Calendar, courtesy of UK punker Jimmy Severe. More hits than misses. But don’t click on the links too early!

“Oi To The World,” Severe, from the Punk Rock Advent Calendar, 2009. (It was either this or a Who-inspired “Angels We Have Heard On High.” You can’t go wrong with either one.)

– If you like Christmas mashups as much as I do, head over to the Bootie Blog to grab either or both of their Christmas compilations, “A Very Bootie Christmas” from 2006 and the new “A Very Bootie Christmas 2.” There are 16 cuts on the former and 14 or 15 cuts on the latter, depending on whether you want the family-friendly version. Or, you can just grab individual cuts.

“Back Door Santa Getting It On,” DJ Schmolli, from “A Very Bootie Christmas,” 2006. Clarence Carter meets T. Rex meets Whitney Houston, courtesy of this fine DJ from Vienna, Austria.

“Christmas Bop,” Smash-Up Derby, 2006, from “A Very Bootie Christmas 2,” 2009. The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” meets Santa Claus and some familiar Christmas tunes, done live by the San Francisco group that bills itself as “the world’s first live mashup rock band.”

This cut also is on last year’s “Santastic Four,” the most recent of the four Christmas mashup compilations from dj BC of Boston. Bootie Blog proprietors A + D graciously point you toward those four fine “Santastic” comps. Dig them also. (There is no new “Santastic” comp this year.)

– Finally, a gentle reminder that this year’s Three Under the Tree posts will stay up here at AM, Then FM through New Year’s Day.

Three under the tree, Vol. 43

Christmas lurks out there, scarcely 10 days away now.

Everyone’s busy, no time to read, no time to write.

This is going to be it for Three Under the Tree. I get the feeling this series has run its course, anyway. I have something in mind for next year, something a little different.

So as we go out, three more good ones:

“All I Want for Christmas,” Timbuk 3, 1987, from “A Different Kind of Christmas,” 1994. It’s out of print.

Gotta support your local musicians. Pat MacDonald, born right here in Green Bay and kicked out of West High School in the late ’60s over his long hair (and that’s only part of a great story), was half of Timbuk 3 with his ex-wife Barbara K. He’s living in our corner of Wisconsin these days, doing a variety of gigs and billing himself as pat mAcdonald.

“Winter Wonderland,” Steve Goodman, from “Artistic Hair,” 1983.

Recorded live, but not otherwise a Christmas record. On which Steve struggles to remember the lyrics but comes close enough, and in so doing comes up with a delightful acoustic version. I bought this record at a Steve Goodman show in 1983. He autographed it for me: “Joe, Hello”

“Merry Christmas Baby,” Chuck Berry, 1958, from “Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade, Vol. 2,” 1973. The LP is out of print, but this tune — and a shorter alternate take — are available on “Johnny B. Goode: His Complete ’50s Chess Recordings,” a 2008 compilation, and digitally.

On which Chuck demonstrates how well he does those quiet, slow blues. Listen for a snippet of “White Christmas” at about 1:40. Mostly, though, it’s just Chuck’s voice backed by Johnnie Johnson’s piano. The rest of the group is Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums.

And to think I got to see Chuck Berry this year. Christmas came early.

Three under the tree, Vol. 42

Watching that old George Thorogood video last night, it struck me how cutting-edge MTV seemed at the time and how quaint and innocent those old videos seem now.

It sure would be nice to sit down with our 14-year-old son and watch something like that now.

Of course, he’d roll his eyes and say, “Dad! That’s so corny!”

Absolutely. And it wouldn’t be Christmas without it.

Take 1:

“Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You,” Billy Squier, 1981, from “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas,” 1995.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes bonus: Bob Leafe was taking photos on the set when Billy Squier and Co. shot that video in the MTV studios. He shares some memories and photos.

Take 2:

“Do They Know It’s Christmas (single edit),” Band Aid, 1985, from the 12-inch single. It’s out of print but is available on “Now That’s What I Call Christmas!” 2001.

Take 3:

“Christmas In Hollis,” Run-D.M.C., from “A Very Special Christmas,” 1987. (This one is for Doug.)