Retro Video of the Week: "A Merry Jingle" by The Greedies

As we journey further into December, this week's holiday-themed Retro Video of the Week technically falls outside the parameters of Retro Videos of the Week because it was released before MTV started.  But there are only so many holiday-themed music videos out there, and I need to bend the rules every now and then.  After all, today is all about bending the rules, with the Big Ten completely changing the rules that everyone agreed to at the beginning of this football season, solely to allow Ohio State to play in the Big Ten championship game, despite the fact that the Buckeyes have only played five games.  Now imagine if Rutgers had been 5-0 and Ohio State would have been in second place in the East division at 6-1.  It would have been "Sorry, Scarlet Knights, we all agreed to the rules."  What bullshit.

But hey, it's the fucking holidays, so let's get festive.  In 1979, Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, and Brian Downey from Thin Lizzy and Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols collaborated under the name The Greedies, releasing one single song, a combination of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells" that they called "A Merry Jingle."  It was released as a 45, and the B-side was called "A Merry Jangle," which was just "A Merry Jingle" played backwards.

Forty-one years later, it may not strike you as significant, but the fact that members a popular hard rock band and members of a punk band (albeit disbanded by that point) collaborated is pretty unusual.  Hard rock and punk were generally mutually exclusive and had an acrimonious relationship.  But Phil Lynott wasn't someone who let societal norms get in his way -- hell, he was a black Irishman who led a hard rock band as their lead singer and bassist (and primary songwriter) -- and while many hard rockers steered clear of punk, Lynott enjoyed and appreciated punk rock and its musicians.  He was one of the few hard rockers to cross the aisle in the late '70s.  And thanks to that, we have The Greedies' "A Merry Jingle," which appropriately sounds part like Thin Lizzy (with duel lead guitars and harmonies) and part like the Sex Pistols (with descending chords and the "hey" shouts).  It sounds great.  The video is from the band's appearance on what I think is Top of the Pops on the BBC.  They also did a New Year's version of the song on The Kenny Everett Video Show on the UK's ITV for New Year's Eve 1979.  But other than those, they only played a couple gigs together and then went back to their respective careers.