The Law Would Like To Hear About Your Haul From Santa

In our final installment of Enter Snowman, holiday-music expert Jon Solomon–whose 20th annual 24-hour Christmas show kicks off at 6 p.m. ET!–shares a seasonal classic from the Boston-via-Iowa punk outfit The Law:

Growing up in central New Jersey, one of the first Christmas songs I remember hearing on WPRB that I couldn’t find anywhere else was by a group of snotty punks from Iowa called The Law.

The Law moved east to Boston in search of fame and fortune when I was still in grade school, and one of their members, “Billy Disease,” would later attend Princeton–which is how their songs ended up at WPRB. Their 1980 “King Sized Cigarette” single is one of those 45s that is just dying for Hyped2Death to give it the attention it deserved 25 years ago.

This holiday song–recorded live at Boston’s The Rat in 1981–was for many years available only as a cart at the station, and hearing it appear on the airwaves always meant that the holidays were officially here. Now, as one of the three songs I close my 24-hour Xmas show with, it means that it is time to go home and get some rest and that I’ve hopefully done a good job this holiday season.

Wanting to share this song with people was the impetus for The My Pal God Holiday Record, and I still hope that someday The Law’s “Instant Party” cassette can get a CD release.

Folks from The Law went on to join Scruffy The Cat, Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus Five.

Happy Holidays!

The Law – What Did Santa Claus Bring You For Christmas [MP3] The Law [Iowa Underground Archives Network]