This 8-track recording from the original Fort Apache South location features Joe on a '66 Epiphone Riviera Electric 12-string and a Nick Hoffman Brian Jones model guitar. Ted Pine crafted some nice analogue synth bell sounds, complimented by some fat pads and organ tones.

Joe Harvard says: "I was trying to convey the sense that Joseph and Mary were ordinary people first of all, and then they found themselves in an extraordinary situation, and they met the challenge together. For him, it was a case of finding a safe place for his young, expectant wife, and they traveled the way common people traveled ... if they existed today they would be taking Trailways to Bethlehem, and then the bus, or the subway -- if they had enough to cover that. A manger may be considered the ancient equivalent of sleeping on a subway platform, I think. But I wanted to tell the story without referencing anything beyond the human aspect of a couple struggling to find a safe place to bring their child in the world -- which given the story is enough to bear witness to their courage."

"And then the other theme is the irony that the scene of this beautiful event is now contested by organized religions in a way that simply violates it's sanctity. The Middle East was very much on my mind throughout the 1980's; both the drone timbres found in "My Christmas Song" and the topic are all found in some form on '82's 'Discover: the bones', '85 s 'Buy American' and '88's 'All Fired Up'."