The Straggele Ballad

"The Straggele Ballad" is a song off the Every Ape and His Brother album Winter Horrorland. It is a parody of Katherine Kennicott Davis' "The Little Drummer Boy."

History
In a rush to complete the album, lyrics for "The Little Drummer Boy" were pulled from AZ-Lyrics and altered in Notepad in May of 2021. Around 8:12 PM EDT on May 16th, lyrics were finalized for this song. Since Krampus, Jerry, Luca, Perchta, and the Tomte all got songs dedicated to them, the Horrorday Gang's B-squad, the Straggele, seemed to be warranting their own theme song.

The lyrics were kept just generic enough to not necessarily have to revolve around Nordreichdun's elite royal guard strictly in Gerosha continuity; but can be seen as a broader secret nation that exists of Straggele more in keeping with traditional Yuletide folklore.

Story
Set to the tune of "The Little Drummer Boy," this song is about the Straggele in The Horrorday Gang, as they are patrolling Nordreichdun. They boast of their service in guarding Krampus during his six-month slumber period. They also boast of their willingness to slay any who invade Nordreichdun's borders, sometimes with a shoot-on-sight policy.

As the song progresses, they sing about how they assist Krampus sometimes with his missions to punish criminals around the world that the law can't seem to touch - whether adults or children - so that Krampus can satisfy his monstrous, vampiric appetite. Along the way, Luca, Jerry, Tomte, and sometimes Perchta also join in on the festivities, bloodshed, and cannibalism.

They are not above impaling victims with spears for threatening to delay Krampus' slumber. They also put the heads of the especially despicable among their victims onto nithing poles and pikes, as a warning to anyone spying on them from a distance. They describe these head-on-pike rituals further, saying they will fit as many as four heads on a pike at one time. They are also assured they are justified, as they primarily target victims who have poor morals or no morals - and threaten that anyone who gets in their way could be next.

"Paruumbaloom boom" is repeated often as a deliberate corruption of "parrum-pum-pum-pum," to indicate explosions taking the place of drum beats. As far as a band of antiheroes go, the Horrorday Gang are shown to be about as dark as antiheroes can get, short of becoming outright villains in their own right.