Most of you know the routine of this column by now. If you don't, treat yourself to the warp speed explanations of columns past. Time's a wastin' — let's get down to the business of music and the holiday season.
Christmas cheer? Humbug! Life does not take a holiday for most of the world from December 25 through January 1. War, heartache, poverty, work, grief, oppression march on unflinchingly. They deserve attention, even from us who struggle so much to lend it despite our best intentions.
I know someone who barely kept his life on Christmas Day when the navy ship on which he was serving was sunk, killing hundreds of comrades and from which he escaped with his body and only part of his mind. Others find the rampant and aggressive commercialization a co-optation of more human principles at the holiday’s heart. Still others are in the midst of heartache not of their own choosing. Nor might an indie reviewer forget, however so attention-challenged, that many people in the world have not the resources for its commercial version and/or have no tie to its religious foundation.
So this exceptional IMRFAD goes out to the attention-deficients who for various reasons find Christmas sad, superficial, lonely, or annoying — any and all of these things. Focus. Here are twenty songs for those in need of comfort but repulsed by naïve cheer. The list is hardly exhaustive, but you and I have trouble concentrating, so I’m being considerate. Good luck making it through the list, and if you do and need more, you can email me.
1. Oscar the Grouch: “I Hate Christmas.” You’re always in good company with this loveably mangy muppet. Raise a glass to the Grouch. He farts on Ikea obsessions and potpourri compulsiveness.
2. Steve Earle: “Christmas in Washington.” Like Cash, at unlikely times he turns an eye toward the underbelly of a situation, this time at Christmas. Earle hearkens back to a time when religion and collective celebration pointed to obligations to one’s fellow creatures, not just self-absorbed consumerism and selective moral criticism. His finale is a tour de force, as he summons the spiritual help of the freedom champions of Christmas Pasts to come back and inspire now: “Come back Woodie Guthrie … Come back Malcolm X/And Martin Luther King/We're marching into Selma/As the bells of freedom ring.”
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