And So This is Christmas....

 

And So This Is Christmas….

 

…a time when you cannot avoid hearing Mariah Carey, Phil Spector, Slade, Cliff Richard et al on the radio, in shops, or in the car. Back in the 20^th century these records became popular because people went out and bought them, and a fresh batch came out each year. There were some vintage years such as 1973 (Slade, Wizzard), 1980 (Jona Lewie), and 1984 (Band Aid, Wham!) – as well as some clunkers such as 1988 (Cliff Richard – “Christian rhyme” indeed !). But there were also many songs inextricably linked with the festive season which had no explicit connection to Xmas at all, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1975 and “Just Like Starting Over” in 1980.

My main exposure to such songs in those days was via Radio One and the pub jukebox. Nobody had compilations of Xmas music in the 60s/70s unless they either assembled a cassette tape or bought some cheap album of copies costing 99p in Woolies on labels like Pickwick (not that I’m knocking those albums – many great musicians such as Elton John performed on them). These days, however, no-one has to go out and buy a single anymore and there are loads of readily-available compilations / playlists to be had.

Because of this one tends to be constantly surrounded by the same old favourites and the whole experience is very immersive. As the end of November approaches I find myself groaning inwardly at the prospect, but once December comes I start to enjoy it. So here’s a few thoughts about Xmas music….

John and Paul

 

“War Is Over” and “Wonderful Christmastime” clearly display the major strengths and weaknesses of these two great geniuses. Lennon’s song is lyrically profound and musically simplistic – even I could just about strum the chords. Paul’s track has complex chord changes and features him playing every instrument – however the lyrics are trite. How these two needed each other !

(Author’s note : John’s song declares that there are no days between Xmas and New Year (“And so this is Christmas” followed by “Another year over and a new one just begun”). This is disturbing news for the likes of Michael Nesmith and me who were born during this non-existent period !).

Story Songs

The three/four-verse story song, in which each verse leads towards a resolution in the final one, is a well-established popular music form. The Beatles were masters of the art in songs like “Norwegian Wood” and “Eleanor Rigby”. But the outstanding example which springs to mind is Squeeze’s “Up The Junction”, which finds the narrator getting married, having a bath the Sunday before starting a job, and then contemplating his failed relationship while doing the washing up. The closing rhyme of “assumption” with “up the junction” is a gem.    

Some songs build up really well and are then let down by the ending. I’m thinking here of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”. In this song the singer lists a multitude of reasons why a particular woman isn’t right for him, challenging in the process the more hackneyed conventions of romantic love. However, after all these high-minded sentiments, the song concludes with “and anyway I’m not alone”, which totally undermines the argument and reduces the song to mere braggadocio.  

An example of this in the Xmas genre is “Christmas Wrapping”. The singer has had a bad year and for the best of reasons is not going to bother with Xmas. However at the end while popping into the local deli she meets a guy and has her Xmas after all. So this has now become the tale of how an independent-minded young woman has all her problems solved by meeting the right man.

Tautology

Boney M are the masters of setting unexpectedly deep lyrics to a mechanical disco beat. “Rasputin” is a comment on the roots of Russian communism while “Rivers Of Babylon” is an account of the biblical story of the Israelites in exile following the fall of Jerusalem.

“Mary’s Boy Child” is one of the few songs in the Xmas genre which covers the spiritual significance of Christmas. It also offers the fascinating conundrum “Mary’s boy child Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day” – as if he could ever be born on any other day apart from his own birthday !

My Top Ten

So here are my favourites amongst well-known Xmas songs :-

1.     “Do They Know It’s Christmas ?” – Bob Geldof and Midge Ure did amazingly well to pull this together at such short notice. The lyric serves to provoke the conscience without being at all smug or patronising. All the vocals fit so well together – I particularly like Bono’s “well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” and Boy George’s “oh-oh” in response to “the greatest gift they’ll get this year is life”. Midge Ure set all this to a number of different melodic sections, all memorable.

2.      “Christmas Lights” – I’m not a huge Coldplay fan but this captures them at their melancholic best. This is an unusually honest Xmas song, acknowledging that for many families this is a time of conflict while also taking consolation from the hopeful aspects of the season.

3.      “Stop The Cavalry” – this sneaks a protest lyric into the Xmas genre. It also has a brassy, Edwardian, atmosphere reminiscent of classics of English psychedelia such as “Mr. Kite” on Sgt. Pepper. Jona Lewie also produced “You’ll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties” the same year – another unusual take on ostensibly joyous occasions.

4.      “I Believe In Father Christmas” – wherein the titans of progressive rock (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) come up with a rather more jaundiced account of proceedings than is usual in this genre. The English weather and the deception around the Father Christmas myth get mentions before the singer concludes that Xmas is the way it is because “the Christmas we get we deserve”. Prokofiev joins in too.

5.      “Merry Christmas Everybody” - this succeeds in making a raucous family Xmas an exciting prospect even for the shiest of grinches. It also captures the determination to party which was prevalent at the end of 1973 since we all knew we were facing a winter of strikes, power cuts, three-day weeks etc. The record sounds eerily topical this year…

6.      “Driving Home for Christmas” – I am told this infuriates everyone who finds themselves doing all the work year after year to host the event. I love the jazzy piano playing and the fellow-feeling in the lyric when the narrator has a look at the driver next to him and realises that “he’s just the same”.  

7.      “Wonderful Christmastime” – the music on this is such pure Paul McCartney and the lyric, while hardly profound, does capture the character of this staunch family man. This is the father who had his children sleep in bunk beds and sent them to the local comprehensive to keep their feet on the ground. A man of amazing balance given the hero-worship he has received from the age of 21 onwards.

8.      “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” – Roy Wood really was a crazy pop genius, and this epitomises his madcap Phil Spectorish over-the-top obsession. It also hints at alternative realities – we are expected to realise that snowmen never do bring snow.

9.      “Run Rudolph Run” – Chuck Berry always hits the spot for me. His spare, driving rhythms, memorable guitar phrases, and sharp, witty lyrics were way ahead of their time in the 1950s. Together with Buddy Holly, he is the foundation upon which The Beatles and The Stones were built.

10.   “A Winter’s Tale” – written, produced, and performed by three men going through divorce (Tim Rice, Mike Batt, and David Essex) this is a sad and desolate story. The poor man is feeling the cold and works out that maybe shutting the door might be a good idea. The narrator is also astonishingly good-hearted towards his departed. Much as I like this song, I was a bit perturbed a few years ago when it got stuck in the CD player of my car and I faced the prospect of never listening to anything else !

 

 

 

Lockdown Blues

 

It’s been eight years since I posted anything on my music blog here. I think there have been many reasons for this :-

 

·        There’s been such a wealth of writing on the old favourites that all the best angles have been taken.

·        The way we consume music has become much more of a personal rather than a communal activity.

·        There’s less inspiring rock writing around today. There’s plenty of biographical writing in the likes of Mojo and Uncut but nothing as exciting as (for example) the “think pieces” in the NME of the 1970s.

·        Music has lost its social purpose. Anyone with any serious interest in politics knows that the current situation in the UK is obscene beyond anything we have ever known. There is such a consensus on this, and yet so little hope of change, that it is hardly worth writing or singing about.

·        Until recently there haven’t been any gigs for a while and music fans have not been socialising as much.

Which brings me to the nub of the article. Musicians who have spoken out for other musicians during the pandemic have been treated as pariahs. I’m thinking particularly of Van Morrison and Eric Clapton. Yet Abba’s comeback album contains two explicitly anti-lockdown songs and has been universally lauded. Why ?

 

Van Morrison

Van Morrison has made consistently marvellous music all through his career. His latest pre-pandemic album Three Chords and the Truth is one of his very best and it also alludes to his concerns re growing authoritarianism and populism within the UK. The record was universally praised in the music press.

All that changed during the pandemic. He has had scorn poured upon him for his views about lockdown and the double album he released during that time was totally dismissed. At first I went along with this, but I’m now of the view that all the pleasure and inspiration he’s given to millions of people over the last fifty years more than outweighs any harm he might have done with his views. Great music is all too rare and we must treasure it where we find it.

The reason why Van has been so consistently brilliant is that music genuinely is his world. He loves music of all types and often pays tribute to other artists via covering their songs or discussing their work. Music has been his livelihood and lifeblood since he was a teenager. During lockdown he spoke up about the distress it was causing to young musicians and started a charity to help. You might view this as a more honest stance than that of his contemporaries sending their well-wishes from the comfort of their home studios and “gifting” us with the odd Youtube clip.

I’m yet to hear the double album, having been put off by the media reaction. It’s possible that it is one of those “awkward” records such as A Period Of Transition which sounded raw and confused at the time but has stood up well. Whatever, it certainly deserves a fair hearing.

Eric Clapton

Mr. Clapton is a more problematic case. He has a history of dubious political sentiments such as the 1976 “pro-Enoch” on-stage rant. He has also had a long career decline since the heights he reached with “Layla” in 1970.  

I had almost forgotten just how important he was in the past until I heard a Cream 1967 bootleg recording the other day. The fire and intensity of his playing on the long jams reminded me that :-

·        He was the first of the “big three” Surrey guitarists to feature in the Yardbirds and was probably the first person in 60s music to become noted chiefly for lead guitar playing.

·        His work with John Mayall created a whole new genre of heavily-amplified electric blues guitar playing. His tonal control at such loud volumes was – and is – unprecedented.

·        In Cream he more than lived up to the challenge of being pushed so hard by Jack and Ginger. Although other rock bands made more consistent and better-produced albums, in concert they were three brilliant musicians who constantly listened to and bounced off each other’s playing. No other live band has achieved this at such a pitch of intensity.

·        He then took the art of blues guitar playing to even greater heights by pairing up with Duane Allman for Layla.

In the last few decades we tend to forget just how much he has contributed. He has become an unsympathetic figure whose truculence over the pandemic has been hard to tolerate. And if I ever have to hear the “Unplugged” version of Layla again I’ll probably go so mad I might become a Monarchist.

Let’s just remember all the great times and be thankful.   

Abba

Abba could have filled their latest album with renditions of Three Blind Mice and still be lauded. So it is to their credit that Voyage seems to me to be their most consistent album, albeit lacking obvious classic singles.

But few appear to have noticed that they’ve snuck a couple of anti-lockdown songs on there (Don’t Shut Me Down and Ode To Freedom). Either their audience doesn’t listen that closely or it’s a case of the afore-mentioned “Three Blind Mice Syndrome”. Hugely popular as they are, few music fans would argue that they’ve contributed anything like as much to music as Van and Eric.

They are a problem for a populist like me. They’ve sold more records worldwide than anyone outside Michael Jackson, and many people seriously rate them – The Times compared the longevity of their back catalogue to The Beatles ! But for me they are like a classic pop songwriter of the pre-Elvis era – their music is well-crafted, full of all the tricks which make up classic pop singles, but without anything at its core to engage the listener. I could well imagine dancing to a few of their classics if drunk enough, but I couldn’t see myself wanting to put the headphones on and focus on their stuff.

I guess that’s the point – they are a throwback to the pre-rock era. For those of us who had their lives changed by The Beatles in 1963 that’s a hard one to stomach.            

 

 I am writing this at the start of the most frightening year that our generation has had to face. While I'm optimistic that we can get through this and some of the scientific progress has been amazing, the green shoots look to be far away right now. I hope that anyone reading this will be safe and well.

Not much else to say right now - except that, like many people I guess, I've completely removed all my Van Morrison collection from all my playlists. Usually I would go to any lengths to defend the man - who is one of my top five favourite artists - but it is so irresponsible to put out such material in the current circumstances.

Postscript 10/1/21 - things have got even worse now. The situation in London is horrific. We must obey the scientists and stay at home whenever possible.

This is my new Blog. So much has changed since my previous one - I have re-married, and having moved to Bramley in 2015 I now live in Burpham, just outside Guildford.
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My previous travel Blog is at erictansley.blogspot.co.uk.

My music Blog is at ertmusic.blogspot.co.uk

A sensational Blog which I cannot recommend enough is at KathrynTansley.blogspot.com.