dan's earworms

Years of working in retail, and growing up attending a church with no spirit of joy in the organist or singers, have instilled in me an intense distaste for a lot of “seasonal music”. It is only relatively recently that I’ve started to understand it better in terms of my spiritual relationship with Christmas, and so begin to appreciate more of it, and on my own terms.

A lot of the specifically religious songs fail to interest me, simply because they deal so exclusively with the birth of Christ. I do enjoy songs that celebrate the larger context of the event though. “We Three Kings” (and especially Tori Amos’ recent reworking as “Star of Wonder”) has always been a favourite. I’ve always quite liked “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” too. Songs about peoples reactions to the event interest me as they involve a degree of self examination - why am I celebrating, what does it mean to me, what is my relationship with this event - and so justify themselves as they progress to their conclusion. “Quoi, Ma Voisone, Es-Tu Fachee” and “In The Bleak Midwinter” are particular favourites here.

There are also those that focus upon the pagan solstice angle of the event such as “Good King Wenceslas”. I’ve always enjoyed those more than the more modern snow-themed pieces because they have a stronger root in traditional culture and natural cycles than just “look, it’s snowing!” which, as an Australian, rather amusingly leave me cold.

Finally there are the “modern pop songs” about Christmas. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is absolutely fantastic, and I defy anyone to disagree with me. Even this isn’t a song about the season so much as…well, the title says it all really. I’m not familiar with a modern song that isn’t terribly twee and cliched. Of course I enjoy tracks like “River”, “The Fairytale of New York” and “It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop” (the latter being a fixture in my top ten list of Frightened Rabbit songs permanently), but they’re less Christmas songs as songs about relationships that are set at Christmas. That was my biggest disappointment with Coldplay’s “Christmas Lights” - it was just a bad Coldplay ballad set in the season, and not a Christmas song at all.

So I have posted here for you the only modern Christmas song I’ve found that ticks my boxes (Kate Bush’s “December Will Be Magic Again”, while quality, is sadly just about snow). Jane Siberry has noted that she wrote this song because so many traditional songs were out of schools and so on because of the mention of religion. So what, in terms of songs delivering the spirit of rebirth and community and light and celebration, is left if you do that? This version is the live one, from her live seasonal album “Child”, which she has made available for download free of charge and I encourage you to give it a listen. I realise that I may be biased as a fan, but this is truly the only Christmas album I can listen to repeatedly and consistently because it really examines the spirit of the time of year and doesn’t feel like a hollow celebration because that’s what happens this month every year.

I don’t consider myself a Catholic really any more (which is also I think part of why I don’t enjoy restrictively Christian carols), but I wouldn’t say I’m an atheist either. There is a lot in the Bible that I disagree with, but there is also a lot that I think is worth learning from. I don’t know whether Jesus was actually born in a shed in the Middle East at the end of December or not, science and proven history would suggest not. Celebrating the solstice is I think important, and science has long since proven that whether we burn and kill things or not the sun will rise tomorrow and spring and summer will follow. But there are worse things to be happy about and thankful for than the birth of a baby and the lengthening (or shortening) of the days.

I hope you enjoy, and I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating whatever you celebrate however you celebrate it. Be nice to each other.

# christmas

# jane siberry

# are you burning little candle

# music