Looking at a 'different' Christmas

Christmas is a time of music. Often too much music that begins to infiltrate our consciousnesses much too early in the season. Its ubiquity notwithstanding, I do have my personal favorite pieces, and even my favorite collections.

A cherished possession is an old cassette tape of Christmas music from the Kings College Choir of Cambridge. I actually bought the tape at Cambridge in 1976 after having had the privilege of hearing the famed choir rehearse. Their rendition of O How Amiable still can give me chills.

But, there are others; sacred ones, secular ones and even goofy ones, like Rolf Harris’s Six White Boomers, and Jimmy Boyd singing I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. I also confess to affection for Presley’s Blue Christmas, and of course ‘der Bingle’s’ White Christmas.

But one piece that is rarely played and that I have a huge affection for is Fairytale of New York, as offered in a (probably) drunken growl by the Pogues’ Shane McGowan and the inimitable and wonderful late Kirsty MacColl (pictured). This one really does give me genuine chills, even though the sentiments offered seem to be contrary to our clichéd images of Christmas.

It’s appropriate to consider this piece right now for a few reasons. First and foremost because it’s Christmas and we’re often inclined to forget what Christmas means, or doesn’t mean, for society’s forgotten denizens. Secondly because the stodgy BBC recently wanted to censor the song and delete references to both ‘slut’ and ‘faggot’, as in “You’re a scumbag, a maggot, a cheap lousy faggot …” The Beeb ultimately reneged due to a huge outcry.

And finally because it is almost exactly seven years ago that the heavenly voice of Ms. MacColl was forever silenced when she was hit by a speedboat while scuba diving with her sons off Cozumel, Mexico. She was hit by the boat in an area that was banned for boating traffic due to diving. The inquiry into her death continues, but the Mexican government has consistently refused to own up to any negligence.

Why the sentiments of the piece work for me (far more than John Lennon’s Merry Christmas, War is Over) is that it’s a sincere study of the desperate lives of the street people, winos, junkies and the misbegotten and forgotten in New York City, or your city.

If you are unfamiliar with it, take a look on YouTube. You might love it, or hate it (which would be understandable, too) but I guarantee it will have impact.