Panoply of Christmas songs is right before us

The Fab 4 at Christmas

Gloomy or refreshing? How to describe the weather on this Christmas Eve Day, 2023. When I was a kid, to have typed the year 2023 would have blown my mind. I was in awe thinking of the future year 2000, way off in the future of course. No one knew what "Y2K" would have meant. No Internet! 

I think of the highly complicated things people do using the web today. And then I have to wonder: What did people do with that part of their brains in the pre-digital days? How could they adjust without having that outlet? Today we're informed of a routine "Windows update" as if it's such an essential thing to stay current. I'm thinking of the way-back times when there was no Internet. When "cable TV" was making inroads, giving us multiple TV channels to choose from. We'd turn a knob to change channels. 

My neighborhood was stuck with one channel while a lot of my childhood peers talked up the "Able Cable." Remember that term? I could not watch "Gilligan's Island" or "Gunsmoke." I'd hear references to these programs from talk shows and wish they were available. Years later when re-runs of such shows showed up on late-afternoon TV, they hardly seemed a big deal. There was something about late-afternoon TV that just seemed depressing. If you're my age (late 60s), do you remember? Hogan's Heroes? The Flintstones? Fred Flintstone was once featured in a cigarette commercial. 

I remind friends today that we're so spoiled with what's available for entertainment. One does not need a TV contract at all. I would not mind having one on the side, but the problem is: Who can trust these cable and satellite companies with what they choose to charge you? I had cable TV through a trustworthy local company - Federated - for a long time. In fact I switched to Federated just to get their TV. Eventually they had to depart from providing TV service. 

It was a no-brainer for me to give up TV permanently. Heavens, I wouldn't trust any of the non-local cable and satellite behemoth companies to have access to a bank account of mine for "electronic bill pay." I shudder at the thought. They raise rates, apparently, when they just feel like it. I wish there was a better way. 

But I still do business with Federated for getting Internet and that means I get YouTube with my laptop. YouTube opens an unlimited world for enjoying music from all ages, movies and TV specials from all ages such as when Dean Martin and Andy Williams did their thing. Nothing says "Christmas" like an Andy Williams TV special from the middle 1960s. His wife Claudine was stable then, not having gotten into trouble. Celebrities can end up on such a slippery slope. I often feel for them: there must be almost unbearable pressure being in the fishbowl of being so well-known, being judged all the time as if you can always be at the top of your game. 

There is great irony watching the wholesome TV Christmas specials of the bygone time. So much talent giving us entertainment in the 1960s. The boomers were growing up. We now reminisce about so many of those shows. "The Beverly Hillbillies" et al. And nearly all of them had a "Christmas episode." We can watch so much of this now from YouTube, it loses its novelty quality. Of course that's what happens with all popular entertainment. Marketers understand the principle of scarcity or the perception of scarcity. 

Remember the old NFL "TV blackouts?" Made the value of the product shoot up exponentially. If a blackout was lifted at the last minute, and we could see the Vikings get into their huddle on the field, my oh my it seemed like a gift from God! Admit it: This is how you felt. 

 

Embarrassment of riches

Christmas music? One can listen to old Christmas music all day on an unlimited number of days. I called up an Eddie Fisher tune from the early 1950s. It's all there. Does it make us happy? In my case probably yes, because about two weeks after Thanksgiving I had my appetite filled, found I was ready to actually put Christmas aside. 

Oh, the irony of the 1960s popular entertainment is this: At the same time we enjoyed Don Knotts in his classic comedy movies - so pure and innocent - the U.S. was escalating its presence in the Vietnam war with all its unspeakable carnage. Well, it's good to speak of it now. It's good as a reminder of the tragic folly for the U.S. military to extend itself into such things. 

Yes I mention this often. You have to understand that the daily news was full of the tragedy of the Vietnam war as I was growing up. Juxtapose that with the quite heavy coverage of the "protest" movement among USA youth. The protests sent a message to all youth: Do not be trusting and do not conform, because look where conformity can get us: into the hellhole of Vietnam. 

 

Artists and current events

The Beatles were at their height through the war escalation years. Artists will attach themselves to major events and conflict going on around us. It's part of their raison d'etre. John Lennon was in my opinion the most talented Beatle. He definitely rolled up his sleeves to write music that was like a clarion call in pushing simple peace. 

Peace yes, and if there were factions in Indochina that wanted to "duke it out" with a civil war, well then I guess my attitude would be let them do it. The communists won. Do we even care today? Well no, we don't. And look what all we went through. 

John and Yoko

Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" puts aside the typical imagery of sleigh bells and mistletoe. What did I tell you about non-conformity? Let me stress that putting aside convention became quite the thing in the mid-'60s through the mid-70s, roughly speaking. We pushed aside convention to a fault. 

There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. The avant garde forces put kids under too much pressure to eschew simple convention. 

Lennon's "Happy Xmas" had a call to action in its refrain "war is over, if you want it." The song was recorded in 1971. It did not catch on in the U.S. right away, not even close. With time it grew to be a classic here. 

John cited as one motivation for writing the song, that he was sick of "White Christmas." Well we are all familiar with the movie "White Christmas," so we know it's kind of nostalgia about World War II, right? You wouldn't deny it was nostalgia, would you? WWII was really hell on Earth. 

"Happy Xmas" did not appear on an album until 1975. Oh, let's stress that the chords and melody borrow heavily from a traditional English folk standard. Ergo, it's a public domain melody! I read years ago that the melody for Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" is an old folk melody, thus public domain. 

What would Lennon be like if he were around today? Well, I think he'd be quite conventional. My, the money he could earn on the casino performing circuit! I don't think money was on his mind when he wrote "Happy Xmas." RIP John Lennon.

 

Addendum: Public domain melodies are available for all. Reminds me of the old saying: Good composers borrow, great composers steal!

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com