It’s that time of year when the nights grow longer, and the wind blows colder, but at least you can warm yourself up with the looming prospect of Christmas.
With the festive season upon us, you can count on a few things: drinking too much, eating too much, and spending too much time with the family members that you only see once a year for a reason. You can also guarantee the welcome return of Christmas music, some of the silliest and yet most necessary songs to grace God’s green Earth.
It seems that there is no ‘right way’ to do a Christmas song, and granted, you might think that the best Christmas songs out there are those which contain the sound of sleigh bells and make you feel jolly for every second that they play; however, there are others which don’t subscribe to this rule, as they instead try to use the backdrop of Christmas to make a serious point, or drag the mood down a little.
No Christmas would be complete without a healthy mix of these songs, such that you can’t appreciate the good without the bad, and you can’t appreciate the holly jolly without the oh by golly.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono – ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’
Despite the fact that it would be years before the war in Vietnam officially ended, John Lennon was preaching peace like it were mere moments away.
Abandoning the original Christmas song traditions, such as sleigh bells and joy, Lennon asked people to think about those who might be worse off and consider the idea that peace in the world could be a possibility, so long as that’s what the people willed.
“War is over, if you want it” are the words we hear over and over again, profound in their beauty and relentless in their repetition. Lennon’s message is hammered home, and in the process, he manages to make a Christmas song which isn’t conventional but is still haunting, a must-have for any Christmas playlist you might be putting together this holiday season.
Paul McCartney – ‘Wonderful Christmastime’
If you ever needed to understand the difference between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, look no further than these two Christmas songs, where Lennon opts to use the pretence of a holiday banger to preach his idea of peace, there McCartney leans into his pop roots, making something catchy, fun, and not at all that serious.
The song was made while McCartney was putting together his album McCartney II, during which the former Beatle was experimenting with more electro-pop recording techniques, and in turn, managed to put together a Christmas classic for the ages. The hard-hitting synth sound that plays throughout the song is the result of his newfound adoration of synthesisers, and it’s now an individual sound that seems to mark the beginning of the festive season.
