Here’s some more “holiday” songs I can think of that I actually like, though in some cases I had to dig. And on this week let me just say:
Happy Festivus!
The Pretenders, “2000 Miles”
If Die Hard is a Christmas movie cause it happens to be set at Christmas, this song is a Christmas song because it’s set at Christmas time. It wasn’t written for a Christmas album. “2000 Miles” was the last song on Learning to Crawl, released in 1984 after Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon both died from drug abuse. Not only that, by this point, lead singer Chrissie Hynde had fallen in love with her mentor, Kinks singer Ray Davies, who broke up with her after they’d had a child. With the center of her band collapsed, Hynde had to get new personnel and from that point the Pretenders were that much more her personal property. Honeyman-Scott was actually the inspiration for this song. Learning to Crawl is a transitional album about taking stock of where you are in life, but unfortunately it’s also a transition between the Pretenders as a badass postpunk rock band and a relatively mainstream, sleepy pop group, although on “2000 Miles” that’s kind of the point.
Weird Al Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”
One of the few times that Al made a serious point with dark humor. Another good example is his Miley Cyrus parody, “Party in the CIA.”
Elton John, “Step Into Christmas”
A catchy song that unlike most Christmas standards hasn’t been played to death by radio and stores. From the golden days of Elton John, when he was still pretending to be straight but still wearing costumes that made Liberace look like a Trappist monk.
The Who, “Christmas”
Another Christmas song that’s not really about Christmas. It’s in the early section of the rock opera Tommy, in which the parents lament that their autistic son isn’t capable of recognizing the reason for the season, and as such, this is one of the few Christmas songs that’s actually about the Gospel: “How can he be saved/From the eternal grave?”
Eagles, “Please Come Home For Christmas”
This track (actually a cover of soul singer Charles Brown) endures better than a lot of other blues-rock stuff that has been played over the years, mainly because, as with Nat King Cole’s version of “The Christmas Song”, the various elements come together best on this particular version as opposed to the subsequent covers.
Run-DMC, “Christmas in Hollis”
Most of my musical taste runs to classic rock, aka “dad rock.” But this is a really cool song by rap pioneers Run-DMC. Of course, given what rap sounds like nowadays, Run-DMC might as well be dad rock.
Carol of the Bells – One of the “traditionals” that I actually like, especially as a choral.
Fear, “Fuck Christmas”
Dedicated to Melania Trump.