In the spirit of the season, and in preparation for updating my holiday iTunes playlists, I was wondering…can the gang here reccomend some SAD christmas songs, for me?
I’ve got a few so far:
•Enya’s Silent Night and many versions of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. In and of themselves, aside from a downbeat melody, these ones ain’t that sad. However, in my mind, they always conjure the image of some TV show montage centering on grotesquely unhappy lives. (I know I’ve actually seen them used for such—on ER once, at least.)
•After that, a couple of selections from one of my favored Xmas collection albums. Dido’s Christmas Day is just kind of bittersweet, while Meryn Cadell’s Cat Carol is both cloyingly sappy and makes me want to blow my head off.
•…Rather like the protagonist of El Vez’ Christmas Wish. Without giving too much away—Chris Isaak, if he’d been possessed by Nick Cave, and you’d get this song. Yow.
Saffire, “One Parent Christmas.” A playlist you may enjoy is to be had at http://www.podplaylist.com/node/144 . I found it with Google so I can’t attest to the relative legality of the downloads offered.
There’s always the “Christmas Blues”, which ends with:
May all your days be merry
Your seasons bright with cheer
But till its January, I’ll just go and disappear
Santa might have brought you some stars for your shoes
But Santa only brought me the blues
Those brightly packaged, tinsel-covered… Christmas… Blues
Cold tears fall from his eyes
As he turns into the night and walks away
Lucille runs outside
Just to see if there might be a sleigh
Little Bobby stares down
At the plate where cookies still lay
And tries to understand
Why momma said Santa can’t stay
Might not be exactly what you’re after but I seem to recall a Simon & Garfunkel recording of Silent Night that plays a recording of a very depressing news update throughout the piece. Murders, McCarthyism etc. Always made me sad.
Aha, from Wikipedia:
“In 1965 the duo Simon and Garfunkel released a version known as “Silent Night/7 O’Clock News”, in which a news broadcast fades in over the course of the song, with the violent and tragic events of the news standing in contrast to the peaceful message of the song.”
“Please Come Home for Christmas” - the Willie Nelson version in particular. Willie wrote and originally sang “Pretty Paper”, BTW.
“Even Santa Gets the Blues” - Marty Stuart
“Blue Christmas” - covered by a bunch of people, including some guy doing a Porky Pig imitation, but most famously by Elvis. Try the Johnny Cash version for something different.
“Christmas Tears” - Eric Clapton
“Where Are You Christmas” - Faith Hill
“A Not So Merry Christmas” - Bobby Vee
“Toyland” - Doris Day
“River” - Robert Downey, Jr.
“Just Put a Ribbon in Your Hair” - Alan Jackson
“Christmas Candles” - The Andrews Sisters
“Little Altar Boy” - The Carpenters
“Hard Candy Christmas” - Dolly Parton
“Christmas Through Your Eyes” - Gloria Estefan
“Nothin’ New for New Year” - Harry Connick, Jr.
“After New Year’s Eve” - The Heartbeats
“Lonely Christmas” - The Moonglows
“So They Say it’s Christmas” - The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Some of the ones I can think of are (I started out Googling for links, partly because it’s been so long since I’ve heard them so I could only remember certain lines, no artists or titles):
I’ll confess. I heard this song for the first time a few days ago. It made me cry. Another song that’ll make me cry in the right mood is “Santa I’m Right Here” by Toby Keith.
