I was in a mad search for Emerson Lake and Palmer's work I Believe in Father Christmas for the longest time simply because I'd only heard it two or three times in my youth and then once again around 1995...
The odd thing was there seemed to be no end of blogs, lists, links and general music sites that had their tomes to tell, both pro and con, to the song.
What intrigued me while I searched through some of the sites was the level of dim stupidity of some of the writers that saw 'Father Christmas' as "anti-Christmas".
To tell the truth- like many a pop song; sure it has a resonance of a jaded individual fed up with "Jesus this" and "Manger that" but that shows the duplicitously closed mind of the religious right and the anti-religious's zealous notion that there was yet another Christian hating artist they could put on their Holiday playlist and feel triumphant at not having to listen to something with the heinous word "Jesus" in it.
I'd point to these people both pro and con and tell them to get a life- but then, here I am writing in my own blog ont he very subject... Let's have a look at the lyrics- bear with me, I promise to have a relatively fresh look for you...
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin birth.
I remember one Christmas morning
A Winters light and the distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell
Eyes full a tinsel and fire.
They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a silent night
They told me a fairy story
Till I believed in the Israelite.
And I believed in Father Christmas
I looked to the sky with excited eyes
Than I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him through his disguise.
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish, pain, and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.
They said there'd be snow at Christmas
They said there'd be peace on earth.
Hallelujah, Noel, Be it heaven or hell,
The Christmas we get we deserve.
Okay- now if we followed the most popular Google inculcation of the song, we'd all believe that ELP was a gaggle of Christian hating antisemitic rockers with a "moral" message assuaging the glories of the holiday. The particular entry even tries to point out the intonation of the song by comparing the lyrics to his/her interpretation of them...
Well, first off- the "child" that wrote his prose on the subject claims that every radio station in America plays this song every Christmas- if that's the case where have I been for the last 30 years? I remember when it debuted, and I barely heard it since.
One of the things that makes art what it is- is not only what it says "now" but what it says "later".
The first passage is actually an alliteration to the Vietnam war. A soldier would feel every bit the emotions of that first passage- there seems to be a lot of truth in it- change some of the lyrics to refer to sand and you might have today...
The second set of lyrics makes reference to the beauty of childhood and the experiences of cognizant realizations about Christmas- even if only in the mind of a child- but the passage is referential of the past- this is forlorning. Put another way, one could say "The remembrance of youth is a sigh".
The third phrase is that of a person that DISCOVERS Christ. He was sold the story of a man with a beard- which he believed until he learned of another "reason for the season" It melds into the fourth phrase which speaks of a new enlightenment that takes him from the world of a child to that of a cognizant person who understands the gift of this baby in a manger...
The fifth phrase is that of sincerity- previous authors that see this as chidedness or some form of sarcasm see it only in their own hearts- nothing you'd tell them would or will change that.
The last phrase is actually forshadow.
"The Christmas we get we deserve". Whether Santa, The Manger, or nothing but warm eggnog laced with rum or strychnine, we must choose to place ourselves in this world and the Christmas season bears us the privilege of hindsight, foresight and reflection on the here and now.
Whether profited, squandered, learned or ignored, we truly do get the Christmas we deserve...
I continue to be: Russ
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