On a Cold Christmas Eve

So...Xmas (aka Shane MacGowan's birthday) is tomorrow.  Regular readers will know what comes next.

We didn't quite hit our "daily" target this year.  Life has a funny way of fucking with the best laid plans.  But, we haven't given up on our yearly Xmas posting (tons of great tunes we haven't hit yet), despite our prevarication last year.  Hopefully we'll do better next year.  Sorry if we let y'all down.

In the interim, check out our Best Of  2014 Rekkids list starting after the Holiday weekend.  And, we're prepared for more regular posting throughout the year, so hopefully a small percentage of ya will stick around for that!

On to the songs, then...

2 songs always feature in our Christmas Eve (ok, O'Reilly...I surrender...) posting...

Fairtytale of New York is our favorite Xmas song...sadness, desperation, joy, miracles, loss, redemption, love, and hope, always hope, the most important of all.  Beauty (in Kirsty MacColl's riposte) and sadness (Shane's warbling attempt at understanding the broken promises of the "New World").  The generic Holiday hits we're inundated with can't hold a dripping candle to the rawness, the very soul of what this song conveys.  There are many hipper tunes to swear by, but this was always the template, whether one wants to admit it or not.  We will not budge, accusations of sentiment be damned.

Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas From the Family comes damn close to equaling. The ultimate drunken family Holiday, spritzed with great humor, a little sentiment (not a bad thing, when kept in context), a joyous melody and blurry instrumentation...we've all been to this gathering, and, while mocking at the time, remember fondly that insane Xmas day, when everything ended under tinsel and sparkling lights.  And yes, we all sang Feliz Navidad.  Because we could, and it felt just right.  

Take care of each other.  We're all we have.

The Pogues: Fairytale of New York (mp3)

Robert Earl Keen: Merry Christmas From the Family (mp3)


Peace on Earth.