It's Christmaaasss!

OK, fuck politics.  I've ranted enough about it this week.  Let's get back to Christmas.  As I was driving arond this freezing cold December Friday, I heard all the Christmas perennials played on the radio.  You know the ones I mean: Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody', Wizzard's 'I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day', that one with Shakin' Stevens and all the others.  It's the same ones every year.  Now, don't get me wrong, it isn't that I particularly dislike any of them, (indeed, I have a profound love for the Slade and Wizzard tracks as they are inextricably linked with my childhood memories of this time of year), but I'm always left wondering why these particular songs apparently captured the public imagination, while others didn't.  I mean, when was the last time that you heard, say, The Kinks' 1977 Christmas song, 'Father Christmas' played on the radio?



It's a perfectly decent track, with a catchy tune, performed by one of the legendary bands of the sixties and seventies, yet seems to have fallen by the wayside in terms of popular Christmas songs.  Perhaps it is the fact that its lyrics involve a degree of social comment, not to mention threats of violence against Santa and the mention of kids wanting machine guns for Christmas to frighten the other kids on the street with.  Sadly, when it comes to Christmas songs, it seems that the public prefer something lighter - both the Wizzard and Slade songs are essentially upbeat celebrations of the festivities.  Not that there's anything wrong with Roy Wood with glitter in his beard blowing his horn or Noddy Holder and his sideburns shouting 'Its Christmaaaas!', but sometimes it would be nice to throw something a bit more cynical into the radio play lists at this time of year.  Certainly, the sentiment The Kinks' song is as relevant now as it was in 1977.  So come on Radio One, give it a spin!