I admit that, despite my omnipresence on the Interwebs, that I am not in the mainstream of pop culture. I am kept so busy producing brilliant work that I have o time to attend to the alerts on radio, TV, and social media. So I do not know yet what this year’s big controversy is in the world of Christmas music.
If you are among the multitudes who are in a store, realize suddenly that the seasonal Muzak is playing, lower your head, and soldier on, you may be unaware that at least one song each year is targeted by the uncommonly sensitive who have appointed themselves unofficial advisers to the rest of us. These stories do sometimes make the evening news, but unless you are a subscriber to some service which alerts you to things which are unclean, unworthy, and otherwise evil (and even then, you will probably get only one side of the protests, as these come from many directions) you may have missed the last few decades, from the move to erase “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” from radio playlists through the more recent effort to ban “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
Well, as noted, I am not up to date on this sort of thing, but I CAN let you know about a few of the controversies about what will be playing in the background everywhere you go (to quote on of the controversial songs.)
JINGLE BELLS: You have to be a thorough purist to object to this number, which in the United States is THE musical cue to let audiences know it’s winter, or that Yuletide is approaching. But there are those who refuse to sing it at Christmas on the grounds that it was WRITTEN as a Thanksgiving song. Just like “Over the River and Through the Woods”, this was meant to tell of a trip during November, primarily in regions where there is more snow that month. The whole problem bothered one writer so much that somewhere toward the beginning of the twentieth century, someone wrote a new verse, specifically mentioning Christmas, so it would be okay. This does not fool the Truly Traditional.
GOD REST YE MERRY, GENETLEMEN: Yes, I know, but I was taught that’s where the comma was meant to be. This song has been banned and rewritten in several markets for several reasons. One church group had it removed from the hymnal on the grounds that the Gentlemen were so Merry because they were drunk, and this had no place in a sacred service. Other groups have pointed out that women are not included in the title, and the lyrics are thus not inclusive enough. This resulted in a new version called “God Rest Ye Merry Gentle Friends.” The same controversy has plagued “Good Christian Men Rejoice”, which is now frequently sung with the first line in the original Latin, “In Dulci Jubilo
. Some versions make the second line rhyme with Jubilo, and some keep the second line as it was, even if it doesn’t rhyme.
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS: It’s that jaunty little bit in the middle, where we learn BOYS want a pair of Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots, thus not only forcing violent toys and male children but also endorsing the theft of the West from the native inhabitants) while GIRLS want dolls, which reinforce typical stereotyped sex roles in a patriarchal society. Some rewriters have simply switched two names, making the guns the choice of Barney and Jen, while the dolls are for Janice and Ben (spoils the alliteration of the original, but it’s in a good cause.) And that bit about Mom and Dad wanting school to start again suggests that adults don’t want to spend quality time with their families.
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS: The FIRST rewrite of this song came at the very beginning, when Judy Garland complained to the songwriter that the song was WAY too depressing, whereupon it was rewritten as we know it. However, in later years, the songwriter went through a religious conversion, and was troubled by the line “if the Fates allow”, since this referred to a non-Christian mythical entity, and rewrote it himself as “if the Lord allows”. It was his song, and his conscience, so I GUESS it passes muster, but gee whiz.
We do not have room here to continue through the entire controversy of “Winter Wonderland” (I heard a neighbor of mine rebuke the organizer of a Christmas singalong in 1997 or thereabouts for including such a scandalous song in the program), or Poor Little Jesus Boy, or The Little Drummer Boy, or…. But the overly sensitive are always on the lookout—that’s what Social Media is FOR—and there will be more exclamations of dismay this year. Away in a Manger may be up for attack again, or even Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Keep your ears open. In the meantime, I’m going for a walk. Sleigh bells ring—are you listening? In the lane….
Blogsy Babbles 