Let’s start off with the track Christmas Day by Squeeze. I spoke about Squeeze briefly last week when discussing their track Tempted - Christmas Day came out a couple of years before Tempted, in late 1979, making it the earliest entry in our list. It was a non-album single that, unfortunately, failed to chart. The song begins with a half-melancholy, half-ominous piano and segues into a harp. Then comes Tilbrook’s, as usual, terrific vocals. In the choruses, the keyboards do a progressive lowering in pitch that, in my opinion, creates some good anxiety to the song. Naturally, the end of the song has sleigh bells. Overall, the melody of Christmas Day, and even the lyrics to some degree, are representative of the squeeze sound at the turn of the ‘80s.
The lyrics are essentially a modern retelling of the birth of Jesus Christ. Instead of horseback, Mary and Joseph drive to motel after motel, but there are no vacancies in the area. They eventually find a seedy motel instead of a stable, and later Mary gives birth to Jesus, complete with modern stand-ins for the shepherds.
There are other references to Christmas, too. For example, the band asks, “Where would Christmas be without laurel and holly and light on a pine tree?” I must say, the video for Christmas Day is a little incongruous, with Mary and Joseph looking forlorn with a stuffed donkey, which segues into shots of the band playing in front of a dance party. The placement of the computer shows that it is indeed a modern retelling of Jesus’ birth.
2000 Miles by the Pretenders is the next song on our list. We talked a little about The Pretenders’ background in an earlier episode, so I’ll jump right into the song.
The children will sing. He’ll be back at Christmas time.
2000 Miles was released in late 1983, in advance of their album Learning To Crawl. A gentle six-note guitar riff introduces the song to the audience, and it repeats throughout. While there’s not a lot of variety in the melody, what is present is very good and induces a nice calm. As usual, singer Chrissie Hynde sings this one great, with enough variety in her vocal inflections to make the song quite interesting. You can really hear the longing in her voice for a distant or lost love in this one. Unlike most of the entries on my list, there are no sleigh bells in this song, which is a welcome change.
The lyrics sound like they’re about a husband who’s either far away for a long time or perhaps even passed away. Hynde implies he will be back at Christmas, but perhaps that is in spirit form. The words go on to say that it must be Christmas time because people are singing, perhaps Christmas carols, and that it is getting colder day by day.
The video has Hynde dressed in a Salvation Army uniform in a snowy locale. It doesn’t quite match the wistful theme of the song, as it features things like a guy gleefully skiing. I think The Pretenders are not proud of this video, from what I have read. But still, the song itself is great.
A more unorthodox entry in my Christmas list is Israel by Siouxsie and the Banshees. This band debuted in 1978 and was rooted in punk, but sounded more arty, conflicted, and melodic. Israel was a standalone single in late 1980.
It took me a while to realize that Israel had somewhat of a Christmas theme to it. Yes, there are Christmas, religious, and winter references throughout. For example, words like, “Will they sing Happy Noel? Turning water into wine, and orphans in the snow.” Like several of the other songs I’m going over today, along with a lot of other Siouxsie and the Banshees songs, the theme is definitely dark. I think the song is about not accepting authority at face value. Lyrics like, “Cheap wrappings of lies. Keep your hearts alive with a song from inside, “ hint at this interpretation.
The melody has a proto-goth feel to it, thanks to a funeral-like keyboard and lead singer Siouxsie Sioux’s brooding vocals. Her renditions of words in a certain way, for example, “Israel-el-eel” reminds me of fellow new-waver Adam Ant. The bass guitar and drums are really good and add to the atmosphere.
The video for Israel, being an early one, is solely of the band performing the song. Frontwoman Siouxsie Sioux is decked out in a goth style with a black shirt with a Star of David on it. Siouxsie and the Banshees would have some minor hits in the United States in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.
Next up is Christmas Wrapping by the two hit wonder The Waitresses. The Waitresses formed in Akron, Ohio (home of Devo), and were fronted by vocalist, Pattie Donahue. Christmas Wrapping was recorded and put on a holiday compilation before their debut album.
Pail the picture, frozen landscape. Chill this room for twenty-four days. Evergreen, sparkling snow. Get this winter over with. Flashback to springtime. Summer goes...
After a Christmas-sounding beginning to the song, with the ubiquitous sleigh bells, a danceable guitar track starts playing. The drums soon join in to create a track that is a little influenced by Chic or even early rap, in my opinion. The subtle keyboards also add good flavor to the song. The chorus has a short but good horn track to it as well. While Donahue isn’t quite in bah-humbug territory, she just wants the holiday to go by without fanfare. Donahue half sings, half raps the lyrics, and does it with a air of resignation, kind of like she knows the narrator will be overwhelmed by Christmas despite her efforts. The narrator endures holiday setbacks like finding only scrawny turkeys at the supermarket. But her fortune reverses toward the end of the narrative as the singer meets her year-long crush in a grocery store. And they laugh and bond because they both forgot the cranberry sauce. That puts her back in the holiday spirit. I like the song because it encapsulates the mad rush that people go through in the run-up to Christmas. Allegedly, the song reflects the attitude of some of the band members had about Christmas. The Waitresses would have a hit the following year with I Know What Boys Like, but that is unfortunately all the chart success they would have.
The penultimate song in our new wave Christmas list is none other than Wham!’s Last Christmas. Wham! consists of singer George Michael and instrumentalist Andrew Ridgeley. Their debut album in 1983 did okay, but they hit it big with the album Make It Big. A little after that, they released a double single including Last Christmas.
Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. But the very next day, you gave it away. You gave it away.
The main synth that echoes throughout much of the song sounds a little sad, which makes total sense given the song’s theme. Like many other Christmas songs, there are sleigh bells. The lyrics, presumably sung in the lead-up to Christmas, speak of a breakup suffered by the singer around Christmas of last year. In the present, the singer is still suffering the sting, but wants desperately to move on. It is implied his efforts are in vain with the lyric, “Maybe next year I’ll give it someone special.” George Michael captures the heartache superbly in his vocals. The picturesque video takes place at a ski resort. In it, time jumps between two Christmas seasons a year apart, kind of like Back To The Future 2.
In the later one, Michael is reminiscing about the time spent at the resort in the previous Christmas with his now ex-girlfriend, who ironically is now going out with a character played by bandmate Ridgeley. This is arguably the second-biggest Christmas song from the ‘80s, and it hit number two in the Christmas charts in 1984.
Last Christmas has been covered quite a bit by other pop artists, but in this case there ain’t nothing like the real thing.
Let’s conclude our Christmas retrospective with the biggie ‘80s Christmas song, Do They Know It’s Christmas? Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox were saddened by reports of famine in Ethiopia. In response, they got some of the hottest talent, including new wave artists like Simon LeBon from Duran Duran, and Boy George, to form a supergroup called Band Aid, and they released a charity Christmas single in late 1984, and that is the genesis of Do They Know It’s Christmas?
And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime.
The melody is majestic, and fits the Christmas theme well. The song starts and continues with bells and drums, giving it that holiday feel. At a little past the two-minute mark starts the part of the melody that identifies the song for most people. There is a vocalist change every couple of lines, but it’s not distracting in my opinion. Instead, it showcases the talent that the ‘80s had to offer.
The lyrics speak out to the industrialized world, speaking of the world of dread and fear, and clanging chimes of doom in Ethiopia and Africa. There is a lyrical misstep, in my opinion, with the line, “Well, tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you.” Well, why is it anyone? The song ends with a call by many of the vocalists to feed the world, and them asking the Ethiopians if they know it’s Christmastime.
For their efforts, Geldof, Midge Ure, and Band Aid raised $24 million in 1984 dollars to go towards famine relief. Do They Know It’s Christmas? was the number one Christmas song that year, beating out Wham!’s Last Christmas. The song was redone several times with different artists, raising more money for charitable causes.
Okay, that’s a wrap, no pun intended, on Christmas - new wave style. Thank you so much for listening today, and have a merry Christmas or happy holiday from New Wave Beat.
