Christmas Lyric of the Day
by KevinDecember 24th, 2006
Today’s song is Father Christmas, by the Kinks. It is a nice little class anthem and a good reminder about what is supposed to be important on Christmas. The stanza before the last chorus is one of the most poignant in any Christmas song. And it has a kind of angry energy to it that I really like.
When I was small I believed in Santa Clause
Though I knew it was my dad
And I would hang up my stocking at Christmas
Open my presents and I’d be glad
But the last time I played Father Christmas
I stood outside a department store
A gang of kids came over and mugged me
And knocked my reindeer to the floor
They said:
“Father Christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toys.
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
We want your bread so don’t make us annoyed
Give all the toys to the little rich boys
“Don’t give my brother a real trashy outfit
Don’t give my sister a cuddly toy
We don’t want a jigsaw or monopoly money
We only want the real McCoy
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We’ll beat you up if you make us annoyed
Father Christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toys
“But give my daddy a job ’cause he needs one
He’s got lots of mouths to feed
But if you’ve got one, I’ll have a machine gun
So I can scare all the kids down the street
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
Give all the toys to the little rich boys
Have yourself a merry merry Christmas
Have yourself a good time
But remember the kids who got nothin’
While you’re drinkin’ down your wine
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
We want your bread, so don’t make us annoyed
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
Give all the toys to the little rich boy
Categories: Holiday, Xmas Lyric of the Day |
Ray Davies is a lyrical genius. I would put him right there with Dylan.
He has written over 400 songs and never repeated himself - unlike this post, which first appeared here on December 4th
“unlike this post, which first appeared here on December 4th ”
Heh. Oops.
I’m not sure which is more sad: That Kevin ran this song twice this year, or that someone was paying close enough attention to this series to notice!
Or, worst yet, that I went to the trouble to figure out that it actually first appeared here on December 2, 2005.