The 10 Greatest Sad Christmas Songs, No. 10: Graham Parker
We’re not crazy for loving sad Christmas songs. Thank god so many musicians write and record them, proving there’s a deep need to express a hell of a lot more of the season’s complex emotions than you’ll hear on KUDL this time of year.
Here’s one person’s Top Ten, with a nod of appreciation to David Cantwell over at Living in Stereo. He’s been giving his friends Christmas mixes for 17 years now, and that’s how I heard most of the following songs for the first time.
10. “Christmas is for Mugs,” Graham Parker
Parker stumbles through London’s Camden Town, throws away Christmas-present sex toys that don’t come with batteries, buys a tree that loses its needles, threatens to light a fire when Santa comes down the chimney. Righteous anger bolstered by a singalong barroom-anthem chorus:
Everybody’s talkin about
the kisses and the hugs
and all the little heartstrings that the festive season tugs
but all I see are lager louts
shoplifters and thugs
so fill mine up, ’cause Christmas is for mugs.
Yes it is.
