Top 5 Non-Christmas Songs That Remind Me Of Christmas

A couple of years ago I posted my Top 5 Christmas Songs, with number one being 'The Little Drummer Boy'.  You can read that borderline emotionally manipulative post here if you so desire.  This year's Top 5 Christmas Song list is a little different, mainly because none of the songs are actually Christmas songs...but they remind me of Christmas seasons from my past...

1.  (Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon:  This one is kind of a no-brainer.  John Lennon was murdered Dec 8, 1980, not too long after this song was released as the 'comeback' single off his first new album in five years.  This song was ubiquitous that holiday season as the world mourned the loss of a rock & roll icon.  Christmas 1980 was the first Christmas we spent in Washington, having moved to Bremerton from El Paso, TX via Jacksonville, FL via Montclair, CA.  I was attending my 10th different school in 5 years and became a very angst ridden and introspective 10 year old.  Being the new kid all the time takes a toll, but that's a different post for a different day.  Anyhoo, that Christmas was when I really began seriously listening to music.  FM radio was inundated with Lennon tributes, Solid Gold took as somber a tone as a show featuring Solid Gold Dancers in gold lame leotards could pull off when '(Just Like)Starting Over' was played during their weekly countdown, and I dug into my dad's awesome reel-to-reel collection of Beatles, Stones, Moody Blues, Hendrix, and Zeppelin albums...I never did understand his affinity for Jethro Tull, however.  This song, though, always reminds me of that Christmas as my mom and dad did their best to help us adjust to a new house/school, I saw snow in our yard for the first time ever, and we would all huddle around the fireplace listening to music as a family.

2.  Major Tom - Peter Schilling:  I still love this song, it's so antiseptic and cold and clinical...it's 80's music boiled down to its synthesized essence.  Oh, yeah...but Christmas.    This song was released October, 1983 but really didn't take off on radio until late November and into December.  Whatever station 101.5 and 93.3 were called back then had this song in heavy, heavy rotation.  By December of 1983 we had moved from Bremerton to Port Orchard, WA and I was attending Marcus Whitman Junior High, my 13th school in 8 years (my bouncing around schools and school districts came to an end in 1983 year, South Kitsap HS was the 14th school I attended by the time I hit 10th grade).  As stated earlier, all of that moving kind of effed with me and I managed to become even more introverted and had no personality whatsoever.  I wasn't so much shy as I was completely unsure of myself and how I fit in.  Money for the family was also a little tight that Christmas so I spent lots of nights worrying about stuff a soon to be 13 year old shouldn't be worrying about.  I listened to the radio in my room a lot, and this song would come on at least twice before I'd finally get to sleep.  Christmas that year turned out fine, but this tune and that keyboard riff always takes me back to my small room in that small house back in Port Orchard.

3.  We Didn't Start The Fire - Billy Joel:  I actually liked this song when it first came out, buying the cassingle before the full album was released.  However, I grew to despise it because I couldn't get away from this song leading up to Christmas 1989...it was everywhere.  Unfortunately, I was not everywhere.  I was still recovering from major reconstructive knee surgery, holed up in my dorm room at Edwards, AFB California.  My actual surgery was in July of that year, but remember that this was 22 years ago.  I tore my ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus playing basketball in Biloxi, MS that Spring and went a few months before an Air Force orthopedic surgeon was found that could handle my injury.  While the doctor that put my knee back together didn't use a hack saw or give me a shot of bourbon and a stick to bite down as he flayed my leg open, it was close.  My recovery and rehab was slow going and I developed a certain fondness for Vicodin and rum as I didn't have a whole lot to do.  One night I took one too many Vicodin or washed it down with too much Bacardi and got all kinds of itchy and rashy.  Not good times.  As Christmas rolled around I didn't have the money to fly home, but I really didn't want to spend it in the California high desert doing my best Gram Parsons impression.  So, I asked for some time off, hopped in my ridiculous 1988 Subaru Justy (basically a go-cart with a windscreen and roof), and made the drive back home.  On the way out of town I stopped and picked up Billy Joel's 'Storm Front' and listened to it over and over again while hopped up on Vivarin and Mountain Dew and trying like hell to keep my Subaru between the ditches as I drove over the snowy Siskiyou Mountains in Northern California...

4.  Helpless - Sugar:  In December of 1993 I was living in a house with 3 other guys in Wedgwood.  We spent a lot of nights at the Wedgwood Ale House drinking Snow Cap, eating $2.00 baskets of fries, and then going home, blazing up, and listening to music or playing guitar.  Good times.  Husker Du was not a band I was terribly fond of, and although I owned Candy Apple Grey it was more out of a sense of obligation to bone up my indie rock cred, but I loved Sugar.  Bob Mould decided that burying the melody behind a wall of distortion wasn't such a great idea (portions of the Sugar 'Beaster' EP do delve into astounding moments of sonic what the f*ckery from time to time though) and recorded tunes that had actual hooks.  'Helpless' was one of those songs.  When it pops up on my playlist I always fondly remember those crazy Wedgwood house days and nights...

5.  Under Smithsville - For Squirrels:  I doubt too many people remember the band For Squirrels.  I think I may have been one of their bigger fans outside of the Gainesville, FL area.  I used to listen to this song quite a bit during the winter months of 1995.  At the time, I was living just south of Everett.  A huge windstorm ripped through the area in early December and I was without power for a couple of days.  All I had was a Discman and a bunch of batteries I took from work.  One of the albums I listened to at night as I fell asleep was Example, especially the song 'Under Smithsville'.  Looking back, it's not a particularly great song as it tries really hard to sound like Life's Rich Pageant era REM, but there is a real feeling of genuineness to it...the writer definitely had someone in mind when he wrote it.  I had someone in mind as I listened to it.  Now, it just reminds me of shopping for gifts while being surrounded by a throng of people at Alderwood Mall, that windstorm, and dark nights spent listening to a band that would fade into obscurity...

So, there you have it...my Top 5 Non-Christmas Songs That Remind Me Of Christmas.  Someday I will expand on each of these songs as there are definitely more stories to tell...especially around 'Helpless'.  That song indirectly set off a chain of events that saw me enter an emotional maelstrom in October of 1994 and come out an emotional cripple by that Christmas...

Mamba, out!