Alternative Weekend: Cheery Christmas Songs

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Ho, ho, ho, it's that time again, almost, and is everyone cheery and happy? I get some time off work (unpaid), and frankly, I would rather be working than sitting here typing up all this.

It’s very different in the retail industry where both @bingbabe and @dismayedworld work and where your employer more or less forces the staff to work ridiculous hours and face the wrath of the somewhat gloomy general public.

My wife tells me many of the customers are grumpy fuckers who are complaining about the cost of living and are having to concede to the pressure of the festive season.

…’Christmas is for kids and shopkeepers’…

If I had my way, I would veto it all, and spend the cash on a week in Tenerife in January when no bastard has any money, but I am forced to comply and keep up this ridiculous facade of being jolly while watching my hard-earned twenty-pound notes disappear down the nearest drain on more boxes of Quality Street.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't like Christmas much, besides the time off work. So let me introduce you to some gloomy and very dark songs while smiling all while, as I find them ever so more interesting than hearing, 'Itssssssss… Christmas', again by 'Noddy fucking Holder' for the 50,000th time.

If you were expecting Cheery songs, then stop reading now 😀

In Your Room – Depeche Mode (Songs of Faith and Devotion – 1993)

I bought ‘Songs of Faith and Devotion' shortly after its release, but can't remember from where, but can remember it was heavily discounted and had part of the plastic CD cover clipped out.

It was like a marked, spoiled product, and so in my mind, it must be a shit album. Unknown to me at the time, it was their best-selling one to date and contained the darkest and bleakest of songs within.

I have to applaud this band who changed their image so many times during the early to mid 1980s after Vince Clark left, descending into the gloomy side of music courtesy of new chief songwriter Martin Gore.

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....'Dave is starting to bear an uncanny resemblance to Keith Richards. All that shit you inject into your veins does that to people'...

Only last night I was watching a documentary about their nineties personal fall from grace, and ‘In Your Room' epitomizes it perfectly. I can imagine Gore wrote this for the heroin-addicted Dave Gahan who is literally stuck in his room as the band had almost disintegrated at this point.

The video is disturbing and depicts a chained-up and mentally tortured Gahan, who is a prisoner to the substance which he now needs to keep going and no longer gives him a buzz. I pity anyone who has managed to get to this stage, and as an ex-drug taker know all about the highs and lows of substance abuse.

Nutshell – Alice in Chains (Jar of Flies – 1995)

This song so reminds me of my time living in Mesa, AZ during the same year. I had lost my job, had no prospects of getting another one due to my immigration status, and was stuck in my apartment and alone for the most part.

Loneliness is a terrible thing at this time of year, and it’s all a psychological state of mind. That’s the theory but try putting this into practice when it goes on for weeks that turn into months. That was me in the latter part of 1995 and it forced me to return to the UK, something I do not regret.

Over the festive period, it's only a few weeks but those thoughts of everyone having a 'good time' when you are all alone can be devastating. No wonder there are more suicides at this time of year than average.

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...'Layne had a very distinctive powerful voice that you could immediately identify. Nobody will ever sound like this again, he was unique'...

‘Nutshell’ is Layne Staleys’ personal battle with loneliness and heroin addiction and is such a powerful, poignant track that I play often. Unlike Dave Gahan, Layne eventually succumbed to this drug and was found dead and alone in his apartment.

It was like he knew it was coming. I particularly love the second half of 'Nutshell' where Jerry Cantrell powers up his guitar and hands us some fantastic screechy power cords.

Since Layne passed, I have had no interest in following Alice In Chains, though they are still together with a not-so-new vocalist, 'William DuVall' who I admit is quite decent.

I am probably missing out on some good stuff.

Only two tracks today and I can’t seem to pull another one that is as sobering as these two out of my head and I prefer to keep a theme going per post if possible.

If you are alone this Christmas, remember it’s all a state of mind. Listen to some AC/DC or Motorhead, keep the fucking TV off, ‘...don’t listen to the above songs...’, and understand that January is around the corner and all this pretentious bullshit will be over soon.

I have a family and am terrified of being alone again. I have been there, and I know exactly what it's like.

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