You can’t beat a bit of misery for Xmas.
Quite frankly I am sick of the manufactured pap that too often passes for popular music. Nowhere is this crap more publicly promoted than in the feeble “talent” shows such as the X-Factor which I have never personally suffered; but was made aware of the winner last year whose claim to fame was that she looked like an elephant but could actually sing. Her crime was then to release a cover, or rather a crude karaoke version of Hallelujah, a song that only should be attempted by artists. I understand this year’s winner has released similar junk and has been successfully kept from the number one position by a mass purchasing of a Rage Against The Machine song, which I have never heard either, but it has to be better than Cowell-pop.
The musical misery is reinforced by it being the time of year when a trip to the supermarket ensures we are subjected to treatments of Jingle Bells sung by tone-deaf children who are obviously being battered by a mallet during the recording, although sadly not hard enough to render them unconscious, or preferably dead so they can’t record further dirges next year.
How delightful then that I chanced upon this:
Mr. David Gray, who may not be everyone’s cup of tea and I am not sure he is mine; but at least he writes songs, plays instruments and is apparently excellent live. In other words he is a proper musician. It’s a fine song about… well I am not sure what it is about but it is certainly dark and cynical and contains lines such as the title of this post, and “Bullied, suckered, pimped and patronised; every day of your tawdry little lives”, and you can’t get much more festive than that without sticking a sprig of holly on top of it.
But the clincher that makes this the Pattaya Days Christmas Number One (accept no substitutes), is the involvement of Annie Lennox; one of only three great people to come out of Aberdeen (the other being Jock, and you if you happen to be Aberdonian). Like Susan Boyle’s extreme fatness, Ms.Lennox has a gimmick too. Hers is that she has a fucking awesome voice.
Enjoy.
Comments 🔗
2009-12-23| genuinej saysAn old friend went to see David Gray live in Manchester last Friday and reports that he was great. Like your goodself, I would not dream of watching the X-Factor, but an even older friend, (my wife)did tell me that the elephant aka Susan Boyle was in fact last year’s runner-up.
2009-12-24| Spike saysThanks to you wife (Does she mind you telling us that she is so old?) for the correction. I feel that I can take some pride in getting the facts wrong about the X-Factor.
2009-12-24| Jock saysYou been getting stuck into the Xmas spirit already? However I must confess that Annie is a legend in Aberdeen.
Have a good one … whether you still believe in Santa or not.
2009-12-25| Billy saysJock, you hadn’t even heard of her until I introduced you!! … Billy