“Christmas”
by The Who
Listen to the Song:
[audio:07_Christmas.mp3]This is a truly fantastic song on its own. Those of you who do not know the majesty of The Who are really missing out, and the biggest gift I could give you this Christmas would be the spark that would send you out exploring The Who’s various albums.
The only possible knock on this song is something that makes it great in another way. “Christmas” is part of the Who’s concept album Tommy. As such this song is only about Christmas for a short period of the song, the rest of the song is spent pondering whether the aforementioned Tommy’s soul can be saved as he is deaf, dumb and blind – lacking the capacity to accept Jesus Christ. This aspect of the song works exceptionally well in the scheme of the album, but not so much in the scheme of it being a Christmas song.
That said, no song captures the majesty of children on Christmas day as well as this one. To quote the song’s thoughts on this matter children are, “Waking up on Christmas morning hours before the winter sun’s ignited,” and “They believe in dreams and all they mean including heaven’s generosity”. The, “Ha Ha Ha,” vocal effects really make you think of kids running down the steps to get to their presents also.
Musically, this song is great (it’s the Who after all). Keith Moon’s drums jam throughout without exiting the sphere of the song. The guitar is fun if a little simple in its changes. Daltrey’s vocals are as good as they ever are when they ask “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me”. The little piano within the song is effective as well. The middle of the song’s retrospective bridge between the two Christmas themed sections also does a good job of adding in just enough change to keep the listener’s ear from being bored and Townsend’s vocals in the middle of the song are a nice change up.
In closing this is an excellent song if it’s Christmas or not. Enjoy it all year round, but put a little more emphasis on it around this season, or at least enough to make it the number seven song of your Christmas rock song countdown!
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