"Have Yourself - A Hell of A Time"

[kpete]

My name is Steve Carlson and I’m a union and community organizer from northern Wisconsin. I recently made a music video of a song I wrote and recorded many years ago titled A Hell of A Time.

It’s a Christmas song, or perhaps an anti-Christmas song, or perhaps even more accurately a truly pro-Christmas song. I’ll let you folks decide. I wrote it because it seems to me that if Americans spent as much time, energy and money making a better world as we do celebrating Christmas we’d actually have that better world and something to truly celebrate.

I lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which economically and culturally is a lot like northern Wisconsin: small towns that have been hit by the de-industrialization of America. They may have been forgotten by policymakers in Washington and too unglamorous to merit much attention from the mainstream media. Nevertheless, I believe that the people who read this blog are acutely aware of who has wound up being ground up by the march of neoliberalism, and want more socially just outcomes, even it we don’t necessarily agree on the course of action. And while some may chafe at the idea of a less than cheery Christmas song, it might be time to pull off the commercial veneer and see where we really are as a people. It’s only when you know where you are that you can map a path to get where you’d like to go.


http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/hell-time.html

[drynberg]

1. Thanks, kpete, for posting this, I really enjoyed it.

In fact, as soon as it completed the first time, I played it immediately again...not at all usual for me. I think it was a great Christmas song, with a little revealed about Steve and his development. Merry Christmas! Oh yeah, is there a place where I can find the chords and tabs for this ditty?

[japple]

2. What a great song. The vocals are excellent and the video was

too. Many thanks for posting this. I really like non-traditional x-mas music.

Here is one of my favorite: The Rebel Jesus by Jackson Browne.

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
While the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

Now pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
There's a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

[appalachiablue]

5. Beautiful. Always loved Jackson Browne.

[Plucketeer]

3. I like the way this fella thinks

Christmas is for kids (of all ages) and commercialism. Then there's the Chinese moguls who provide their toys, and the retailers who deliver those toys. Yeah Joy Noel.

Sure would like to see this go viral.

[appalachiablue]

4. The Christmas Song for America. What a gift. Thanks for posting. Beautiful lyrics,

instrumentation and message. I hope it goes viral.