As we close in on what could be one of the gloomiest holiday seasons since the Great Depression, I've been thinking back to what Christmases were like for our forefathers. The song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a product of a similarly unsettled era, and it's interesting to see how through the years, its meaning has been twisted around to meet the demands of our times...
If you ask anyone who lived through the Great Depression their memories of Christmas, they're likely to tell you stories of joy and celebration among family and friends, of neighbors helping neighbors, all tempered with comments like "we didn't have any money for presents, so we..."
The times required extraordinary measures to get by, including mass migrations from rural farms to cities and frontiers. We're all familiar with the dust bowl, Black Friday, and the plight of the Joads.
The final days of World War 2 brought a similar upheaval, and while we all associate those days with optimism and coming victory, it was also an era of uncertainty and upheaval. The US had been pulled, kicking and screaming, into the sphere of global politics after years of relatively isolationist policies. We were part of a world engulfed by the flames of wars not once, but twice in the preceding 30 years. The roots of the cold war were taking hold, the spectre of nuclear weapons was rising. The nation had lost its innocence. Additionally, families had been torn apart by war, and even those returning found that the economy had changed while they were off in foreign lands. Suburbs were sprouting up, cities were beginning their slow decline.
It was 1944 when MGM released a Judy Garland film titled "Meet Me In St Louis." The plot, set in 1903, was slightly benign, a teen upset about leaving her home in St Louis when her father is pushed into taking a job in New York, but the social implications reflect the uncertainty of the time, wrapped up in a metaphoric happier package the public would accept. The climax of the film takes place on Christmas Eve, where a young Judy Garland looks out upon a snow covered yard and sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
But it's not the version you're probably familiar with. The film version is wistful...
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Let your heart be light.
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away
Once again, as in olden days, there'll be golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us once more
Someday soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now
The film version of the song, however, was lightened up even more than the original version, which went beyond wistful, into mournful...
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York
No good times like the olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us no more
But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows
From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now."
Here's a quote from an interview with James Taylor, who recorded the song in 2001 using an older set of lyrics, talking about Hugh Martin, the composer and lyricist of the original. (The song is credited to Martin and Ralph Blane, though Blane doesn't refute Martin's claim that Blane's only contribution was the idea.)
History of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Recently, more and more singers have been opting for the darker words. James Taylor, for one, was inspired to go back to the song's bittersweet roots after 9/11. He recorded ''Merry Little Christmas'' in fall 2001 and released it to radio soon after (it's included on his James Taylor at Christmas album). ''It's as though people were suddenly experiencing everything on a deeper level for a while,'' says the singer, who was intrigued to learn that the song was penned during WWII. Though Martin has said he wasn't consciously writing about wartime separations, Taylor ''would be very surprised if he wasn't somehow influenced by the mood of missing people over the holidays and hoping like hell that they would be home next Christmas, if not this one.''
In 1957, Frank Sinatra was releasing an album called "A Jolly Christmas." Sensing that neither version of the song was particularly Jolly, Dr. Chairman Sinatra asked Martin to change the lyrics to something the public would find more palatable in a holiday song. Not wanting to risk the wrath of Sinatra, Martin obliged. This is the part I find troublesome, even if it's only for exemplary purposes. Too much of our society is sanitized, but not for our protection. Journalists are threatened with prosecution, or worse, for releasing pictures of the coffins returning from Iraq. Problems, economic and environmental, are shoved under the rug until they become crises. Some of this is on purpose to benefit those who stand to gain from either the status quo or the ensuing crisis, while more often it's just that we as a culture are so focused on optimism that we just tune out anyone saying dark, or inconvenient things. Reality, as pracitcal as it is, doesn't bring ratings.
My wish for everyone this holiday season is that you have a joyous holiday season, with a few melancholy thoughts, and hope for a better 2009. Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow.