Go on, admit it...there's nothing quite like a Yuletide song written in a minor key to get you blubbing into your egg nog. Whether it's Wham!'s Last Christmas (' Last Christmas/I gave you my heart/but the very next day you gave it away') or The Skyliner's achingly beautiful You're My Christmas Present (which features relatively upbeat lyrics soaking in the most melancholic minor key arrangement you could imagine), these heart-tuggers are my holiday listening A-Team. Nothing against Run DMC's Christmas in Hollis, mind ('It's Christmas time in Hollis, Queens/Mom's cooking chicken and collard greens'), but I prefer to get all soppy during the holidays.
So here I am in January 2009, and I just discovered my new favourite Christmas song.
It's by a group called Change of Pace, who released their one and only LP on Stone Lady Records in 1971. The four guys in COP were apparently Vietnam vets (the album's called Bring My Buddies Back; the title track is a blatant re-write of Freda Payne's classic Bring the Boys Home), so they presumably knew heartbreak first hand. The album consists primarily of soft soul ballads ala The Spinners, but it's none the worse for that and is well worth your time of day should you stumble upon a copy. The highlight for me, however, is Side 2, track 2, Yule Tide Love, an old-fashioned, deeply heartfelt doo-wop number that had me running for the Kleenex as soon as it started. It's replete with the best elements of the style: a spare arrangement built upon a simple four note piano riff, beautiful, cleanly delivered lead vocals by front man Doug Green, and straightforward lyrics clearly written from the heart:
'Well Christmas is here, New Year's is near
Shine down Oh! star above.
For this year I'll see on my Christmas tree
Your heart right there all wrapped up for me
It's all that I know we're close this year
God bless you I love you so
Merry Christmas my dear
Happy New Year I found my love
My dear, Christmas comes but once a year
A present for you and a present for me.
My New Year's resolution comes straight from
My heart, my fondest prayer is that we'll never part.
These children of the '40s and '50s, many of whom grew up singing on the street corner, found themselves poured into the crucible of Vietnam and then excreted back onto the mean streets from whence they came by an uncaring Uncle Sam. Yule Tide Love is an attempt to regain lost innocence; the yearning for simpler and better days is palpable. It's a moving paean to true love set during the time of year when 'peace on Earth/good will t'ward man' is supposed to be the order of the day. It's a tissue of lies, of course, but no matter how many times the cruel truth is revealed--whether by 1972's Christmas bombings of North Vietnam or the 2008 post-Christmas assault on the Gaza Ghetto--we still hope (and perhaps pray) that this year, things will be different. Perhaps that's why I always get a bit maudlin in late December.
At any rate, the album has recently had a CD reissue, or you can pop over to GEMM and pick up a vinyl original for $600. It's a good album overall, but there'll be one reason I'll be pulling it out for another spin come December 2009. I'd love to know where the Change of Pace fellas are today--guys, get in touch if you read this--and remember: Happy Christmas, War Is Over, If You Want It.
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