Christmas Shoes
Dec. 13th, 2004 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
logicbuttonIf you know me well, you're probably aware that I don't tend to use the word "hate". I think it's absolutely wrong to hate a person, and that it doesn't tend to describe properly my negative feelings toward things, and I'm all about precision of language.
I hate this song.
Perhaps you've heard it on the radio. It's "Christmas Shoes," the one about the kid buying shoes for his dying mother. Yeah, it's a bit ironic to hate a Christmas song, but take a look.
It was almost Christmas time
And there I stood in another line
Trying to buy that last gift or two
Not really in the Christmas mood
Standin' right in front of me was a
Little boy waiting anxiously
Pacin' around like little boys do
And in his hands he held
A pair of shoes
His clothes were worn and old
He was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to pay
I couldn't believe what I heard him say
[Chorus:]
"Sir, I wanna buy these shoes
For my mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight."
He counted pennies for what seemed like years then the
Cashier said, "Son, there's not enough here."
He searched his pockets frantically
Then he turned and he looked at me and he said
"Mama made Christmas good at our house, though
Most years she just did without. Tell me sir,
What am I gonna do?
Some how I gotta buy her these Christmas shoes."
So I laid the money down
I just had to help him out
And I'll never forget the look on his face when he said,
"Mama's gonna look so great."
Sir I wanna buy these shoes
For my mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful If Mama meets Jesus tonight
I knew I'd caught a glimpse of heaven's love
As he thanked me and ran out
I knew that God had sent me that little boy
To remind me what Christmas is all about
[With Kids:]
Sir I wanna buy these shoes
For my mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight
[Kid:]
I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight
If you know the melody, it's even better, I promise. Okay, so let's just overlook the completely ridiculous premise of the song. The emotional manipulation tactics, they burn. The person who wrote it is clearly not very nice--stupid people have enough problems; they don't need manipulative songwriters trying to make them cry. Because that must have been this song's purpose, as there is absolutely no socially redeeming value anywhere in it. If anything, it implies that all a kid has to do to get a stranger to buy him things is make himself look scruffy and tell the stranger how haaaaard his life is. If I want to listen to a song about a poor kid wanting to give someone a gift in spite of his financial situation, I'll listen to "Little Drummer Boy," which is far more subtle and has a pretty melody and better message: that there are non-material ways to show your love for those you care about generally, or Jesus specifically.
So yeah, about the message. I'm confused--are we eschewing commercialism or not? The first few lines and the bridge seem to say yes, but then why are the shoes so danged important? Seriously, I bet the mom would be way happier about having her son with her while she's on her deathbed than she would be about a pair of shoes that she'll probably never even wear, unless they bury her in them. I wonder if the kid realizes he's buying shoes for his mom to wear for the rest of eternity. It's also unclear why exactly the dad let the kid leave their house or the hospital or wherever to go shopping by himself, and why, if the kid was going to get a present for his mother, he hadn't done it by Christmas Eve. Finally, I'm not entirely sure why God and Jesus are mentioned in this song at all. The only thing I can come up with is the connection to death and afterlife; granted, it's better than the weird lyrics to "Here Comes Santa Claus" ("So let's give thanks to the Lord above/'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight"...wtf?). But seriously, it's just more emotional manipulation and a connection to religion that iz pastede on yay.
More about the bridge. The bridge is really the kicker. The music swells with the voices of hundreds of synth violins as we learn the true meaning of Christmas, which I guess really doesn't have anything to do with the birth of Jesus after all, and the narrator sings the absolute worst line in the whole song: "I knew God had sent me that little boy..." YES. IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU. See, you, good sir narrator, had forgotten the true meaning of Christmas (maybe you were more interested in celebrating the birth of Jesus or something--the nerve!) and so God had a kid leave the side of his dying mother to waste his last pennies on a stupid gift for her so that you could remember the true meaning of Christmas, which seems to be "enable the kid who doesn't realize that some things are more important than gifts, especially when the gift is useless to the recipient." Or...wait. Wasn't the message supposed to be that some things are more important than gifts? Helping people, or something? Whatever.
One more thought: how does that kid know his mother's shoe size, anyway?
I hate this song.
Perhaps you've heard it on the radio. It's "Christmas Shoes," the one about the kid buying shoes for his dying mother. Yeah, it's a bit ironic to hate a Christmas song, but take a look.
And there I stood in another line
Trying to buy that last gift or two
Not really in the Christmas mood
Standin' right in front of me was a
Little boy waiting anxiously
Pacin' around like little boys do
And in his hands he held
A pair of shoes
His clothes were worn and old
He was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to pay
I couldn't believe what I heard him say
[Chorus:]
"Sir, I wanna buy these shoes
For my mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight."
He counted pennies for what seemed like years then the
Cashier said, "Son, there's not enough here."
He searched his pockets frantically
Then he turned and he looked at me and he said
"Mama made Christmas good at our house, though
Most years she just did without. Tell me sir,
What am I gonna do?
Some how I gotta buy her these Christmas shoes."
So I laid the money down
I just had to help him out
And I'll never forget the look on his face when he said,
"Mama's gonna look so great."
Sir I wanna buy these shoes
For my mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful If Mama meets Jesus tonight
I knew I'd caught a glimpse of heaven's love
As he thanked me and ran out
I knew that God had sent me that little boy
To remind me what Christmas is all about
[With Kids:]
Sir I wanna buy these shoes
For my mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight
[Kid:]
I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight
If you know the melody, it's even better, I promise. Okay, so let's just overlook the completely ridiculous premise of the song. The emotional manipulation tactics, they burn. The person who wrote it is clearly not very nice--stupid people have enough problems; they don't need manipulative songwriters trying to make them cry. Because that must have been this song's purpose, as there is absolutely no socially redeeming value anywhere in it. If anything, it implies that all a kid has to do to get a stranger to buy him things is make himself look scruffy and tell the stranger how haaaaard his life is. If I want to listen to a song about a poor kid wanting to give someone a gift in spite of his financial situation, I'll listen to "Little Drummer Boy," which is far more subtle and has a pretty melody and better message: that there are non-material ways to show your love for those you care about generally, or Jesus specifically.
So yeah, about the message. I'm confused--are we eschewing commercialism or not? The first few lines and the bridge seem to say yes, but then why are the shoes so danged important? Seriously, I bet the mom would be way happier about having her son with her while she's on her deathbed than she would be about a pair of shoes that she'll probably never even wear, unless they bury her in them. I wonder if the kid realizes he's buying shoes for his mom to wear for the rest of eternity. It's also unclear why exactly the dad let the kid leave their house or the hospital or wherever to go shopping by himself, and why, if the kid was going to get a present for his mother, he hadn't done it by Christmas Eve. Finally, I'm not entirely sure why God and Jesus are mentioned in this song at all. The only thing I can come up with is the connection to death and afterlife; granted, it's better than the weird lyrics to "Here Comes Santa Claus" ("So let's give thanks to the Lord above/'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight"...wtf?). But seriously, it's just more emotional manipulation and a connection to religion that iz pastede on yay.
More about the bridge. The bridge is really the kicker. The music swells with the voices of hundreds of synth violins as we learn the true meaning of Christmas, which I guess really doesn't have anything to do with the birth of Jesus after all, and the narrator sings the absolute worst line in the whole song: "I knew God had sent me that little boy..." YES. IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU. See, you, good sir narrator, had forgotten the true meaning of Christmas (maybe you were more interested in celebrating the birth of Jesus or something--the nerve!) and so God had a kid leave the side of his dying mother to waste his last pennies on a stupid gift for her so that you could remember the true meaning of Christmas, which seems to be "enable the kid who doesn't realize that some things are more important than gifts, especially when the gift is useless to the recipient." Or...wait. Wasn't the message supposed to be that some things are more important than gifts? Helping people, or something? Whatever.
One more thought: how does that kid know his mother's shoe size, anyway?
