I read that as...
“"...lifting-the-skirts type Xmas songs."
3 billion have suffered Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody'
The PRS for Music has chillingly announced that Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody could have been heard by 42 per cent of the world's population - a cool three billion souls whose lives have been enriched by Noddy Holder and chums' ubiquitous Yuletide anthem. The song has apparently already been enjoyed in 47 countries around the …
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Monday 14th December 2009 18:54 GMT Mike Flugennock
lifting-the-skirts Christmas song...?
...hmm. Could be the context. I'll bet you wouldn't have mis-read that quote if it had been anybody else but Noddy... especially considering that, given the reputation of British Christmas parties (damn, I'm jealous), there may well have been some serious skirt-lifting while that tune was playing.
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Monday 14th December 2009 14:50 GMT lglethal
wont someone please think of the retail workers!
Having worked retail in my youth i would like to send out my heartfelt condolences to all those stuck in an office/store/sub basement whose managers feel that it is acceptable to listen to christmas carols on repeat for the entire month of December (and if your really unlucky half of November and January too!)
I can remember one year as a young fella working at a local department store in Australia and being subjected to Mariah Carey's Christmas Carols on repeat for a 6 week period. I was only a casual (read weekends and nights) but i still came so close to cracking...
... to this day im still in therapy.
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Monday 14th December 2009 14:53 GMT Mike Flugennock
"Suffered"? Hey, c'mon, El Reg, it's not that bad...
...though I suppose it's just a story demanding to be written in that oh-so-loveable smartassed El Reg style. Still, I wouldn't have you any other way.
I'm an old Slade fan from back in my high-school days -- yeah, a Deadhead who digs Slade, go figure -- and I have to admit with embarassment that I only heard "Merry Christmas, Everybody" for the first time early this year; of course, Slade never got really huge here in the States (a lot of critics pissed and moaned about them being "too British"), so "Merry Christmas, Everybody" never made it over here. I'm totally down with Sam Tana on this one, though; what a sweet tune -- sweet, but not cloying; a great party tune, but not brazen about it (like "Mama Weer All Crazee Now").
Granted, I've heard very little of modern British Christmas music, but if "Merry Christmas, Everybody" is any indication, it's certainly a cut above the crap we're saddled with over here ever year. The only other one I recall right off is Jethro Tull's Christmas single from the mid '70s -- I forget the title -- which I also loved; a bit of classic Ian Anderson snark.
(pint of beer icon, because El Reg has no Noddy's Top Hat Icon)
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Monday 14th December 2009 18:54 GMT Mike Flugennock
oh, yeah, that's absolutely a great one, but...
...it was another one I was trying to remember -- it was one where Anderson takes a mean shot at materialistic, drunken people at Christmas parties.
But, yeah, "Ring Out" is a really fine one -- especially if, like myself, you're not really a Christian and prefer to celebrate the Solstice instead. Something about a two-weeks-long party complete with dancing virgin maidens and homebrew that really does me good. Those Druids really knew how to do it up, huh?
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Tuesday 15th December 2009 04:57 GMT Sam Tana
Another one indeed...
Tull have several that might fit the bill, but it's probably A Christmas Song
("When you're stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties,
You just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump;
you're missing the point I'm sure does not need making,
that Christmas spirit is not what you drink.)
or maybe Another Christmas Song
("How many wars you fighting out there, this winter's morning?
Maybe it's always time for another Christmas song.")
Hey, Santa! Pass us that bottle, will ya?
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Monday 14th December 2009 18:54 GMT Mike Flugennock
D'ahh ha ha ha ha hahhh
Oh, man; that's freakin' _rich_... especially considering that, iirc, they'd had one comeback around 1980ish, and finally hung it up around '91.
Ironic, though, as sadly, Hill and Powell were at last report still touring as "Slade" with a forgettable bass player and some other guitarist who's trying to fill Noddy's boots by simply playing really loud and howling like a maniac. Sorry, dude, there's more to it than that. I caught some footage of Dave, Don, and Two Other Guys on YouTube recently, and what a goddamn' loud, sloppy FAIL. I mean, jeez, it's not like Hill and Powell really need the money anymore, is it? I mean, c'mon, you guys; it was a blast, a helluva party for about twenty years, but it's finished. Why can't you just kick back and enjoy getting honorary doctorates and growing old gracefully, like Noddy'n'Jim?
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Monday 14th December 2009 15:57 GMT EddieD
Cheesy but..
It's still a classic - upbeat, cheery, celebratory, a bit of a laugh, all the things that Christmas is meant to be. It says a lot about music that even after 35+ years it's still going strong just about everywhere in the world. Me, I love it, and Merry Christmas to Noddy and they boys
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Monday 14th December 2009 15:58 GMT Hugh G. Rection
Merry Christmas everybody!
As another paid-up member of the old farts club, I can assure you that in 1973 we needed all the halp we could get to cheer ourselves up, and this song went some way towards doing that. Another activity that helped was the entire team disappearing down the pub for several hours one day close to Christmas Eve. I can't recall exactly what day it was, althought I do recall that the boss was furious, but couldn't fire everyone.
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Monday 14th December 2009 16:48 GMT Anonymous Coward
@ Hugh G. Rection
'As another paid-up member of the old farts club, I can assure you that in 1973 we needed all the halp we could get to cheer ourselves up, and this song went some way towards doing that'
So what you're basically saying is that Noddy's song is perfect for today's Brownian economy.
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Monday 14th December 2009 18:52 GMT Steve X
Ah yes
"You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot
Happy Chrismas your arse, I just pray it's our last."
Kirsty MacColl had a great way with lyrics(*), and is sadly missed. Come to think of it, it was 9 years ago this week that she was killed :( I'll raise a glass to her.
*(Always liked the line from another one of her songs "I put you on a pedestal, you put me on the pill". Now /that's/ social commentary).
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Monday 14th December 2009 21:49 GMT Rasczak
A way with lyrics
A great way with the delivery I'll agree and the same words wouldn't have the effect sung by anyone else, but she didn't write them. New England was a Billy Bragg song, and of course he sang it from the male perspective. You are right about the social commentary though, what else do you expect from Billy Bragg.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1554602
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jphA05ka6E
Mind you as a youngster, when I first heard it, the Kirsty version, I was just amused that they got away with having "bloody" in it, how times change.
Of course you're not allowed to hear those lyrics from Fairytale any more, muted out on the music channels so they are, taking the Beebs lead and impeccable timing, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/18/faiytale_censorship/, but not backing down like the Beeb did.
How about a mass request to the music channels to play it, in full, on Friday.
Raising a glass to Kirsty's memory.
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Monday 14th December 2009 16:48 GMT Number6
One of the better ones
Compared to most of the crap that's put out as Christmas records, Slade stand out as one of the better ones. If I hear certain Christmas tunes on the radio (including any of Sir Cliff's offerings) then I turn off or tune to something else. This one does at least have a decent tune and captures the fun part of the season.
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Monday 14th December 2009 18:51 GMT Gary 23
As the song says...
The old ones are the best.... (Well, they're old for me anyway)
Merry Christmas Everybody - Slade;
Lonely this Christmas - Mud;
I wish it could be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard;
Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie;
Mistletoe and Wine - Cliff Richard;
Last Christmas - Wham;
Let them Know it's Christmas - Band Aid (Original)
All of these, and a few more, piss over any recent Chrismas "hit"... Especially X-Craptor. And these will still be played for years to come.
BTW.... I find it really funny when die hard X Factor fans can't even remember who won X Factor before Alexandria Burke.... In a year, they'll even forget about her too!
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Monday 14th December 2009 18:52 GMT Julian Smart
Humbug
This song has 2 effects on me. (1) it makes me want to rip the person responsible for this music selection limb from limb, and (2) it without fail conjures up a huge elephant in the room, namely the billions of people who plainly _won't_ be having fun at Christmas, for whatever reason. So this piece of crassness doesn't bring any cheer whatsoever, it's just brainless and annoying. As it was probably meant to be. (On a par in annoyingness with Live and Let Die with the fabulous line "this world in which we live in". Why aren't people throwing rotten vegetables at P.McC. when he sings this crapulence??)
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
