Please consider registering
Guest
sp_LogInOut Log Insp_Registration Register
Register | Lost password?
Advanced Search
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters
sp_Feed sp_TopicIcon
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
sp_BlogLink Read the original blog post
20 December 2014
8.20pm
Avatar
Necko
Earth
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 8050
Member Since:
11 November 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

 I touched on this last year, but I think that it might be a topic in and of itself.

It annoys me when Happy Xmas (War Is Over) gets played as a Christmas song.  I get that the word “Christmas” is in the title and all, but I consider it an anti-war song, not a Christmas song.  The lyrics have little to do with Christmas itself, other than the word Christmas appears many times.  It being played as a Christmas song misses the point of the song entirely.

What do other people think?  Should it be played as a Christmas song?  This is an opinion question, so, you know, no wrong answers.

I'm Necko.  I'm like Ringo except I wear necklaces.

I'm also ewe2 on weekends.

Most likely to post things that make you go hmm... 2015, 2016, 2017. 

20 December 2014
8.33pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25158
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Yes. John conceived it as a Christmas song that evoked and carried an anti-war message based on the slogan ‘War Is Over (If You Want It)’ which John and Yoko had used on a billboard campaign in 1969 and which would be played every year. Songfacts adds that “John also claimed another inspiration for writing the song: he said he was “sick of ‘White Christmas.'””.

warisoverifyouwantit.jpg?w=600Image Enlarger

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

LongHairedLady

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

20 December 2014
8.34pm
Avatar
Hey Jude !
BeatlesBible House, Nowhere Land
Ed Sullivan Show
Members
Forum Posts: 494
Member Since:
2 June 2014
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Song is popular, it has got Christmas title and that’s all. I have heard songs like “Santa Tell Me” and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on radio. So it is not somethin new, just radio gathering listeners 

20 December 2014
8.40pm
Avatar
Starr Shine?
Waiting in the sky
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 16105
Member Since:
1 November 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I hear this song so much during Christmas on the radio. I would say yes it is Christmas song

https://youtu.be/52nwiTs7bk8

Brainwashed by RadiantCowbells.

If you can't log in and can't use the forum go here and someone will help you out.

20 December 2014
10.23pm
Avatar
Linde
The Netherlands
Rishikesh
Members
Forum Posts: 2781
Member Since:
21 November 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Errr..yes?

20 December 2014
10.52pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25158
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

You also only have to look to the chorus where John and Yoko are wishing you “a very merry Christmas and a happy new year”.

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

Matt Busby

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

20 December 2014
11.07pm
Avatar
trcanberra
Oz
Apple rooftop
Members

Reviewers
Forum Posts: 6064
Member Since:
29 August 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

meanmistermustard said
You also only have to look to the chorus where John and Yoko are wishing you “a very merry Christmas and a happy new year”.

Indeed – classic Christmas song for mine. Brilliant combination of themes.

==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==

20 December 2014
11.31pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25158
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

As for the song itself i think its one of the best for this time of the year getting away from Santa, materialistic presents and all the other guff that normally turns up in a christmas song. A great song it is, one of the few Christmas songs i’m not fed up with even before hearing it for the first time this year.

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

Matt Busby

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

21 December 2014
3.34am
Avatar
Matt Busby
In the town where I was born
Shea Stadium
Members
Forum Posts: 932
Member Since:
8 February 2014
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I was about to turn 6 or so, and the song was all about Christmas to me.  With liberal deist parents who wouldn’t even let me play with a toy gun, All You Need Is Love was the coolest Christmas song ever, because it was more about world peace than religion, which was apparently a really big deal – still is (world peace that is)

 

 have a thing for the “bittersweet” emotion that holidays often bring and that song in particular (“what have we done, another year older and a new one just begun” already looking back on the old year with nostalgia as if it hadn’t been much different than other years)

On another level, it’s a simple, humble prayer, like a prophet might say (wait, did anyone say the Beatles weren’t prophets? ;) seriously, the lines wishing Happy Christmas “to the near and the dear ones, the old and the young” etc.  are just a simple request for everyone to have a couple easy weeks in the year.

At least, that’s what I get out of it. ymmv :)  

 

(and yes, of course I found gun shaped sticks and played “Cowboys-n-Injuns”)

Half of what I say is meaningless...

I feel good in a special way, I'm in love and it's a sunny day

BeatlesBible.com earns royalties if you use these links when shopping: Amazon | iTunes

21 December 2014
5.51am
mr. Sun king coming together
Nowhere Land
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 6394
Member Since:
19 September 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING:

 

If the Pogues Fairy Tale of New York counts as a Christmas song – with the lyrics 

You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed

You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last

 

counts, this counts.

As if it matters how a man falls down.'

'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.

21 December 2014
8.00am
Avatar
trcanberra
Oz
Apple rooftop
Members

Reviewers
Forum Posts: 6064
Member Since:
29 August 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

mr. Sun king coming together said
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING:

 

If the Pogues Fairy Tale of New York counts as a Christmas song – with the lyrics 

You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last

 

counts, this counts.

Whoever wrote that lot must be fun at Christmas parties.

==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==

21 December 2014
10.20am
Avatar
Billy Rhythm
Shea Stadium
Members
Forum Posts: 953
Member Since:
22 December 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

YES, of course it should “be considered a Christmas song”.  By the OP’s same logic Band-Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ shouldn’t “be considered a Christmas song” either for the lyrics have more to do with Famine in Africa than Jingle Bells.  Christmas is about coming together and John & Yoko simply expanded that concept far beyond the family dinner table, they’re showing us that everyday can be Christmas, “if we want it”.  The word “Peace” is commonplace amongst many traditional Christmas songs, and this was an extension of John & Yoko’s Peace Campaign.  There’s no such nonsense as Santa Claus and Reindeer S******g on Everyone’s Roof on December 25th, this Christmas song is about the real world, not fairy tales…:-)

The following people thank Billy Rhythm for this post:

Hey Jude !, Ahhh Girl, Matt Busby
21 December 2014
6.06pm
Avatar
parlance
Slaggers
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 7111
Member Since:
8 November 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I agree they (Happy Xmas and Do They Know)  should both be considered Christmas songs. I just find my tolerance for the one-the-nose preachiness in either to wane with each year (the “thank God it’s them instead of you” line in particular makes me want to gnash my teeth).

parlance

Beware of sadness. It can hit you. It can hurt you. Make you sore and what is more, that is not what you are here for. - George

Check out my fan video for Paul's song "Appreciate" at Vimeo or YouTube.

21 December 2014
6.40pm
Avatar
AppleScruffJunior
Sitting here doing nothing but procrastinating...
Apple rooftop
Reviewers

Members
Forum Posts: 7585
Member Since:
18 March 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

mr. Sun king coming together said
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING:

 

If the Pogues Fairy Tale of New York counts as a Christmas song – with the lyrics 

You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last

 

counts, this counts.

That’s the Celtic way of flirting- the amount of times I have been called “an old slut on junk” is ridiculous- I mean, I’m a young slut thank you very much!

 

INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!

                 ***

Make Love, Not Wardrobes!

                ***

"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison

21 December 2014
9.42pm
Rita Eleanor
Sitting in his nowhere land
London Palladium
Members
Forum Posts: 110
Member Since:
28 July 2014
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Hello friends, let me say my opinion. I see Happy Xmas (war is over) as a critique of Christmas. I understand that John meant that the years pass and we continue the same, without changing what we should. That Christmas should be an opportunity to change the world and we end wars.
To me, he created this song to see if we could better understand what he kept saying (the so clearly, by the way). We know the story of John and his struggle.
I do not think it wrong to be a Christmas song, but I think it should be seen in the right way and not as a simple music. Here in Brazil, it already has a version in Portuguese, and people really do not understand. Same is the case of All You Need Is Love .

Speaking of which, good Christmas and new year for you !!

The following people thank Rita Eleanor for this post:

Starr Shine?

Nobody told me there'd be days like these!!

22 December 2014
4.42pm
Avatar
Into the Sky with Diamonds
New York
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 1984
Member Since:
10 August 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

IMO any song with the word “Xmas” in the title is a Christmas song. Not to mention the opening lyric “So this is Christmas…”

Whether the song is a preachy downer that’s counter to the spirit of the holiday or a welcome a timely reminder that all isn’t well in the world is a personal choice.

With that, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

The following people thank Into the Sky with Diamonds for this post:

Zig, Rita Eleanor

"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)

24 December 2014
12.04am
Avatar
JauntyMonty
Decca
Members
Forum Posts: 93
Member Since:
2 July 2014
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Yes, of course! It’s a generally cheery song and it DOES mention Christmas. It’s sort of like how the Gremlins is a Christmas movie. Though it’s not explicitly ABOUT Christmas, it does have characteristics of the Christmastime, and people always play it around the season. 

"Something in the way she moves . . . attracts me like a pomegranate" - George Harrison

24 December 2014
1.32am
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25158
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

It’s certainly more Christmassy than songs like Frankie Goes To Hollywoods’ ‘The Power Of Love’ or East 17’s ‘Stay Another Day ‘ which get played every year and turn up on Christmas compilations.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

25 December 2014
1.48pm
Wigwam
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 1913
Member Since:
17 October 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

It didn’t used to be before John changed the lyrics………….

 

 

The following people thank Wigwam for this post:

Starr Shine?, sigh butterfly
25 December 2014
2.22pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25158
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Is there anything John didnt borrow from?a-hard-days-night-john-6

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

Forum Timezone: Europe/London
Most Users Ever Online: 2057
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 272
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
Starr Shine?: 16105
Ron Nasty: 12534
Zig: 9827
50yearslate: 8759
Necko: 8050
AppleScruffJunior: 7585
parlance: 7111
mr. Sun king coming together: 6394
Mr. Kite: 6147
trcanberra: 6064
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 88
Members: 2920
Moderators: 5
Admins: 1
Forum Stats:
Groups: 3
Forums: 44
Topics: 5556
Posts: 383947
Newest Members:
daena, mickeylovesthebeatles, theelevan, karlieflood, megajacktwist
Moderators: Joe: 5713, meanmistermustard: 25158, Ahhh Girl: 22653, Beatlebug: 18228, The Hole Got Fixed: 8410
Administrators: Joe: 5713