A painful task

I just removed all the copyrighted Xmas carol lyrics from Xmas Carol, my horror novel, and replaced them with lyrics from public domain Xmas carols. After I tossed the religious public-domain carols aside, all that was left was:

Jingle Bells
Deck the Halls
The Twelve Days of Xmas
We Wish You a Merry Xmas.

Slim pickins -- truly slim. At least The Twelve Days of Xmas is irritating. I was able to use that to good effect.

Originally (i.e., before I realized the public domain issue was going to clunk me on the head) I chose the carols with care, making sure each lyric went perfectly with a scene. It was difficult to toss all that out the window and be forced to use these four tunes.

It's a sad day in Xmas Carol land. Truly. But it needed to be done and I've done it. Sob.

Almost Home

The much maligned but nevertheless quite good Hootie and the Blowfish once covered a Weavers song called Almost Home. Unfortunately, there's no video for either version on YouTube. Damn!

It's a gorgeous song (Hootie's version, anyway) with a  short and strangely magical chorus. The lyrics in whole seem scattered but that chorus! I've highlighted it in bold and green below.

"Almost Home"

Walking on the water in a van

Trying to think of everything I can

But it's getting very late,

And these tapes don't sound too good

And my body just don't feel

The way I wish it would.

I was driving when I heard you call my name.
It was not like before not quite the same
It's too late to be much good and I might as well confess
That I have not got the nerve to borrow cigarettes.

When I'm almost with you, music tries to play,
When I'm almost home I almost hear you say,
"It would be all right if we could run away".

Deciding things for all my life

No one ever tells you when or why

But my heart can't seem to tell me

What would satisfy my mind

So I jump into the van one more time.

Another Annie

I've always loved Annie Lennox and I particularly like the words to the song, "Why". In the lyrics below, I put my favorite section in bold because it is such good writing. (Here's a link to the video if you'd like to listen in another tab as you read the lyrics).

Here are the lyrics:

Why?
Why?
How many times do I have to try
to tell you that I'm sorry for
the things I've done?
But when I start to try to tell you
That's when you have to tell me
Hey, this kind of trouble's
only just begun.

I tell myself too many times
Why don't you ever learn to keep
your big mouth shut?
That's why it hurts so bad
to hear the words
that keep on falling from your mouth
 
Falling from your mouth
falling from your mouth
Tell me...
Why?
Why?

I may be mad
I may be blind
I may be viciously unkind
But I can still read
what you're thinking
And I've heard it said
too many times
That you'd be better off
Besides...
Why can't you see this boat is sinking?
(this boat is sinking this boat is sinking)

Let's go down to the water's edge
And we can cast away those doubts
Some things are better left unsaid
But they still turn me inside out
Turning inside out
turning inside out
 
Tell me...
Why?
Tell me...
Why?

This is the book I never read
These are the words I never said
This is the path I'll never tread
These are the dreams I'll dream instead
This is the joy that's seldom spread
These are the tears...
The tears we shed
This is the fear
This is the dread
These are the contents of my head

And these are the years that we've spent
And this is what they represent
And this is how I feel
Do you know how I feel ?
'cause i don't think you know how I feel
I don't think you know what I feel
I don't think you know what I feel
You don't know what I feel

Phew. Killer lyrics. And of course, it's the melody and Annie's voice that bring these lyrics to full power. Amazing song.