The 1970s was a significant decade for Christmas songs.
There’s the glam rock monoliths, the novelty songs, disco songs, songs by singer-songwriters
and prog rock artists, and even two songs from former Beatles of drastically varying quality.
But one 70s associated genre that didn’t make many Christmas songs is punk.
But while young scamps the Sex Pistols and Clash were raging on about having no future
and a nuclear war, the first notable punk rock Christmas song was written by a band
over a decade into their career.
This is New Christmas Canon, and this is the story of The Kinks’ “Father Christmas.”
The Kinks had been many things in their first decade.
They were the progenitors of punk and metal with their breakthrough third single “You Really Got Me.”
They were the British Invasion band that got barred from the US for four years due to Visa issues.
They were the oh-so-English social commentators of “A Well Respected Man,”
“Dedicated Follower of Fashion,”
“Sunny Afternoon”
and “Waterloo Sunset.”
They were the creators of self-aware nostalgic odes to traditional English ways
on The Village Green Preservation Society,
and an essential influence on detail-focused British artists Ian Dury, The Jam, Madness, XTC, Blur and Lily Allen.
And they were also the band with an unlikely crossover smash
about a country boy becoming besotted with a crossdresser.
Since the beginning, The Kinks had remained gloriously out-of-step with musical trends;
while their contemporaries experimented with psychedelia and rock operas,
they were producing three minute kitchen-sink dramas.
And so it continued: 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies was a caustic yet witty country-rock criticism
of the so called advances of society,
while the rest of their contemporaries were
making monolithic Statements of era-defining rock with Sticky Fingers, Who’s Next and Led Zeppelin IV.
Muswell Hillbillies was a hit with critics, but unlike their peers’ efforts evaded significant
record sales, not even charting in the UK.
Instead of acknowledging the listening public’s collective shrugs, frontman Ray Davies doubled down.
Mid-seventies Kinks were consumed by grand politically charged rock-operas
packed with far reaching casts of characters, steeped in English Music Hall tradition.
The most significant of these was the Preservation Double LP, Act 1 released in November 1973,
Act 2 following six months later.
This aligned with a re-focus on the US market, playing the Preservation albums in their entirety
across the States, with the four-piece lineup augmented by grandiose production,
various costumed side men and backup singers.
Not only was this a heavy money sink, Ray’s brother Dave, formerly an equal songwriter
within the band, had concerns as to their direction and how he was being treated,
Ray especially belittling Dave's solo achievements.
"We were moving too far in the direction of The Kinks existing only as Ray Davies’ backing band.
Was Ray’s megalomania feeding his narcissism?
Or the other way round?
He’d tease me onstage, calling me his ‘annoying little brother’,
or ‘Here’s Dave “Death of a Clown” Davies’.
Anything to patronise me and keep me in my place."
As AV Club would later state of Act 2: “With its radio announcements and melodramatic,
sub-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical numbers, [it’s] a wash, the sound of a once-great band losing the plot."
In the age of Ziggy Stardust it wasn’t enough to write a good story and put it to music.
As fantastic a story snippet as “Starman” might be,
its strength comes from the fact that it stands alone,
and doesn't need the rest of the album to make sense,
something that The Kinks had seemingly forgotten with their concept albums.
1976’s Schoolboys in Disgrace, another concept piece albeit a more rocking one,
would be their last album with their label RCA.
Moving on with Arista, Ray realised he needed to change tact.
"I made a conscious effort to sit down and say, 'I'm going to make 12 good songs here
that we can tour with,' and no funny outfits and no character changes,
and just be the band and I think the band were relieved.
Because I know it was pissing Dave off.
So we went back with Sleepwalker, and started serious rebuilding."
Released in February 1977, Sleepwalker was seen as a return to form for The Kinks,
at least in the US.
Removing the excesses of their last five years, back to creating some solid rock’n’roll songs.
While they had maintained their appeal as a touring act, their record sales had plateaued
and they hadn’t had an album grasp within the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 since 1971’s
Lola versus Powerman…
Sleepwalker reached a lofty number 21, and thanks to new label Arista, got the band mainstream
exposure on The Mike Douglas Show and Saturday Night Live.
The moment was theirs to lose.
Returning to their studio Konk in July of 1977, they started to record follow up Misfits.
But as the year wore on and with bassist Andy Pyle and keyboardist John Gosling both handing
in their resignation before its completion, it seemed less and less likely that the band
would be able to complete their full-length before 1978 rolled around.
But wanting to continue the band’s rare upwards momentum, Arista suggested the band
release a Christmas single to tie in with their November/December tours.
For this, they would take inspiration from what was happening in Britain at the time.
In November 1976, the Sex Pistols unleashed “Anarchy in the UK” onto an unsuspecting public.
Taking the kind of primal distorted guitar chords that The Kinks had popularised with
“You Really Got Me” and revving them up to pogo speed,
combined with the spit and sneer of Johnny Rotten, it was the moment the general public were made aware of punk rock.
Ray Davies was ahead of the pack, already wise to what was going on in the punk underground in New York.
Having met Patti Smith way back in 1971, he even told the Guardian that this new wave
of UK punk was a bit of a joke, saying he admired “true punk - like the Ramones or
Lou Reed but not the bands jumping on to it the way bands got on to the R&B kick when we first started.”
However Dave immediately saw these punk groups as their offspring.
"I couldn’t help feeling a kinship in the music; I always felt these bands and The Kinks
to be on a similar wavelength.
Their in-yer-face attitude was belligerent and unforgiving.
Punk followed up on themes questioning society that bands like The Kinks had posed;
The lineage was clear."
But the feeling wasn’t exactly mutual.
The then-present day version of the Kinks was considered a joke.
The disappointment of the previous five years’ overblown concept albums
wasn’t going to disperse right away.
Although many punk musicians got their start bashing out the elemental chords of “All Day and All of The Night,”
they would’ve preferred that the Kinks never made it out of the 60s.
The Davieses would need to actively dislodge their past-it status.
A lot of the British punks were energised by the state of things of the time,
like mass unemployment, strikes, riots and ineffective government.
Likewise, as Ray had done in the 60s, he looked out the window and saw an opportunity for
a three-minute standalone statement of intent.
Revising their sound with the aggression of punk, The Kinks wrote a Christmas song for the ages.
“Father Christmas” was completed in October 1977, and from the start it marked itself
apart from other Christmas songs.
While Greg Lake says he believes in Father Christmas,
from its first line Ray’s protagonist knows that to be a lie,
pulling down the magical facade that pervades the sub-genre.
In the song Ray plays the role of a department store Santa,
who gets ambushed by a bunch of children.
But as the song’s chant-along chorus makes clear, theirs is not a desire for Steve Austin action
figures and cuddly toys, they’re sticking up this pseudo-Santa for hard currency.
The kids weren’t alright, and they knew that trivial playthings weren’t going to improve their situation.
Like how “Sunny Afternoon” criticised the introduction of progressive tax rates,
“Father Christmas” commented on the joblessness that was rife in Britain at the time,
more families than ever being below the breadline.
With the circumstances getting so bad the following year, widespread strikes exacerbated
by the coldest Winter in a generation, November 1978 to February 79 would be known as the
Winter of Discontent.
As such the commercial idealised vision of Christmas pushed by festive media was a sick joke to those in need.
“Father Christmas” hoodwinks listeners with its opening, utilising the well-worn
Christmas song instrumental tropes of glockenspiel and sleigh bells,
disguising its sour take on the sub-genre.
The twinkle of its opening bars recalls the working class romance of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,”
but unlike The Boss, Davis' characters aren’t escaping this state of affairs.
Its introductory chimes are contrasted with Dave’s guitar work.
The whole time it has an acidic punkish hue,
aggressive distorted palm mutes
joined by screaming napalm-powered peels like those of The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy.”
"'Father Christmas' is very special to me, 'cause [it was] an opportunity to put interesting
guitar parts in there…guitar riffs that [I think] sound great."
Unlike a lot of punk, Ray sugared the message with humour, though the aggression and bitterness remained.
Dave said it reflected their experiences growing up working class in Muswell Hill.
"I could see the faces of my parents when Christmas came around.
They had to struggle to make ends meet.
We kind of got what we needed, but there was something fake about the holiday."
But the real question was: was the world ready for a Christmas song about Father Christmas
getting assaulted and robbed by some disenfranchised children?
“Father Christmas” was released in late November 1977,
but promoting the single was marred somewhat by the strained relationship between the brothers.
According to Kinks keyboard player, John Gosling, the pair came to blows while filming the track’s music video.
From the previous half decade of being a less than essential member of the group,
Dave was still holding a lot of resentment for Ray.
But at the same time, being brothers in a band together they were prone to fucking with each other.
While on their last tour of 1977, “Father Christmas” would be placed as the first
song of the encore so Ray could go off-stage and change into his Santa-getup.
On one occasion, Dave would use this opportunity to prank his brother.
As he returned to the stage as Saint Nick, Dave launched into “You Really Got Me” instead.
"The sheer look of horror on Ray’s face as the crowd roared and the penny dropped
that he was going to have to sing ‘You Really Got Me’ dressed like a prat.
This was all my Christmases come at once.
Every so often he glared at me through his plastic white beard and I cheerfully smiled back.
He was trapped.
Afterwards he tore off his costume and chucked it at me.
The vision of Santa charging round the room and screaming ‘You’re a fucking c*nt!’
is imprinted on my memory."
While in the US, the band did some support shows for Daryl Hall and John Oates,
who’d recently hit the big leagues with “Sara Smile”
and “Rich Girl.”
And The Kinks’ desire to do an encore as a support act didn’t sit well with the headliner.
"I went on dressed as Santa at the end of the show to do 'Father Christmas.'
And the other band found it hard to follow us.
The following night with the same band I went to run on but there was a bunch of heavies
preventing me from running on stage.
And I was protesting.
But the people said, 'The Kinks didn't do an encore but Santa Claus was there
and they were stopping him from going on stage.'"
“Father Christmas” failed to chart in both the UK and the US.
This was not helped by BBC and Capitol Radio being hesitant to play the track,
partly as an anti-Christmas song didn’t seem to be in the spirit of the season,
partly due to their unofficial ban on playing punk music.
The public instead opted for escapism, and the Christmas Number One that year was taken
by Paul McCartney’s “Mull Of Kintyre.”
However, “Father Christmas” can lay claim to being one of the first punk rock Christmas songs,
the same year as The Ravers’ “(It’s Gonna Be A) Punk Rock Christmas,”
three years before The Damned’s “There Ain’t No Sanity Clause”
and The Yobs’ Christmas album
and twelve years before The Ramones “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).”
It has also since become a staple by punk, hair metal and power pop bands that want to
cover a Christmas song with a bit of an edge.
Dave is especially impressed by the far reaching interpretations of the song,
though admits there is one version that he would’ve loved to have heard.
"Always thought The Ramones would do a great version of it.
I don't know why they didn't do it."
Despite not charting on release, “Father Christmas” marked the start of Ray and Dave
back in a more collaborative mode, an important step on the way to the 80s Kinks Renaissance,
singles “Better Things”
and “Come Dancing”
being their first UK charting singles in almost a decade.
All they needed was a bit of family time, some in-fighting and a brief detour into political discourse.
“Father Christmas” may stand as an ultimate anti-Christmas anthem,
but its creation couldn’t be more in the spirit of the season.
Thanks for watching.
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And I’ll see you next year for whatever’s next.