Comments on: Songs about difficult Decembers?

Question: Songs about difficult Decembers?

MrVisible — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:43:22 -0800

My sister is having a rough month. She's toughing it out through a Jerry Springer-scale divorce drama while dealing with potentially serious medical problems. She's asked me to find songs for a compilation about difficult Decembers to help her get through.

It's fine if it mentions Christmas but it shouldn't be a Christmas-centered song. She's already got "A Long December" by Counting Crows, and Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December." I was thinking about throwing in Tom Waits' "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" and possibly Imogen Heap's "Just For Now" (thanks to this thread), but I'm pretty stumped after that.

My sister is doing amazingly well considering the circumstances, but it's a rough time, and particularly tough due to the constant presence of cheery Christmas music.

I'd appreciate any help you have to offer.

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:12:06 -0800

Matt Costa's Cold December?

By: Squee

Squee — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:18:39 -0800

My December by Linkin Park seems like an obvious choice...

Once Upon A December from the mediocre animated flick Anastasia might work, but it's lamenting memory loss so I'm not sure. In a similar vein, Dan Fogelburg's sentimental "Another Old Lang Sign" is sort of a lament and reflection of a past love that takes place around Christmas/New Year's.

By: Gianna

Gianna — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:37:07 -0800

"That Was The Worst Christmas Ever" by Sufjan Stevens, maybe? It's hideously depressing and really more about family problems than Christmas itself.

"December" by David Gray might be a good one, too.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:44:44 -0800

Mazzy Star's "Flowers in December" is pretty much the definition of what you are looking for, I think:

Send me your flowers, of your december
Send me your dreams, of your candy wine
I got just one thing I cant give you
Just one more thing of mine

Also, maybe John Prine's bittersweet "Christmas in Prison", which is more about loneliness than it is about Christmas, really.

It was Christmas in prison
And the food was real good
We had turkey and pistols
Carved out of wood

Iron and Wine's 'Faded from Winter' also comes to mind, the gloomiest love song ever:

needlework & seedlings
in the way you're walking
to me from the timbers
faded from the winter

By: Rumple

Rumple — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:45:15 -0800

PS, best wishes to your sister.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:54:51 -0800

OK, Mazzy Star on youtube is a better link to that song.

Might as well throw in "December Skies" (ignore the unrelated video imagery) by the Cowboy Junkies as well:

December skies, star will be rising.
Will we heed those lessons ringing
Through those dark december skies.

Time to kill our children
And sing about it.
Let's all kill our children
And sing about it.

By: zerobyproxy

zerobyproxy — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:35:51 -0800

Counting Crows. Long December.

By: christinetheslp

christinetheslp — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:12:05 -0800

The Pogues "Fairytale of New York"...it references Christmas a few times, but it's far from cheery.

By: Melsky

Melsky — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:29:04 -0800

Kate Bush - December Will Be Magic Again

By: internet!Hannah

internet!Hannah — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:36:27 -0800

Something Corporate's Forget December springs to mind:

Forget December
It won't be better than I remember it before
This month only could be so lonely
And not so homely anymore

By: bobber

bobber — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:02:14 -0800

Kelly Clarkson's new CD - My December

By: 23skidoo

23skidoo — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:14:40 -0800

If you can find it, the song 11:59 (It's January) by Scrawl might be an awesome closer. It's partly about getting closure on a shitty year in general and getting to start fresh. Read the lyrics here.

By: kjs4

kjs4 — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:50:02 -0800

Brick, Ben Folds Five

6 am day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb

By: jaruwaan

jaruwaan — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:22:55 -0800

Try to Remember from the Fantasticks?

The last verse:
Deep in December it's nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December it's nice to remember
Without a hurt, the heart is hollow.
Deep in december it's nice to remember the
fire of September that made us mellow...

By: kuppajava

kuppajava — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:25:59 -0800

If your sister likes oldies, there's a gem in Simon and Garfunkel's "I am a Rock"

"A winter's day
in a deep and dark December..."

and goes on to describe snow imagery which i can't quote accurately...

By: strangeleftydoublethink

strangeleftydoublethink — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:51:14 -0800

The Waterboys got me through many a rough December (spent a few Decembers by myself soon after leaving home). It's a beautiful song.

December (from their title album)
Lyric sampling:

December is the cruelest month
but this time for once my cheeks are warm
After long years in the monkey-house
I am ready for the storm
Let them throw all their cannonballs
let all their strongmen come
I'm ready to go anywhere
through venom, sick and scum!

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:04:42 -0800

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas;
Just like the ones I used to know...

By: LeiaS

LeiaS — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:53:25 -0800

Cheesy compared to all these actually decent suggestions, but "Hard Candy Christmas" sung by Dolly Parton.

By: jeffmshaw

jeffmshaw — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:16:02 -0800

Seconding "Fairytale of New York," and I'll also suggest Harvey Danger's "Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas" and Sean Na Na's "Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)" (it's No. 2 on that list, which I'll note is a self-link ... I just don't know anyplace else online that has the song).

As a more general song for times of trouble like this, I always fall back to the Mountain Goats' "This Year," where the chorus is "I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me."

By: cabingirl

cabingirl — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:41:55 -0800

December by Collective Soul.

By: dawson

dawson — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:48:58 -0800

One of the saddest 'real' country songs I know is a non-hit by David Ball, the piano driven "12-12-84"

12-12-84, Ten O Clock at night
Funny how you can remember
Certain Moments in your life
I wish I could go back
To take back the words I said
Though it's been years since that night
They still echo in my head
{snip}
A cold wind was blowing
It whistled through the pines
I told her I don't need her
And she told me goodbye
I remember embers dying
In the ashes and the coals
And like smoke up the chimney
I watched a true love go

Sadly I can't find a recording on-line, Amazon does have a snippet, but not one I would have chosen. (10th song).

By: dawson

dawson — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:56:34 -0800

Oh, and anything by Joe Pernice. He's had a number of group and solo projects, band names include Scud Mountain Boys, Chappaquiddick Skyline, Big Tobacco, and the Pernice Brothers. Really sad, (but not emo), hauntingly poignant music.

By: namewithoutwords

namewithoutwords — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:37:11 -0800

The Matches - December is for Cynics.

So to hell with holiday romantics
December is for cynics
December is for critics

By: davebush

davebush — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:40:55 -0800

Al Stewart: Time Passages

It was late in December
The sky turned to snow
All round the day was going down slow
Night like a river beginning to flow
I felt the beat of my mind
Go drifting into time passages
Years go falling in the fading light
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

By: polyester.lumberjack

polyester.lumberjack — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:29:42 -0800

"i hate december" by ivy

it's on their lately ep, and was also released as a mini-EP with remixes.

By: dizziest

dizziest — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:49:20 -0800

Delicate December, by Erin Mckeown

By: MrVisible

MrVisible — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:28:31 -0800

I'm in the process of collecting and collating all the songs that were mentioned here. This could end up being an extraordinary mix.

Thank you all for your knowledge, your compassion, your understanding, and your impeccable taste. I knew I could count on the legendary hive mind.

By: Tenuki

Tenuki — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:45:43 -0800

I know I'm a little late to the thread but I'd like to add Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" to the list.

It's four in the morning, the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New York is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.