Silent Night/Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis, Tom Waits
Life is messy One of the great things about this song is that it doesn’t mention Christmas at all. Instead we hear the contents of a Christmas card. And the writer is messed up… Hey Charley, I’m pregnant Living on 9th Street, right above a dirty bookstore As the song continues you feel for her as she seems to have turned her life around… Hey Charley, I think I’m happy It seems she has sorted her mess. But the whole thing is a lie... Do you want to know the truth of it? I don’t have a husband… I need to borrow money to pay this lawyer And Charley, hey I’ll be eligible for parole, come Valentine’s Day She wasn’t getting her mess together. She was still in a mess. What do you do with people like that? When Waits performed this song live, he often accompanied it with “Silent Night”. It seems an odd pair. Yet he understands life is messy. Traditionally “Silent Night” is sung with reverence. But like Waits’ song, it too is a lie. A baby was b...