It's that time of year again: we're all used to hearing the standard Christmas fare on the radio, at work and echoing incessantly through the mall as we trudge along with every other consumer forced into buying material items for loved ones to celebrate the birth of a guy who taught his followers to give away all their material items. Makes sense. But there is a another side to Christmas music - a stranger side, one off the cusp, which explores themes outside of Bing Crosby and Coca Cola's iteration of Santa Claus. Here, to broaden your horizons, and in some cases, possibly disturb you, is the list of the 10 most unconventional Christmas songs ever...
10. The Flaming Lips - Christmas at the Zoo
http://youtu.be/9QL5Jh9PfJ0 Now, a lot of kids live in climates where snow isn't a possibility, so they get left out of the fun. For as awful as freezing your balls off and scraping your windshield every day can be, snow does make the Christmas season much more atmospheric. Living in a warmer climate actually makes the most sense for a holiday commemorating a carpenter and his wife making a perilous journey through the organ-baking desert, but I digress. While I'm sure a lot of thoughts go through a kid's mind when he has no snow during Christmas, I bet very few of them are
"Hey, I should go unleash all the animals at the zoo!" Such is the premise for the Flaming Lips' take on a Christmas song, "Christmas at the Zoo." Here are the first lyrics:
There wasn't any snow on Christmas eve and I knew what I should do, I thought I'd free the animals all locked up at the zoo. I know what this kids' parents should do, get him into therapy. Unfortunately, for the boy, the animals are too complacent in their man-made cages to leave, so naturally, as with many Flaming Lips songs, its lyrics devolve into the ramblings of a LSD-fueled hippie at Lollapalooza.
The elephants, orangutans, all the birds and kangaroos all said thanks but no thanks man, but to be concerned is good. We really need to de-stigmatize professional help.