Christmas Song #8

Flaming Lips--Christmas At The Zoo



The Flaming Lips seem like a perfect fit for Christmas, in my opinion.

The band has this exuberant, joyful, optimistic and life-affirming spirit that also acknowledges the drudge that life can sometimes be. Which is what the holidays are all about to me. I mean, we slog through our lives the entire year just trying to essentially survive without all our problems overwhelming us, and yet here is this one holiday where we're supposed to forget about that, spend time with family, give out gifts for the sake of giving, and just try to be happy. And although it's a rather silly idea to essentially devote a day to being happy, and although many forces try to ruin and exploit that day in a variety of different ways, at it's heart it's rather a beautiful idea.

That's the sort of feeling I have for the Flaming Lips.

Which, I guess then makes sense that the band loves the holidays.

Let's just ignore the above song for a bit. For one, the band worked years and years on their own Christmas movie, called "Christmas On Mars", complete with its own score and everything. (I haven't had the chance to watch it... which seems like a massive oversight on my part.) And just this year, not only have they collaborated with Yoko Ono for a Christmas original (not my first choice for a Christmas collaboration, but oh well), but they've set up this site which constantly streams all the Christmas music they've done.

I'm sticking with the "original" (though I have no way to prove it was the first) Flaming Lips Christmas song, though.

It comes from the band's 1995 Clouds Taste Metallic album, which floats in and out of my list of top 5 albums of all time. And it's versatile in the fact that you don't really have to associate it as a "Christmas song", even if it features that jingling Christmas sort-of-sound. But it's a pretty great Christmas song nonetheless.

The lyrics are about the singer deciding to release the animals locked up in the zoo, only to find out that the animals would rather find a way to save themselves. It's kind of silly, yeah. But it kind of fits what I describe above, in that it sounds wonderfully joyous and romantic while also sounding kind of defeated at the same time.

In any case, it's one of my Christmas favorites.

BONUS SONG:



This is probably a rendition you're only going to find lovely if you actually like the band. But I do, so screw anyone who doesn't.