Greg Lake was correct about how we get the Christmas "we deserve". He was dead wrong, however, about political correctness killing the holidays. (And even if he happened to be right about the latter, why would he care? A PC Christmas is, after-all, the one we all deserve, right?) With TV news reporting on isolated cases of elementary schools holding 'winter festivals' and big, bad municipal bureaucrats not allowing groups to display nativity scenes in public places it is easy to get caught up in a rage of the free speech warrior who claims you can't say anything anymore. ("Anymore" being over the past twenty-five years or so when anti-PC sentiment began; you'd think these people would have gotten used to how you can't say anything by now) One might even begin to believe some of the most trivial incidents of people uttering criticism as part of some conspiracy to control us.
Like the Pet Shop Boys with "Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas", this is the type of subject that needed hitting back at in song. Singer-songwriter Phil Cooper might have been able to cash in had he taken the opposing point with a little ditty called "Everyone's Trying to Stop You Saying Christmas" (the anti-PC side being the one with access to right wing funding through think tanks and wealthy donors; us anti-free speech types just don't have the funds yet) but it would have been a hackneyed rehash of all the same old shit we're always hearing about. A message of "nope, you're not actually being chased down by politically correct thought police" isn't simply accurate, it's original.
Cooper doesn't belabour the point: he brings up a couple examples of PC hysteria, easily quashes them (or, more generously, puts them into perspective) and things begin to wind down in just over two minutes. He could have elucidated but what would be the point? The lovely melody could have also gone on but it leaves the listener wanting more (and if you do indeed want more, why not check out his website, his YouTube channel and/or his Twitter). A great song that is the real voice of free speech: you may choose to say "Merry Christmas", others may say "Happy Holidays" and let's just leave it at that.
 
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