America: Land of crossovers
The Christmas season infuses every fourth quarter with a last hope that retail activity will surpass the previous year’s. It’s a major economy booster, which is why I think talking about Christmas fits into a Jewish newspaper’s blog about business.
Let’s start with two Minnesotans, Garrison Keillor and Bob Dylan.
Keillor wrote in a Salon.com article called “Don’t Mess With Christmas”: “… all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write ‘Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we'll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah’? No, we didn't.”
Although I would quibble with his exact choice of words, the guy makes a valid point about the commercialization of a holiday he holds sacred. Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas,” which in its Bing Crosby rendition is the biggest-selling Christmas single ever. And it makes you wonder, why does Neil Diamond have not one, but two, Christmas albums under his belt?
Keillor is an equal opportunity grump. In his entire column, that’s the only sentence about Jewish guys. Mostly, he’s ticked at Unitarians, who the last time I looked, aren’t Jewish, and I’m not so sure that there are any major Unitarian recording artists or songwriters who have popular Christmas songs or albums to their credit.
That brings us to Dylan, born Jewish in Hibbing, Minn., who has a Christmas album out. Keillor has been a fan of at least some of Dylan’s stuff, and we have to wonder if he’d like the bard in his most gravelly voice taking on “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “The First Noel,” in addition to that song about the chestnuts (“The Christmas Song,” written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells) but not the one about Rudolph (“Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” written by Johnny Marks).
At least, Dylan is trying to do some tikkun olam, donating proceeds from the album, “Christmas in the Heart,” to help feed the hungry.
Which brings me to why Jews would want to cross over to the Christian market. It’s because this is America, and to some degree we cross over all the time into different ethnic and religious groups’ heritages. Everybody’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, so to speak.
As Keillor implies, there are not many examples of people going the other way, from the Christian side to sing or write a Jewish song. Oddly enough, given Keillor’s rant, this year Sen. Orrin Hatch wrote a Hannukah song. Take a gander at Jeffrey Goldberg’s “The True Story of Orrin Hatch’s Hanukkah Song.”
If that doesn’t make Mr. Keillor rethink what he said, perhaps a story from my own experience will. Let’s set the background first.
Singer Perry Como died in 2001, and I wrote an obituary appreciation of him that was published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the major daily near Como’s hometown of Canonsburg, Pa. The line identifying who I was mentioned that I lived in Tempe and had once worked for The Arizona Republic.
This led Bonnie P. Theiner of Pittsburgh to track me down. She was a determined woman who called the Republic to try to get in touch with me. Finally, she got a person in Human Resources, who told her I was not employed there any longer. Something in her voice must have touched him, because he called me and asked if he could give her my contact info.
To make a long story short, she wrote me a letter to tell me how, as a youngster, she heard Como sing “Kol Nidre” on his television show. As an adult, she had searched and found a single by Como of “Kol Nidre” with “Eli, Eli” on the flip side.
Then she sank the hook in: “Could you possibly tell me how a son of Italian immigrants, a singer of popular songs, came to sing and record Jewish prayers. … In his glorious voice, Como’s interpretation of both prayers is impeccable – his pronunciation of Hebrew and Yiddish, phrasing, emotional emphasis. How was Como coached in these efforts?”
I didn’t know the answer to her specific question, and I’m still trying to find that answer all these years later.
But I think I know the answer to her ultimate question, which was, “Most of all – why?” Why did Como record these Jewish songs?
I can’t pretend to know his purpose, but making a killing in the Jewish market probably wasn’t it.
I think it’s an American thing, where we show respect to our neighbors by celebrating with them, even if we are not them. It’s the same impulse that drives Jews to work at charity dining halls on Christmas day to allow Christians to celebrate the holiday with their families.
If the malls are “trashed up” with the songs that riled Keillor, it’s usually because “Christian guys” are singing them (with notable exceptions like Dylan and Diamond), despite the songs’ Jewish origins. The Christians could easily avoid singing these tunes, if they were offended. Keillor’s ire, if it is not ironic satire, is better directed at the folks in his own club, as he called it.
Let’s hope that seasonal retail does awesomely, so we can all enjoy the recovery in 2010.
28 Dec, 2009 >
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HURSTKELLIE - 13 Jun, 2011 - 17:12:20
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MercadoLula21 - 13 Aug, 2011 - 04:55:54
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MiddletonViola20 - 10 Sep, 2011 - 08:30:50
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TabithaMorrow35 - 15 Sep, 2011 - 05:25:40
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KINGErin25 - 22 Sep, 2011 - 02:30:54
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JEANNETTE33Woods - 22 Nov, 2011 - 16:47:04
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