“War Is Over” by KIDS (John Lennon Plastic Ono Band Cover), Monday, December 19, 2022 (Partial Repost)
It's very difficult to find the band KIDS on streaming platforms or online. The Ft. Lauderdale-based Indie band released their sophomore record, Lost Cities, on Tooth & Nail in 2020 and the label and the band seems not to have generated much hype. And it's a shame. The band has an interesting take on synth pop and organic sounds, often including trumpet and saxophone in their songs. Today's song, the Christmas classic "War Is Over," offers a saxophone line that I find simultaneously comforting and eerie.
WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT. "War Is Over" is the band's cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 holiday hit, which was written in protest of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. My inclusion of this song comes with a prejudice that I'm currently reexamining. When I was young and influenced by far-right Christian rhetoric, I believed that this song was dangerous, as was his hit "Imagine," also released in '71. I was taught that war is a last resort, but often necessary, and Lennon's Marx-lifted lyrics in "Imagine" were driving people away from the very foundations of freedom: God, guns, and gold. "Happy Xmas" was a song that removed "Christ" from the title, and that was what the "War on Christmas" looked like in the '90s and probably earlier. The song wishes Lennon's son and Ono's daughter a merry Christmas at the beginning of the track, and the song never says "X," but always "Christmas." The lyrics of "War is over, if you want it" strike me as hopeful, idealistic, and naive depending on my mood. Not knowing much about the Christian influence or backgrounds of The Beatles (which would be a fascinating study), I'm assuming that Lennon would have been well-acquainted with popular notions of faith and virtues typically attributed to Christianity. Lennon and the Beatles strayed from state religion of their homeland, venturing into the realm of Hinduism, Hare Krishna, and other eastern religions; however, to me, today, "Happy Xmas" seems to be pleading with the Christian country of the United States, even using some Christianese, using Christmas as a platform of peace and ending the war. If you're in America and an evangelical, though, Lennon just sounds like a babbling heretic. After years of blatant racism and looking back at wars with no end game, it may be time to listen a little closer to the babbling, especially in a year filled with a completely unjustified war.
LET'S HOPE IT'S A GOOD ONE. When the lyrics of "Happy Xmas" begin with the question, "And what have you done?" I begin thinking about my meager achievements for the year. What do I have to celebrate other than survival? Am I closer to becoming the person I should be? And what will 2023 hold? It's a question that feels scary to ask as we mark another year closer to the inevitable. But Lennon and Ono's song offers us hope. It doesn't seem realistic that wars will end and everyone will join hands around the Christmas tree. However, we can choose to have a spirit of peace on earth. That seems very Christian. After all, didn't Jesus say, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be Children of God"? (Matthew 5:9) So rather than putting tons of presents under the tree this year, especially because we're all broke from the inflation caused by the war!, let's think about what we can do for the ones we care about. How can we better tolerate the ones we don't like? How can we be a positive force to those in our lives. So have a cup of cheer, even if it's a small one, and hope that we can move toward a world of peace on earth, good will to men.
Read “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by Sleeping At Last on Genius.
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