Erik Voeks: Christmas Singles b/w The Cruel Tide (Demo) (USA, Parasol Records, Par-028, 1997)

It's funny to know that there is even a Christmas single, titled 'Christmas Singles'. The song was written and performed by a Kansas singer/songwriter, Erik Voeks. He was joined on bass by Steve Scariano and on drums by Patrick Hawley. The 7” single was released in 1997, with the non-Christmas song 'The Cruel Tide' in a demo version on the B-side. 'Christmas Singles' was already recorded 3 years earlier, in 1994, and was released as an old fashioned cassette, in a one-off edition of 100, just before Christmas, on Decemer 19.

Erik is not too fond of Christmas singles, he does not need much time to make this clear. Already in the first two lines of the song, he makes a firm statement.
'They're just a cheap promotional trick
All those Christmas singles'

Erik has some useful suggestion what to do with the Christmas singles:
“Well you can nail them on the wall
Make an ashtray, y'know
Crank 'em up and sing along to make unwanted guests go.”

Of course, there is another meaning of a Christmas single. The next part of the song is about all those people who have to spend Christmas alone, because they have no lover...

"They're home alone around the world
All those lonely Christmas singles
It's A Wonderful Life re-runs
Never fails to give them tingles"

But Erik is different, as he has a goal in his life, and that is, of course, to record rock songs – he is still doing so in 2013.
I do like the end of the song, because, apart from all the clever word jokes all the irony towards Christmas, also this song has, as all good Christmas singles, a message. Of course.

"I'll bet the daddy of all Christians
Would be turning in his grave
If he saw the way his birthday made the retail world behave."

Couldn't agree more!
Listen to Erik's Christmas Single via the link below and most important, don't forget to buy some cool Christmas singles this Christmas! Even Erik's single is still available to be bought – give it some nice warm home, and spin it on your record player, so it doesn't have to feel alone anymore!

Bandcamp