The 25 Days of Christmas: Day 21

You're not ready for this.

When I started this project, I was concerned that I might run out of good material before I got to 25. In retrospect that’s a laughable concern—I’ve found so much new stuff I’d never have encountered otherwise that I could probably keep going through next Christmas, and as I near these final few days there is a huge backlog that it pains me to cut from the list.

Today’s song, though, was never remotely in danger of being benched. Prince’s Christmas song isn’t well known, but it shouldn’t surprise you that it’s a killer, coming as it does from an intergalactic sex warlock. Prepare yourself, if you can, for “Another Lonely Christmas,” the only song in this series with NSFW lyrics:

If you can’t make them out, here are the lyrics. There are some great passages in there:

Remember the time we swam naked
In your father's pool?
Boy he was upset that night
But boy was that ever cool

There’s a major surprise about halfway through the song, which I won’t spoil for you. And there’s this delightful mental image:

Every Christmas night for seven years now
I drink banana daiquiris 'til I'm blind

(Drinking banana daiquiris until he’s blind is Prince’s version of a Tom Waits chorus.)

“Another Lonely Christmas” was released as the B-side of “I Would Die 4 U” but didn’t catch on as a hit, perhaps because it’s a bit of a downer, or perhaps the A-side was such a banger. Still, this is probably the most soulful song in the series and will definitely reward repeated listening. The early verses take on vivid resonance when you’ve heard the full story and the lush sonic landscape of this one will fully pull you in if you let it. The mixing on this one impresses me more with each listen, as his voice remains clear and audible even over the dazzling musical pyrotechnics going on behind it.

• I’m still not fully over Prince’s death and probably never will be. There have been a few musicians’ deaths that hit me particularly hard (Joe Strummer, David Bowie), but I still can’t even process the idea that Prince is gone. (Tomorrow’s song comes from another such recently deceased titan.)

• Enjoy this article from 2003 about the time Prince did his Jehovah’s Witness duty by knocking on one random door in Minneapolis and proselytizing to the people who lived there.