12 Songs of Christmas: Rudy

Rudy is another mawkish song, but that’s okay. Sincerity is often seen as mawkish, and the best of the values that the Christmas season purports to propagate are sincere. Good will to people and peace on Earth are not, at their core, held ironically. And this song by the Be Good Tanyas is certainly sincere in its reminder that not everyone benefits from the holiday cheer and not everyone has a life that lends itself to a Hallmark Christmas movie (though, honestly, more of those big city woman returning home to find love in a small town need ot be asking where their small town boyfriend was on January 6th.). It is beautifully song and arranged, and one of my favorites, even if it is not a happy song.

Rudy lives on the borderline
Between civilization and basic survival
And the summertime treats him fairly well
But the wintertime is a dirty cold rival

It's wintertime now in Georgetown
The streets come alive with the Christmas light
And Rudy sleeps on a warm air grate
With a newspaper blanket on December nights

Deck the halls
Rudolph the red-nosed wino
Knows it's Christmas time
Jingle Bells and Christmas shoppers

Dashing through the snow
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Who've found it in your hearts
To flip Rudy a thin

And I'll be home for Christmas
But this man has
No place to go
Christmas has a meaning at all

The people of greed and incredible waste
They seek the deeper meaning
In the shopping mall
In a yuletide spirit

Of impatience and hate
Rudy is a patient man
Who tries to see the beauty in everything
Yes, and not a very demanding soul

Whose only wish is
To live until the Spring
Nobody knows the reasons why
Things turn out

Like the way they do
And there ain't no one to tell you
The reasons why
There's fortunate folks

Like me and you
Rudy must have people somewhere
Who wonder what
Became of the man

And Rudy must wonder
The same damn thing
As the crowd passes by
And he sticks out his hand

Deck the halls
Rudolph the red-nosed wino
Knows it's Christmas time
Jingle Bells in the Christmas Shop

Others dashing through the snow
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Who have found it in your hearts
To flip Rudy a thin

And I'll be home for Christmas
But this man has
No place to go
Rudy died on the borderline

Of a civilized world
On Christmas Eve
You know the shoppers shopped
And the temperatures dropped

On a man whose absence
Won't be grieved
Peace on the soul of the cop
Who found him dead in a booth

With his hand frozen to a telephone
You know, I think I know
Who he had on the line
And Rudy won't spend

This Christmas alone
Deck the halls
Rudolph the red-nosed wino
Knows it's Christmas time

Jingle Bells in the Christmas Shop
Others dashing through the snow
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Who have found it in your hearts

To flip Rudy a thin
And I'll be home for Christmas
And this year
Rudy gets to go

Yeah, I'll be home for Christmas
And this year, Rudy gets to go