Wake Up, Man
A Christmas blues on cultural drift, language, and the loss of meaning over time
This piece is written as a blues because some changes cannot be captured adequately through analysis alone. Over time, across societies, something essential around Christmas has been softened, neutralised, and slowly hollowed out. The blues allows loss, contradiction, and hope to coexist, and it gives voice to what rational language often struggles to hold together.
Wake Up Man Blues (Happy Holy Days)
Slow twelve bar blues, minor key, steady shuffle. A la Da-da-dadada guitar style…
Christmas lights on empty streets, words worn paper thin
“Happy holidays” rolls easy, nothing sinking in
Holy days turned neutral, safe enough to sell
Name erased so no one has to choose heaven over hell
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, not just “happy holidays” we sing
Heads bowed low, but not in prayer tonight
Faces washed in phone light, blue and cold and bright
Old folks counting minutes, waiting by the phone
While love is traded for attention from a screen we do not know
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, hear the bells you do not ring
Wear a brand to borrow a name, stitched across your skin
Buy a ready made meaning, hope it fills you in
Logos louder than your voice, price tags speak your role
Trying to fill the silence of an empty soul
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, more than things you cling
Everybody got an answer, learned in half a line
Shouting out convictions, never paid in time
Rudeness dressed as courage, ignorance as flame
Depth too slow for a world chasing clicks and fame
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, truth is more than what you fling
Tongues preach love, hands stay clean and still
Words feel good, but mercy needs a will
Compassion worn like fashion, changed with every season
Conscience outsourced, no cost, no reason
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, love is more than what you sing
Short term joy hits hard, then fades away
High tonight, hollow morning, back to yesterday
Selling off tomorrow for a moment’s spark
Running from the silence, running from the dark
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, hear the hope he brings
Say politics is not your fight, you want no side
Then curse the world when power turns the tide
You skipped the work of standing firm and fair
Now wonder how the wolves got everywhere
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, freedom is a living thing
Shout about your rights, hold them close and tight
Turn your eyes away when theirs are lost at night
Justice shrinks when it is yours alone
Truth grows thin when mercy’s overthrown
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, justice needs a heart to cling
Church bells ring, buildings warm and bright
Comfort dressed as faith on a silent night
Gospel trimmed to fit the room
Cross removed to leave more room
Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, hear what angels sing
He was born among the poor, not the safe and strong
Truth wrapped in flesh, saying you been wrong
Not to shame you, not to break your will
But to wake your heart and make it still
Final Refrain
Wake up man, for the new born King
Merry Christmas, let your soul feel everything
Wake up man, for the new born King
Not “happy holidays” we sing, just Merry Christmas… Merry Christmas…Merry Christmas…
This blues is deliberately about words, because words carry memory, obligation, and continuity across time. When language is neutralised, meaning is not broadened; it is thinned. What is lost is not nostalgia for the past, but the weight of inherited commitments that once shaped relationships, institutions, history, moral choice and what still are today.
The shift from Happy Christmas and celebration of Christmas Holy Days (from Advent to Epiphany) to “happy holidays” is not semantic trivia. It marks a long, deliberate process through which Christian traditions were softened, responsibility cancelled or outsourced, and alleged ‘offence’ avoided at the cost of substance. Over time, declared “inclusion” became erasure of Christianity, and comfort of diversity replaced conscience.
The refrain insists that Christmas still interrupts. It does not ask for performance or sentiment, but for wakefulness. To say “Merry Christmas” is to accept that meaning is not neutral, that it carries claims, and that remembering is an act of responsibility, an act of true love.
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