Unlikely Carols: Pearl Jam’s Let Me Sleep
Most Christmas songs are cheery, but not all. (Think, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” for a moment.) The song with which I decided to start our Advent series on Unlikely Christmas Carols is one of those songs: Pearl Jam’s “Let Me Sleep.” Except that it’s not so much sad as kind of tragic. Unlike Dave Matthews “Christmas Song,” which tells a full story, Pearl Jam tends to be more suggestive, evoking a feeling more than sharing a story.
The song speaks of someone who is down and out…and cold…at Christmastime. Maybe a homeless person or drifter, but someone who is exposed to the elements. And, while shivering in the cold, feels like nothing, someone that God doesn’t know or care about, and who is utterly lost. Then he (or she) remembers Christmas as a kid, when everything seemed magical and possible and full of potential. But now, there’s nothing. Just the desire to sleep.
As I said, Pearl Jam’s songs are ambiguous, so maybe it’s sleeping until the holidays and the hard memories they evoke have passed, or maybe it’s just sleeping to get through another hard night. But it might also be, particularly given how dangerous it is to fall asleep in the cold, that he just wants to die.
So here’s the question: how many of us will pass by someone like this on our way to a holiday concert or party or even on the way to church? And what responsibility do we have – we who celebrate the birth of Jesus and call him Emanuel, God with us – to those who believe that heaven knows nothing of them?
And here’s another question: how many folks in the pews on Christmas Eve feel just like that? Maybe they don’t have bare feet freezing in the cold; maybe they’re dressed up in expensive clothes. And yet they’re still cold, stone cold, in their soul and feel like the God they sing about knows nothing of them.
Which is what makes this an unlikely, and I find hauntingly beautiful, Christmas carol, because it reminds us that God wants to draw near to everyone…and has blessed us with the responsibility and joy of reaching out to those in need, whether physical or spiritual.
So listen to this song, let it sink in, and as you go about preparing for Christmas, look at those around you – family or strangers, co-workers or retailers – and take a moment to think of them as someone that God not only knows but also deeply loves… And perhaps has put you right there to touch so that they – and we – are not quite so cold this Christmas
I’ll put the lyrics below, followed by a YouTube recording of the song.
“Let Me Sleep”
Cold wind blows on the soles of my feet
Heaven knows nothing of me
I’m lost, nowhere to go
Oh, when I was a kid…oh, how magic it seemed
Oh, please let me sleep, it’s Christmas time
Flowered winds was where I lived
Thought you burned, not froze for your sins
Oh, I’m so tired, and cold
Oh, when I was a kid…oh, how magic it seemed
Oh, please let me sleep, it’s Christmas time
Oh…oh, when I was a kid…oh, how magic it seemed
Oh, please let me sleep, it’s Christmas time
Oh…oh, when I, if I was a kid…oh, how magic it seemed
Oh, please let me dream, it’s Christmas time
Note: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video.
2) Thanks to Chad for the Pearl Jam reference a year ago!
Beautiful interpretation. Also made me think of the connection between the narrator as an adult and feeling lost and unable to sleep or dream and the child he once was who couldn’t fall asleep on Christmas Eve because it was so exciting. Peace and Love