Josh Groban has recorded one of the most unexpected political songs of the year, and included it in the oddest of places: on a collection of Christmas standards.
Groban, for those unaware, is he of the uber-voice, the classical pop guy, the one from “Ally McBeal” who’s sold more than 17 million albums worldwide. He was on Oprah Winfrey’s list of favorite things for 2007 and he plans to perform on NBC during the Christmas tree lighting Wednesday at Rockefeller Center in New York.
He’s a superstar with a fan base that has the goal of “spreading the Josh.”
Now, I am not a so-called Grobanite. Sure, his vocal talents are undeniable and his voice tailor-made for carols. It’s just not my thing. So I wasn’t expecting much when I started listening to “Noel,” his new CD.
I wasn’t expecting “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” which starts with a U.S. soldier in the Middle East wishing his family in Tennessee a “very merry Christmas.” Throughout the track, Groban’s vocals are interrupted for messages sent from Afghanistan or Iraq to Georgia, Wisconsin, etc.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. Framing this song in a wartime context is nothing new — it’s even a bit obvious.
Bing Crosby originally recorded “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” in 1943. It was a huge hit during World War II. The Library of Congress calls it a patriotic melody, alongside the “Marines’ Hymn.”
And recently, an antiwar video on YouTube used an earlier version of the song by Groban. The video’s creator played the song over photographs of soldiers coming home. The commentary from YouTube viewers focused on the war: How we should support our troops, or come to our senses about Iraq. That kind of thing.
For this new recording, a video on Groban’s Web site gives him credit for the idea of using real soldiers stationed overseas. Apparently, an assistant helping with the “Noel” disc had a boyfriend in Iraq, and this boyfriend was able to pull together the recordings.
It’s easy to dismiss the track for being emotionally manipulative. After all, it’s hard not to listen to the song without getting a little bit, well, wait, hold on — it’s playing right now. I’ll be OK. I can get through this without — mmh — without crying.
Whew. OK. Intense moment for me there. I’m OK.
Anyway, yes, it’s both a tearjerker and an obvious idea. But is it also a little inspired?
It’s one thing for some antiwar group to toss this up on YouTube for a handful of viewers, but its something entirely different to put it on an album that will in all likelihood go multiplatinum.
That gets us to the political thing. There have been plenty of lame criticisms of the Bush Administration, be it Green Day singing against “a redneck agenda” or Pink addressing the president in song: “Let me tell you ‘bout hard work, rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away.”
Because Pink knows all ‘bout that.
But then there’s Groban, among the least likely to be preaching to the choir. Here he is, getting anybody who listens to this Christmas album — and there will be millions during the next month who do — to pause, and think about war, and how some soldiers won’t make it home, and what exactly the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have done to the United States.
In other words, Groban made a song we’ve all heard countless times before sound new — even of the moment — in an unexpected way. Yet he gives us few clues to his intentions.
He doesn’t dedicate the song in the liner notes “to those fighting overseas.” Nor does he weigh in on the whether the war is just. In that video on his Web site, he doesn’t say he felt it was important to pay tribute to the troops.
Instead, the song sits alongside the others: “Angels We Have Heard on High” features guitar by Dean Parks. “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” has a message from Sgt. Katie Vineyard.
It’s nothing extraordinary, the lack of notes suggests. And maybe there’s some painful truth in that.
After more than four years in Iraq and six in Afghanistan, there’s nothing unusual to see here, folks, just another nation at war. Move along, the best you can.
Reporter Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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