I hate the holidays.  It’s the way the routine is broken up, how everybody stops and does…something special?

Not being Christian, I don’t quite understand the whole Xmas thing.  All those presents purchased for one day.  All that family niceness.  Actually, I’m down with the carols.  If you don’t take it too seriously, if you’re having a laugh, singing about Frosty is fun, and I do get a religious feeling when I hear "Silent Night".

Sure, the Jews have Chanukah (Hanukah?  Hanukkah?), but really it’s just so little members of the tribe don’t die with jealousy over the acquisition of toys by their goyim brethren.  Chanukah is a minor holiday in Judaism, but it falls at the right time of the year, so it’s been anointed.  I kind of liked the lighting of candles.  And the story of how so little oil burned for eight days, I employ that as metaphor all the time.  But a religious experience?  It was just a bunch of days strung together before school vacation.

And Thanksgiving…  What exactly are we thankful for?  Is it the advent of the shopping season?  Or the true beginning of horrible weather?  We all gather around a table and overeat and…think about the days off to come.  Now if everybody went to WORK on the Friday after Thanksgiving, or everybody worked ON Thanksgiving, and showed up at friends’ houses after work, then I might be amenable.  Kind of like showing up at your buds’ with a six-pack, to watch the game.  But I’m not really interested in the game anymore.  The more years go by, the more sports seem irrelevant.  You don’t recognize the names, and you no longer care.  Somebody’s gonna win, somebody’s gonna lose, and then they’re going to do it all over again.  The talking heads on TV say it’s important, life or death, but all I can muster is a shrug.

And the DARKNESS!  I think George Harrison had it right, one MUST beware of darkness.  Then again, when it got dark there was always another Beatle album.  I guess there’s another one again today, but can it compare with "Magical Mystery Tour", or the White Album, or BEATLES ’65?!

Jay-Z may be coming back, but there don’t appear to be any breakthroughs other than in the marketing area.  Stunning how the Beatles were the BIGGEST band and the MOST innovative.  To take a risk and change the formula, nobody does that today, nobody with anything to lose.

Not that "Beatles ’65" was so innovative.  But when you dropped the needle and immediately heard John Lennon’s voice, you felt like you were being let in on a secret, the story of someone you knew, but didn’t know you.  And how could someone so famous, so successful, be in such pain?  Don’t rock stars use up chicks/birds and kick them to the curb?  How could John Lennon be REJECTED!  And the follow-up, "I’m A Loser"…  Two downers, how could one NOT be enraptured.  We identify with pain.  Now when there are more losers than ever we’re only interested in winners.  If you’ve got feelings, you’re a chump.

I’m not talking about what Morris Albert felt, what they sing about at weddings, but desperation, isolation, the human condition.

Actually, the holidays aren’t so bad if you go away, if you’re with people.  But what if you’re alone?  Then they’re truly an endurance test.

I can imagine the moment
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say

With the headlights on, immersed in traffic long before the dinner hour, a sound slowly amped up in the speakers.  The drums started to pound.  This was "Come Talk To Me".

Peter Gabriel became an accidental rock star.  At too old an age, long past his triumphs with Genesis, Gabriel concocted a train-wreck of a video that no one could stop watching.  We were glued to MTV, following along with the little train around Peter’s head, the dancing chickens, until in darkness, with lights glued to his clothing, Peter walked out of the room.

And since one track used to cause people to buy albums, "So" was suddenly owned by millions of people who never knew Gabriel used to dress as a flower.  They reveled in "Sledgehammer", but also discovered "Red Rain" and "In Your Eyes".

How do you follow up something like this?  You’ve been knocking at the door for almost two decades, suddenly you’re INSIDE?  "Us" was a dud.  Too stiff in production, lacking the killer riff of "Sledgehammer", Peter fumbled his moment, and reverted back to cult status.  But two years later, the cult was rewarded, with "Secret World Live".

Okay, what are the best live albums?

You’d say "Live At Leeds".  I’d say it’s got energy, but lacks crowd noise.

"Frampton Comes Alive" has been overplayed, but it was great.

"Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out"?  Overrated.  Although I do love "Sympathy For The Devil".

The newly-forgotten favorite?  Tesla’s "Five Man Acoustical Jam".

But if you’re creating a Top Five, you must include "Secret World Live".  All those songs lacking passion, cut with too much precision on "Us", they suddenly came ALIVE!

Don’t miss the nine minute version of "Secret World".  Or the eleven minute take on "In Your Eyes".  But the keeper, the one that truly gets your attention, is the opening cut, "Come Talk To Me".

You hear the crowd noise.  An ethereal synth.  Then Peter’s pleading voice, IMPLORING you to listen.  And then POUNDING drums cause you to stand up and pay attention, hell, listen to the CROWD NOISE!

Go to: Peter Gabriel-Come Talk To Me

You won’t hear the pounding of the drums that resonate so on the CD.  But yes, that’s a phone booth.  Containing Peter.  Singing into the receiver.  Asking to be relieved of his LONELINESS!

And when the band rises out of the ground, that rush you used to get at the show comes back.  The feeling of being privileged to be there.  It’s no longer who you went with, you’re locked into the experience, you didn’t expect this, this is FANTASTIC!  You PINCH YOURSELF!

And stay tuned in until 2:10 when Peter EXITS!  And starts pulling the phone cord out, towards Paula Cole, singing the Sinead O’Connor part.

Can you show me how you feel now
Oh come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me

When you’re confused, when you’re confronted with a holiday tunnel, you need something to get you through.  Some people turn to alcohol, others to drugs, to numb the pain of the human condition.  You’re so supposed to feel so SPECIAL, so HAPPY!  But you don’t.

Just know there are records out there, artists who understand you, who’re where you’re at.  Just fire up the turntable, the iPod, and let them reel you in, let them connect you.

Ah, please talk to me
Won’t you please talk to me
We can unlock this misery
Come on, come talk to me

And when you’re out and about, sitting at the dining room table, ignite your own personal lighter, known as your personality, and reach out.  That person sitting silently across from you might be just as lonely, just as disconcerted.

We’re in this together.  Forget about the talking heads, forget about not resonating with the holiday cheer.  You’re a member of the group.  I’m here with you.  And so is John Lennon, and Peter Gabriel, and…