Here’s to the Ghost of Christmas Past!

Faces long gone, but not forgotten,

Gathered round the family tree

Carolling our names down the years.

 

And now for the Ghost of Christmas Present,

Chasing its tail, spiralling inwards

With far too much to do to find the time

For what we really mean to say.

 

Ah, but the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come,

There to be made of what we will,

Filled with the hope that twelve more months

Will bring us safe to where we want to be.

​

So…

 

Won’t you sing a Christmas song with me?

Just like they did in 1973,

With children’s laughter round the fire

And Jimmy Savile on the TV, 

Oh won’t you sing a Christmas song with me?                                       

Roy Wood’s Wizzard, Slade and Mud             

Served up a glam-rock Christmas feast           

To take the people’s minds off cold war,

Power cuts and three-day weeks,

Advent of a nuclear winter,

Waiting for the longest night

Huddled round the kitchen table

In the candlelight.

 

Chorus

​

Friends and family gather round

To watch the Black and White Minstrel Show,

Something nasty in the woodshed,

Dog shit in the melting snow;

Wandering hands in Santa’s grotto,

Kiss the girls and make them cry,

Just a bit of harmless fun,

Everyone turned a blind eye.

 

Chorus

 

Instrumental

 

Dirty dogs are in the manger,

Stars of the nativity,

Cover up their tracks with their good

Work for Christmas charity:

Reputations now in tatters,

Killed the fatted sacred cow,

Hanging in the cemetery

On a yew tree bough.

 

Chorus

 

Chorus

 

Instrumental outro

Chords

C             G           D  

C             G           D

Am         Am7/G

G     C     Bm   D

C             D           G

​

D             Am

G     C     Bm   D

D             Am

G     C     Bm   D

Em         C

G     C     Bm   D

D             Am

G     Bm D