Elton John: Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher
[purchase]
Here's a no-brainer for Songs Banned At The Mall, because we all know that politics is the third rail when it comes to Christmas themes. And this song's particularly nasty at that—nasty for a reason, though. It's from Billy Elliott, the Musical, sung by the striking British union miners, and you can read the historical details in relationship to the play in this (non-Wikipedia!) article. Thatcher, the Conservative Party prime minister at the time, waged and won a battle to break the political power of British trade unions by closing most of England's coal mines. Sir Elton John and Lee Hall, the lyricist for the 2005 musical, pull no punches in expressing exactly what the miners (and their children) thought of her.
Sir EJ's version was added to the rerelease of his own album, Peachtree Road.
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