I don’t know how many people would agree with me, but for my money, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is the second best song on the single. I like it and all, but the b-side, “Listen, The Snow Is Falling,” is the real classic on that set. It’s Yoko’s prettiest, most evocative song, and as I am a sucker for falling snow on a winter’s day, it’s right up my alley.
The title is very Zen, in a way. Yoko has several songs like this – “Who Has Seen The Wind?” is another – where she mentions a different sense than the one you’d expect. Most people would tell you look, the snow is falling. Does falling snow even make a sound? Often when there’s snow coming down, everything seems quiet. But maybe that’s the point? To sense a little more than just the surface level? You can listen even when there’s silence. Or maybe find that silence isn’t as silent as you thought.
There are several outstanding versions of this one including the original; maybe the most famous cover is by Galaxie 500, with Naomi Yang’s echoey vocals coming through like the winter wind. Magnetic Fields frontman Stephen Merritt did a version as part of a Galaxie 500 tribute (he gets extra points because he does the whole song with his dog sitting there). And Harry Nilsson, John Lennon’s old Lost Weekend buddy, did a kind of Japanese/Caribbean-infused version on his posthmous album Losst and Founnd. Here at the solstice, I have to go with the one by Ride’s (and Oasis’s) Andy Bell; he conjures up a gentle swirl of sounds and melodies that celebrates the coldest, darkest, snowiest time of the year but keeps you feeling warm and bright the whole way. I really do put this song on when snow is falling. It fits.
