VIEWPOINT

From page A4

that means.

But those are songs where I just didn’t have the internet 40 years ago to look up the words. What I’m really concerned with here is that there’s a popular Christmas song that I’m pretty sure has a pretty significant obscenity.

I’m talking, of course, about Brenda Lee’s 1958 classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” Right there in the first verse, she sings, “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree, let the Christmas spirit ring. Later we’ll have some” — and this is where I have my concerns.

Of course, the lyrics sheet says she says “pumpkin pie.”

And maybe she does, and maybe I’ve just seen too many R-rated movies, but I swear she does not say “pumpkin” there. At best, she says “puckin” but it really sounds like she drops the proverbial “F-dash-dashdash” word, to quote young Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” (and I don’t mean “fudge”). Seriously, give it a listen and tell me I’m wrong… My best evidence (other than, you know, hearing it) is that in every single cover version of the song since the original, the cover artist always goes out of their way to over-pronounce “PUMP-kin.”

And now I can’t un-hear it…