I think my list of Edgiest Christmas Songs just got one track longer. "Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)" was Miles Davis's only Christmas song. He recorded it in 1962 with Bob Dorough, who was still a decade away from composing and performing many of the Schoolhouse Rock songs that incongruously flood your head when you hear
Blue Xmas, when you're blue at ChristmastimePretty great stuff.
you see right through,
All the waste, all the sham, all the haste
and plain old bad taste
Listen to Miles Davis and Bob Dorough's "Blue Xmas" [youtube]
Or download "Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)" as an MP3 for a buck [amazon]
I wish I could find the sheet music for this tune, it is so awesome.
even though davis claimed song writing credit for this song originally, it was commissioned from dorough, who really wrote it. davis did some horn shuffling and claimed co-arranging credit also.