Steve Earle’s 1988 Copperhead Road album ends very differently than it begins. The album starts with the hard rock title track about a Vietnam veteran who — similar to his bootlegging father and grandfather — ends up growing illegal drugs. The album ends, by contrast, with a Christmas song, “Nothing But a Child.”
Earle originally wrote “Nothing But a Child” for the Oak Ridge Boys, which explains why it may sound a little out of place on the album. He knew the country group were putting out an album and tried writing a Christmas song for them.
With that deadline, Earle composed “Nothing But a Child” in July. Trying to find the Christmas spirit during the summer, he thought of the connection between the baby of the Christmas story and his own child.
After his song was rejected for the Oak Ridge Boys, Earle was putting the finishing touches on Copperhead Road. So, he decided to add this new song to his album. He put together a group to record it, and also called in Maria McKee (formerly of Lone Justice), who was in Nashville to record with U2. And, on a day that was “hot as Hell,” according to Earle, they recorded “Nothing But a Child.”
“Nothing But a Child” does begin with the Christmas scene of the Wise Men following a star. But coming upon the baby Jesus Christ, “They scarce believed their eyes, they’d come so many miles / And this miracle they prized was nothing but a child.”
From there, one may see how the song’s inspiration comes more from Steve Earle’s fatherhood than from any religious sentiment. He laments how “nothing but a child” can guide a weary world and allow all of us to recall being children ourselves again. There is something about remembering how we saw life as children that may change one’s perspective on what is important to us today.
So, “Nothing But a Child” is really a song about the faith to get through another day with hope in our hearts. It is a Christmas song the way Christmas can be celebrated in various ways by people of different religions — or no religion. And in doing so, finding something common and affirming in the traditions connected to the image of a baby in a manger thousands of years ago.
Perhaps the non-Christmas aspect of song partly about Jesus’s birth is part of the reason that none of the covers of the song approach the quality of performances by Earle, who has battled his own demons and started over more than once in his life. People who have covered the song include Kathy Mattea (on her 1993 Christmas album Good News), Robin & Linda Williams (also on a Christmas album), The Trail Band (in a rendition evocative of Earle’s versions), and various performances in churches (by congregations and choirs and solo performers). Yet, treating “Nothing But a Child” as a Christmas or religious song dilutes its universal message.
Earle’s song has always touched me in the way it connects us through our hopes. This connection makes the song fit better on an album with troubled characters with broken hearts rather than on an album with bells, Santas, and sleighs. And for me, in a year of trials that included losing two of my best friends, it reminds me of how I can still be hopeful in the upcoming year where my wonderful wife and I will soon be joined by another soul.
May you discover hope this season, seeking awe in whatever form, finding another chance allowed. Merry Christmas.
What is your favorite Christmas song that is not really a Christmas song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
by Elizabeth Mitchell and Friends is available from Smithsonian Folkways.