Michelle Shocked: A Real Homeless Story

Santa is really loaded down with Christmas albums this year.

Randy Travis and Kenny Rogers have just released collections of holiday ballads. Motown has its own Christmas compilation, with songs from Smokey Robinson and the Temptations. Even wacky Rhino Records got into the act with a collection of holiday spoofs, “Bummed Out Christmas,” which features such classics as “Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit,” “Christmas Eve Can Kill You” and (our fave) Sherwin Linton’s “Santa Got a DWI.”

But the holiday record that means the most, in terms of giving, is “Christmas Guitars,” an offbeat compilation of Christmas carols, songs and hymns. The album, which features performances by 18 guitarists, including NRBQ’s Al Anderson, Larry Coryell, Al Kooper, Taj Mahal, Nile Rodgers and the Roche Sisters’ Terre Roche, is a benefit effort for the homeless. The album’s organizers, who include producer Roma Baran and Green Linnet Records, are donating its entire proceeds to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

If anyone is qualified to talk about the plight of homelessness, it’s Michelle Shocked, a critically lauded young songstress and outspoken activist who contributes a new rendition of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” to the album. In the five years before her 1987 debut for PolyGram Records, Shocked was a homeless hobo who was twice committed to mental institutions, raped, repeatedly arrested for political protests and lived, for the most part, in a series of squatter settlements.

“I’ve lived in squats both in America and in Europe, so I think I have a pretty unique perspective about the homeless issue,” said Shocked, calling from Bristol, England where she was on tour.

“In New York, where I’ve lived as a squatter, 40% of the homeless are either children or single mothers. And what’s really frustrating is that we have a lot of potential solutions right at hand. I’ve studied the statistics, and in New York, for every single homeless person on the streets there is a city-owned, empty building, usually one in tax arrears.

“It’s just a matter of attitudes. I learned a lot living overseas. In Europe, they’ve acknowledged that housing is a basic human right. In America, it’s viewed as a privilege. And if you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. In Europe, the community feels it’s responsible for everyone--and we need to recapture some of that spirit here.”

With that in mind, Shocked has officially relocated in the United States. “Now that Reagan is out of office,” she said, “I feel a little more hopeful now.”

If she has any mixed feelings, it’s about how her role as a performer meshes with being a political activist. “I think it’s great that we had a big wave of benefit concerts by rock stars over the last few years. It definitely raised people’s awareness of the problems we have with the environment and the arms race.

“But I’m more interested in finding ways to put the power into people’s hands. I don’t want to be some kind of star who acts as a spokesman for anyone. I think people should speak for themselves.”

Shocked laughed. “I learned the hard way. When everyone thought I was crazy, I went to a psychiatrist. And she told me: ‘You ain’t crazy. You’re just poor.’ So I learned it wasn’t me--it was the system. That gave me faith. I figured I still had my guitar. And like Woody Guthrie said, ‘All it takes is three chords and something to say.’ ”