December 11th, 2009
The Pogues – Fairytale of New York
Here’s the song of the week from my iPod. Beth says this is the best Christmas song ever.
The Pogues are an Irish rock band playing a mix of traditional Irish music heavily influenced by punk music with strong political leanings. The group mixed modern instruments such as the electric guitar with traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, cittern, and accordion. The original name of the group was Pogue Mahone (póg mo thóin) meaning “kiss my arse” in Irish. The group has had various members over the years but they have included Shane MacGowan (vocals), Peter “Spider” Stacy (tin whistle), Jem Finer (banjo), Cait O’Riordan (bass), James Fearnley (accordion), Phil Chevron (guitar), Terry Woods (mandolin and cittern), Darryl Hunt (bass), and Andrew Ranken (drums). Cait O’Riordan left the group in 1986 when she married Elvis Costello.
The Pogues were originally formed by Shane McGowan in 1982 but due to his drinking problems he left the group in 1991. McGowan’s singing was replaced by Joe Strummer of the Clash and later by Spider Stacy who had played the tin whistle in the group. The group is famous for McGowan’s drinking problems as he is often drunk while performing but his banshee wail makes The Pogues one of the “50 Bands To See Before You Die” according to Q magazine. The group broke up in 1996 but reformed in 2001 with McGowan but only for touring and have no plans to release a new album.
“Fairytale of New York” was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts over Christmas. The song features the singing of Shane McGowan and Kirsty MacColl in a duet. The song has become a Christmas classic in the UK and Ireland, and was voted the best Christmas song of all time three years running starting in 2004 in polls by VH1 UK.
In 2007 the song was briefly censored by the BBC because of the word “faggot” being deemed potentially offensive to gay people. Following protests from listeners, including the mother of Kirsty MacColl, the censorship was lifted. MacColl had died in 2000 in an accident in Cozumel. MacColl and her sons were diving in a restricted boating area. When they surfaced, a speeding boat entered the area. MacColl was able to push her son out of the way but in doing so she was struck by the boat and killed. The boat was owned by Mexican supermarket millionaire Guillermo González Nova but he denied driving the boat claiming an employee was at the controls. The employee was sentenced to three years in prison for negligence but was allowed to pay $90 in lieu of serving his sentence.
Merry Christmas!
Fairytale of New York
It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one
Came in at ten to one
I’ve got a feeling
This year’s for me and you
So Happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
They’ve got cars big as bars
They’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It’s no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can’t make it all alone
I’ve built my dreams around you
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas Day
elizabeth wrote,
Since in the UK a faggot is a piece of wood or a cig, which confused me a bit, the way everyone at the pub was coming out “Got a fag?” – maybe it means that, maybe it doesn’t. I always thought the Pogues were influenced heavily by whiskey. I had that on my mp3 since it was on the BB2 wednesday folk, and then later became a Xmas fav, before the Darkness took over (only in the UK could a raspy drunk Irish singer be displaced by a guy who sings higher than Celine Dion and made Queen look conservative)
Thank you on the info on Kirsty, that explains something which I had researched earlier.
Link | February 13th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Tom wrote,
McGowan has gone through momentary fits of sobriety but mostly he drinks which is what the crowds who attend his shows want. The one good thing is that he has been getting his teeth fixed (he hasn’t had any front teeth for years). I’m not sure if he has kept up with the dentist but that was what I had heard back in October.
My understanding is that in the UK “fag” means cigarette and that “faggot” means a type of meatball. At least that is what Wikipedia says. But both terms have crossed the Atlantic to some extent because of the movie industry and are sometimes, depending on usage, considered a pejorative for gay men.
Link | February 15th, 2010 at 8:50 pm