Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues

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Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl

I always used to say this was my favourite Christmas song, but not so sure now. I still really love it, it's one of the things I look forward to when this comes on the radio each year. But when my generation were always referencing Maria, Wham or East 17, this was my Christmas song. They didn't like it then as it was a miserable anti Christmas song, I'm not anti Christmas, far from it, but I always knew this was a special song. But as with all things this has now become main stream, even traditional, but because of that it has to be dumbed down even to the point they are now censusing it's lyrics. Doesn't seem a lot of point to me, it was always an edgy Christmas song about a drunk bloke and his misses having a barney on Christmas Eve and ending up in jail. It's never going to be Silent Night is it.

There is a real magic feeling built up round the song, probably to do with the tragic accident that killed poor Kirsty MacColl a few years after this was a hit. The sadness of that event sort of makes the song timeless now as it can't ever be sang again live. There is a brilliant TV documentary telling the story of how this song came to be. I seem to watch that every year along with listening to the song, it took The Pogues years to find the right female singer to add that final sprinkle of angst to this song. Shane MacGowan is meant to be a mad Irish drunk, but amongst songwriters and musicians his genius is well known, this song is The Pogues' Bohemian Rhapsody, being that it's no regular pop song with very intricate melodies, different parts and tempos as well as amazingly descriptive lyrics.

Putting Matt Dillon in the iconic video, shooting it in black and white all adds to the wonder that this song became. It's really like a three minute movie, the fact it was kept off the Christmas No.1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys covering an over excited Elvis cover version also gives Fairytale fans that hard done by feeling that adds to the songs old underground appeal.

As mentioned in the TV show, one of the best things about the song, is you don't know what happens to the couple in the story. The ending is left open for you to guess at, like any story without an conclusion the story can carry on forever.

Favourite lyric : Sinatra was swinging / All the drunks they were singing

Location: Rayleigh, UK

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