When I first read 'Fairytale of New York' and heard it played I really wished I'd written it. I still do. It's a classic.
—Kirsty MacColl on the song's lasting legacy, May 1988
The Pogues are one of my alltime favorite bands.
The joyfulness of Irish music combined with Punk Rock nonchalance, nothing beats it.
While never too popular in Ireland, at a time when the Irish were eager to to get rid of the Drunken Paddy image, The Pogues drunkenly crawled to the top on that very Paddy-ness, they nevertheless became the ambassadors of Irish music in other parts of the world on a level previously reached probably only by The Dubliners.
Many people fail to see the genius of Shane McGowan, the band´s frontman and songwriter, who chose to hide his brilliance and rare talent behind a veil of smoke, alcohol, poor dental care and other excesses.
But against all odds he is celebrating his 60th birthday today!
Alcohol and smoke conserved him. 😉
He now has completed the astrological cycle of the Chinese zodiac and can die. 😎
Only once in your life, at your 60th birthday, you will have your Zodiac sign and the element of your year of birth aligned again, unless you complete another cycle and make it to 120.
Go Shane, go! Keep crowing, Fire Rooster!
So my favorite Christmas song is of course Fairy Tale of New York.
Though they did not make UK Christmas number one after the original release in 1987, losing to Pet Shop Boys´ cover version of “Always on My Mind“ must have really pissed them off, The Pogues had proven to the world that contrary to popular belief, Punk Rockers can do Christmas songs.
The song is brilliant on so many levels, its controversial text even achieving what any serious punk rocker dreams about, censorship by the BBC.
Long before artists and writers were suffering under that American Plague, Political Correctness, the BBC was already worried that somebody might be offended.
The story behind the making of the video is of course also brilliant.
As to be expected, The Pogues and the NYPD did not get on too well and as the legend goes, only because of the intervention of Matt Dillon, who played the cop arresting Shane in the video, the shooting could be completed. While the cops didn´t like The Pogues at all, they were all big Dillon fans who could be coaxed into cooperation with some Dillon autographs.
Whenever I listen to this song on Christmas I also think about the tragic death of Kirsty MacColl, who was killed by a Mexican millionaire´s power boat, after she surfaced from a dive in Cozumel, Mexico on December 18, 2000.
here´s a brilliant documentary about the legend.
Sláinte!