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The best Christmas carol ever

2022-12-23T11:12:29.498Z


'Fairytale of New York' turns 35. Controversial, raw and tremendously beautiful, the recording published by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl is for many the best Christmas song in history.


Thirty-five years after its publication, many articles define

Fairytale of New York

as “the best Christmas song ever”.

A statement supported by surveys of dubious real value.

Well, Christmas is not exactly based on statistics, but on feelings.

And of that, this song by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl published in 1987 is plenty.

It's not the sparkling pop of Mariah Carey's

All I Want For Christmas Is You,

or a sloppy ballad like Wham's

Last Christmas,

with which it competes for popularity.

It's a sad Christmas song.

Which is also a genre in itself that everyone from Elvis

(Blue Christmas)

to Coldplay

(Christmas Lights)

to Prince

(Another Lonely Christmas) has practiced.

but

fairy tale

goes further.

It's raw, it's realistic, it's an adult song.

And it's a beauty that begins with 85 seconds of piano in which Shane MacGowan, singer and leader of The Pogues, a group formed in London in 1982 that gave Irish folk a new lease of life, looks like Tom Waits.

The video shows the band patiently waiting for their moment to intervene.

Among them is James Feinn, the author of the music, with his banjo.

He told that it was going to be the story of a sailor who misses his wife, but that his wife thought that was corny.

“I said, 'Okay, suggest me an argument.'

He proposed the idea of ​​a couple that goes through hard times and ends up redeeming itself ”, he recounted.

The lyrics were about a sailor longing for his wife, but James Feinn's wife thought it was corny.

That they did.

The story of what is now called a toxic relationship between what seems like a couple of losers on the streets of New York.

Those characters that inhabit Shane MacGowan's songs.

Tramps enjoying a lucky night.

Alcoholics with the gift of the word.

The

folk punk take

on the classic Irish romanticization of alcohol as inspiration.

As the poet Brendan Behan wrote: "I am a drunk with writing problems."

No need to be shocked either.

Drinking a lot and going around euphoric bars singing at the top of your voice is one of the most Christmassy things that exist.

It will be for something that the sale of alcohol skyrockets on these dates.

And argue with your partner when the hangover comes and the pockets are empty, too.

Ultimately, it became the story of a couple going through hard times and ending up redeeming themselves.

That tells the song.

It seems that we are in the forties.

It begins with MacGowan talking about the Christmas Eve he spent in the

drunk tank,

the cell where drunks are put to sleep it off.

She appears to be an aspiring artist.

He has won in the races and they travel through New York in love, fascinated with the environment.

Then the chorus enters after a drum roll and there is no human being who can resist such joy.

But then comes the fall.

She calls him a bum.

He warms up and tells her that she's a junkie that she has nowhere to drop dead.

She, furious, blurts out: "Disgusting fagot", and ends: "Put Merry Christmas up your ass.

I pray to God that this is the last time we spend together."

That stanza and specifically the word

fagot

(faggot) has caused the song to be censored on certain stations.

Or that a version be broadcast in which MacColl, who already in 1992 changed the verse in his direct ones, says

haggard

(emaciated).

MacGowan says it's a character thing: “He uses that word because it fits the way he talks and his character.

She's not supposed to be a good person, she's a woman of a certain generation at a certain time and she's down and desperate."

It's fun to see how that part of the song is treated.

Because

Fairytale

is one of the most covered songs known.

Everyone deals with it in their own way.

A few examples: Billy Bragg and Florence Welch nail the original;

Ed Sheeran and Lisa Hannigan change the word;

Gary Barlow makes a joke to get around it;

Jeff Tweedy deletes the entire verse.

The saltiest is Christy Moore, a classic of Irish folk, who first replaces it with “lololos”, but in the end, when it doesn't matter, he unleashes it all with a dog's face.

Another trick is to leave it instrumental, as it appears in the Guardians of the Galaxy

Christmas special .

There are two versions about the birth of

Fairytale

.

James Fearnley, accordionist for The Pogues, stated in his autobiography that the group's manager suggested they cover

Christmas Must Be Tonight,

by The Band, but they found the song horrible and decided to compose one.

Shane MacGowan says he was born because Elvis Costello challenged him to write a Christmas song that he could sing as a duet with The Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan.

Costello had become something of a satellite of The Pogues since in 1985, while producing

Rum, Sodomy And The Lash,

The Pogues' masterpiece, he fell in love with the bassist, whom he married in 1986.

The first version seems more credible.

Not only because Costello has politely denied the other on several occasions (“that's legend”, he has said).

Also because MacGowan tends to mix fact and fiction and doesn't seem to like Costello very much.

It didn't sit well with him to stir up the group and rubbing him that he won a bet seems to be his little revenge.

Steve Lillywhite, the producer, shows up with a tape in which his wife, Kirsty MacColl, sings the female part.

They love her.

It is logical, MacColl is majestic

Finishing it took two years.

MacGowan refers to it as "our

Bohemian Rhapsody."

When they launch to record it, O'Riordan has left the group.

He proposes to Chrissie Hynde, until Steve Lillywhite, the producer, shows up with a tape in which his wife, Kirsty MacColl, sings the female part.

They love her.

It is logical, MacColl is majestic.

Redemption comes at the end.

The two lovers meet again, it seems that years have passed since the fight.

Things don't start well.

"It could have been somebody," he says.

"You and anyone," she replies, before adding: "You stole my dreams."

And there he seems to ask for forgiveness in her way.

“I kept them, baby, I put them with mine.

I can't do it alone, I've built my dreams around you."

Then the chorus enters for the last time.

It's an open ending, but hopeful.

Fairytale

was never number one in the UK, staying at number two because of Pet Shop Boys (“It was number one in Ireland, which is the only place I care about,” MacGowan said).

In 1991, The Pogues fired Shane MacGowan, fed up with his erratic behavior due to alcohol (“What took you so long?” They say he retorted).

MacColl died in 2000, struck by a motorboat owned by a billionaire while scuba diving in Mexico.

And the song, year after year, stubbornly re-enters the lists of best-selling records in many countries.


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Source: elparis

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