The Pouges, a band that is well known for making one of the most played Christmas songs of all time. The story behind this now traditional song is an interesting one, and in this post I will share a deep dive into my favorite Christmas song: Fairytale of New York.
It is not clear how the popular song came to be. The lead singer Shane MacGowan says that Elvis Costello bet him that he couldn't write a Christmas song duet to sing with bass player Cait O'Riordan (later Costello's wife), while according to accordion-player James Fearnley the bands manager (Frank Murray) gave a suggestion that the band should make a cover of "Christmas Must be Tonight", which their respond to was that they would then make one by themselves instead.
The band wanted to make a Christmas song that wasn't that typical for the normal songs around the holiday. You know, the ones about snow, miracles and presents. They decided to make reality out of the issues surrounding Christmas, which is what many people feel around this season - misery and broken dreams.
Jem Finer, banjo-player, came up with the melody and original concept of the song. It involved a sailor looking out over the ocean. His wife, Marcia, did however not like this concept and gave as a suggestion new lyrics that would involve a conversation between a couple during Christmas. This then became the idea they decided on, and so the making of the song begun.
They recorded the song at RAK Studios close to Regent's Park in London in July 1987. The recording of the song took 2 years, and the plan was to record with Costello's wife O'Riordan as the female voice, but Costello left the band. He was replaced with Steve Lillywhite that suggested his wife MacColl to record the test vocals just so they could see how it would sound as a duet. She however managed to impress the band, and they decided to keep her as the female vocals in the duet.
The song didn't have a title until after it was recorded and it came from a title of a book by Irish American author J.P Donleavy's. The book was lying around in the studio as Finer was reading it at the time, and MacGowan liked the book title "Fairytale of New York".
But what is it about? It follows an Irish immigrant's story about holidays past on Christmas Eve, while sleeping off a drinking binge in a New York City 'drunk tank'. A monologue then begins between him and a female. The couple sing about their youthful hopes and how it was destroyed because of drugs and alcohol.
"I had written two songs complete with tunes, one had a good tune and crap lyrics, the other had the idea for 'Fairytale' but the tune was poxy, I gave them both to Shane and he gave it a Broadway melody, and there it was.", Finer later said.
The music video is also a big part of the song. The video was directed by Peter Dougherty, and filmed in New York in 1987 during a cold Thanksgiving. Shane is playing the piano while Kirsty MacColl is leaning over the piano telling him pretty much how useless he is. It's a black and white video, and starts off with Matt Dillon who stars as a cop who arrests a drunk MacGowan. MacGowan was apparently not just acting drunk but actually had been drinking on the day of recording the scene, and Matt Dillon had to do a pretty much real drunk arrest. He was also reportedly nervous as MacGowan had told him to "Just kick the s**t out of me and throw me in the cell and then we can be warm!", as he was a big fan of the band and didn't want to be too rough when making the fake arrest.
It's a song that through the years have stuck, and it doesn't look like it will budge. Through the years we've heard many different adoptions of the song, and in 2007 Radio 1 banned the words "slut" and "faggot" from the song to avoid people taking offence. This has stuck and in recent days you wouldn't hear the full sentence with the words being played on the radio but instead replaced with "you're cheap and you're haggard". This has sparked a big discussion among people.
In the end for me it is a song that wakes memories of Christmas through the years, and you always know that when it starts to play the days of Christmas are getting closer.
Sources:
The Independent (Fairytale of New York: How The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl made a classic Christmas song)
The Guardian (Should the BBC have censored Fairytale of New York?)
The Irish Times (Fairytale of New York: The surprising story behind The Pogues’ Christmas anthem)
Smooth Radio (The Story of... 'Fairytale of New York' by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl)
YouTube: The Pouges - Fairytale Of NewYork (Offical Video)
~ linnity