A Fairy Tale come true for the Pogues
Here in Portland, Oregon on December 2, 1957, a disc jockey on the radio station KEX defied his program director’s orders and played a Christmas song that listeners had been requesting. Al Priddy was fired on the spot. The song he dared to play was White Christmas by Elvis Presley.
“A profane parody” is what the song’s composer Irving Berlin called Elvis’s version. “Not in the spirit we associate with Christmas,” proclaimed KEX management, which hired Priddy back on Dec. 16 due to listener unrest.
"THE SPIRIT WE ASSOCIATE WITH CHRISTMAS"
There’s a Christmas song that’s hugely popular in England but doesn’t get played much in America. It’s not very Christmas-y, but I can’t imagine a December when I don’t listen to it at least a dozen times.
It’s Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl.
If you’ve heard it, you know that even though it’s pretty dark, there’s a faint light shining in there. There have been better times and there will be better times, the song seems to promise.
If you’re not familiar with it and would like to be, it’s as far away as your phone or laptop.
If you live in Ireland, England, Scotland, or Wales, it’s hard to get away from Fairy Tale on the radio and streaming services this time of year. It’s been in the UK Top Twenty in December every year since 2005. Royalties from the song each year exceed half a million dollars; the Christmas gift that truly keeps on giving.
If you live in the US, unless you came up musically in the Eighties and Nineties loving Irish Rock, you may never have heard it. On iTunes it’s not even on this year’s Top 100 Xmas Songs list, and so-called progressive radio stations rarely cue it up much anymore.
That’s a shame. Here are five reasons to give it a listen and the video a viewing.
Ticket to the show where the first live version of Fairy Tale of NewYork was performed.
ONE – All those Irish listeners can’t be wrong. Fairy Tale was released in late November 1987 and went right to Number One on the Irish charts. To this day, you can’t get away from it on the air in Eire - and why would you want to? The Pogues may be an English band, but their Irish roots are very deep. Shane McGowan, the group’s shambolic leader, is the son of native Irish parents and spent lots of time there.
TWO – Shane's duet with Kirsty MacColl. The two play a couple in New York (probably in the 1940s) going through a rough Christmas. The song is set “in the drunk tank” of a New York police station. Are you familiar with the duet in Baby It’s Cold Outside? This is not that. It’s hard to believe when you listen to Shane and Kirsty rowing, that they weren’t side by side in the studio.This year they’ve released a live version of Fairy Tale that was the first time the two ever sang it together. (Trivia – Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders was originally going to sing it with Shane but the band had a falling out with her when she called them “disgusting carnivores” in a canteen at a recording studio.)
THREE – The controversy. The realities of life in New York - the despair - for this son and daughter of the Irish diaspora hit you with the first line: It was Christmas Eve in the drunk tank babe. Sung by Shane with a slur and a snarl. There are three words in the original recording some people find offensive, which they are when taken out of context. Arse, slut and faggot are the words. Fortunately, the song wasn’t cancelled. Instead, broadcasters just messed with the lyrics to clean them up ("haggard" instead of "faggot", for instance). Don’t worry, even with the edits, Fary Tale is still “Not in the sprit (those radio suits) associate with Christmas.”
Shane McGowan and Bruce Sprngsteen in happier times. Shane died in November 2023. He was born on Chrismas Day 1957.
FOUR – Of course there’s a video. In addition to the Pogues and Kirsty, it stars Matt Dillon and members of the NYPD Pipe and Drum Band. If you watch it, notice the hands playing the piano in the beginning. Those are supposed to be Shane’s hands but he couldn't play the piano at all so those are the hands of co-writer and Pogues pianist Jem Finer with Shane’s rings on his fingers. And the cops on pipes march to Galway Bay, but there is no NYPD Choir as sung about.
FIVE – It's a great song any time of year. BB King used to say that he sings the blues to get rid of the blues. Fairy Tale is that kind of song; a sad song that somehow lifts the spirits. Musically, it’s an amazing mix of piano, a pair of weary but feisty voices, strings, drums, accordion and even tin whistle (though not loud enough – More Tin Whistle!). You’ll not understand some of the lyrics (especially on the live version) but these words come though loud and clear.
So happy Christmas
I love you, baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
Reminds me of these lyrics.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on our troubles
Will be miles away
