Spare a thought for poor old Shane MacGowan and his fellow Pogues. They must be fed up of having to perform their 1988 Christmas song which in recent years has become everybody’s seasonal favourite. It used to be one of mine - I even bought a Pogues CD several years ago. Now I know that this is tantamount to heresy but I can’t be doing with ‘Fairytale’ anymore. Everywhere you go it is blaring out (supermarkets are the worst offenders) and to compound the felony it’s just been re-recorded (with Katie Melua) in an attempt to achieve the UK Christmas No.1 (it actually made No.3).
What really makes me wince is hearing people say “Fairytale of New York is my favourite Christmas song” as if that’s something original. I reckon that, because it contains the words scumbag and faggot and the classic seasonal endearment “Happy Christmas you arse, I pray God it’s your last”, some folk think it’s excitingly rebellious - the nearest that they’ll ever get to showing two fingers to tradition. I wonder if that's why they say they like it? Now, I concede that it’s a good tune, that the lyrics are fine until two thirds into the song and that there’s a catchy chorus, but what why did you have to get so vulgar with a Christmas song Shane? I’ll bet that having to perform ‘Fairytale’ everytime you go on stage is such a pain - enough to turn you to drink eh! Well it serves you right - fancy agreeing to re-record it - or did the record company take advantage of you when you were slightly incapacitated?
Next year I hear that Noddy Holder is going to re-record Merry Xmas Everybody with Dido. It’ll be competing with Roy Wood and Charlotte Church (I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday) for that coveted top spot. Oh well, at least John Lennon can’t be bringing out a reworking of Happy Christmas (War is Over) unless ……………………….. You know what? I wouldn’t be surprised if those Westlife irritants are already working on their own version using Lennon’s digitally remastered vocals. PLEASE, don’t do it! I won’t say anything bad about ‘Fairytale’ ever again.
(the photo is from Liverpool’s excellent Mathew Street Festival - August 2005. It’s a huge FREE music festival over 3 days of the Bank Holiday weekend - don’t miss it next Summer!)
1 comment:
I LOVE reading an alternative viewpoint to my own. You are well entitled to your take on"Fairytale" - I guess being a Scot (as close to Irish as I can get) :-) ) and going to see The Pogues when they sang that song live for the FIRST time (so they said) it just means a lot to me. I think they have a motivation for rerecording it that it genuinely beyond just the money - that is that they were and still are bitter about the Pet Shop Boys keeping them from the No. 1 slot 1st time round. Honestly, I really do LOVE the song - I nail my colours firmly to the mast with the style of my Blog and I very much enoyed reading yours.
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