For Christmas Eve today’s tune is Fairytale of New York by The Pogues. Last Christmas I wrote a piece with this song on in the background. Between the intro, trying to sell my friends on a trip to Ireland, Aaron Judge being named the new Yankee captain, NBA on Christmas Day, my NFL Week 16 picks, College Football Bowl games, and MLB off-season moves, it was a 6,182 word Note that comes out to about 42 minutes of speaking time. Trust me, I don’t expect anybody to go back and read it but according to Substack, it’s my most “liked” post to this day so it still appears as a recommendation.
Anyway, as I was saying, last year I wrote a whole introduction about how I hoped to start my own Fairytale of New York with Week to Week Notes. If you read it, it may make my past year make a bit more sense. It was one of those Notes where as soon as I hit send I was already proud about writing it and looking back on it now I’m still proud of it today. I pulled an all-nighter to write, so when I checked to see how the post was doing, I thought I was dreaming when I saw that Derek Jeter was one of the 1st 12 people to view the story.
Sorry, I got to get any ego I may have on this one, so enough about last Christmas or me, Fairytale of New York was written by Shane MacGowan and Jem Finer of The Pogues. Shane MacGowan was born on Christmas Day of 1957 in Kent, England, to Maurice MacGowan of Dublin and Therese of Tipperary. The Christmas baby spent a lot of his childhood in County Tipperary but even more of his formative years in southeast England. When Shane MacGowan was 13 years old, he was an avid reader of the likes of Irish writer James Joyce and won a Daily Mirror literary prize which earned him a scholarship to Westminster. Although he was very bright, MacGowan didn’t like school, and at 15 years old was caught smoking with friends outside the school gates, the last straw for Westminster who asked him to leave.
Shane MacGowan was always a big fan of music, he collected the likes of the Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Buffalo Springfield, and Cream. When Jimmi Hendrix died, MacGowan laid “on his bed facing the wall without moving for one day and one night.” He was 18 years old when punk rock started taking off, the perfect time for someone who’d gotten kicked out of Westminster for smoking.
When he first entered the London music scene, his stage name alias was Shane O’Hooligan, perfect for a punk. After spending much of his early 20s in this underground punk scene living on a diet of fried egg and brown bread, MacGowan wanted to try something new musically so he went back to his Irish roots. Much of his early music was influenced by Irish history and the experiences of the Irish diaspora. Through a mutual friend, he met Jem Finer who played the banjo and thus the beginnings of The Pogues, which were then known as Pogue Mahone ensued. (For you Yanks reading this, Pogue Mahone means kiss my arse in Gaelic, my dad taught me that when I was like 5. Good stuff.)
The Pogue Mahone’s first gig was in October 1982. MacGowan was still scraping by bussing tables & booking bands in between practice and performing in the underground London pub scene. In 1984, they dropped the Mahone and things started to take off for the band as Elvis Costello would take them on tours as well as produce albums for the band. Fairytale of New York was written by Shane MacGowan on a dare from Elvis Costello. While they were drinking at Blooms Hotel in Dublin, Costello bet Shane he couldn’t write a Christmas song. Rather than choosing to go the holiday jingle route, thankfully Shane MacGowan decided to stick to his roots in writing about the Irish diaspora in New York. MacGowan had cousins in the United States so he knew this song would be a hit over here. (The source for Shane MacGowan’s bio comes from Siobhan MacGowan, Shane’s sister.)
Lastly, this song kinda reminds me of my parents. The only reason I’m sitting here today is a boy, 1 of 15, born in Letterfrack, Connemara, Galway, Ireland met a girl born in the Bronx, NY (who grew up in Westwood, NJ) at Paddy Keane’s pub called Peggy Gordon’s in Woodside, Queens, NY on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1989. The fact that Shane MacGowan could write a song that perfectly encapsulates what many people can relate to is truly brilliant, so here are the lyrics of it…
Right off the bat, MacGowan sets the story - drunk in a jail cell on Christmas Eve. The next line about an old man battling his own bouts with alcohol and doubting he’ll be around to see another Christmas always hits me. The Rare Old Mountain Dew is an Irish folk song that dates back to 1882. The Old Mountain Dew is about Poitin, which in Gaelic means “little pot” and was the first form of Irish whiskey or moonshine. The Irish folk song also has ties to New York in that it had lyrics written by Edward Harrigan, who was in NY theater, and the earliest recording of the song took place in NY in 1927. MacGowan knew his history. He also knew how to close out a verse, insinuating that he’d rather not spend Christmas Eve listening to an old guy sing an Irish folk tune and would rather be somewhere else.
Shane MacGowan in a ‘20 interview said, “The guy is a bum who is living on the street. And he’s just won on a horse at the unlikely odds of 18-1, so you’re not even sure he is telling the truth. I identified with the man because I was a hustler, and I identified with the woman because I was a heavy drinker and a singer. I have been in hospitals on morphine drips, and I have been in drunk tanks on Christmas Eve.” (Irish Times)
Here comes Kirsty MacColl describing the aura and promise of New York that seduced many Irish & English to emigrate to the United States to pursue their American Dream. This New York dream can be oh-so-beautiful, but can also be unforgiving and cold if you’re too naive. The couple in this tune fell in love with each other fast and were drawn to the bright lights of Broadway before falling on their luck.
This is right around where shit starts to hit the fan and is what makes this tune so great. There are not too many songs where 4 verses in, you can almost picture a couple arguing. It’s truly unique. There is an even deeper meaning to the 1st line as it is an ode to yet another Irish folk song called “I’ll Tell Me Ma.” (Source: RapGenius) I love how the Sinatra line just gets thrown in here, it gives us an idea that this song takes place around the 1940s or 1950s when Sinatra was making swing music.
The chorus represents the better times that two once had when he first took her hand on that cold Christmas Eve.
Connemara 🤝 New York City
For the record, my mother is an absolute saint and she would never call my dad a faggot!
Maybe an arse tho!
It’s not known if an NYPD choir had ever sung “Galway Bay”, until this past November…
Shane MacGowan admitted he even impressed himself with the “I could have been someone” line. It’s heartbreaking because, at this point in the song, you feel it’s the aftermath of the couple’s fight and he is lamenting that she is holding him back. Her response is great in that anybody could be somebody but the reality is he’s not because he’s a drunk. When they fell in love, they both stole each other’s big dreams.
I’m not going to lie, I’m a fuckin’ mess right now and a bit teary-eyed. Right when you think they’re done for, MacGowan delivers some hope by admitting he needs her and that she was always a part of his dreams. They purposely wanted to end the song open-ended. MacGowan told The Guardian, “You really don’t know what is going to happen to them.”
This is my favorite Christmas song of all time. I love a great happy holiday jingle, but this one just hits differently. It’s a sobering reminder about how even on Christmas your problems don’t necessarily just go away, but it’s also beautiful in that there can be hope for a better tomorrow.
Shane MacGowan may have had his flaws but was brilliant. As Bruce Springsteen put it earlier this month, “Shane was one of my all-time favorite writers. The passion and deep intensity of his music and lyrics are unmatched by all but the very best in the rock and roll canon. I was fortunate to spend a little time with Shane and his lovely wife Victoria the last time we were in Dublin. He was very ill, but still beautifully present in his heart and spirit. His music is timeless and eternal. I don’t know about the rest of us, but they’ll be singing Shane’s songs 100 years from now.” As long as I write Week to Week Notes, Fairytale of New York will always be on in the background on Christmas Eve. There is even more to this tune that I’d love to continue to add to over the years.
Rest in peace, Kirsty MacColl. Rest in peace, Shane MacGowan.
Alright, I’m going to need to have a few pints of Guinness. I’ll be back Tuesday morning with the Pint&Pen&Paper. Have a happy and safe holiday, Merry Christmas!