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The answer to the question "what is the greatest Christmas song of all time?" At least IMO.
Some problematic lyrics (admittedly, in character - an unreliable narrator in the voice of the late, great Shane MacGowan, as it were)
But otherwise magically fantastic and a tune routinely recognized by the British public as their holiday favorite (above such chestnuts as Wham's "Last Christmas," for starters)
Written by Shane and his Pogues bandmate Jem Finer over the course of two years (featuring a troubled recording history and a swap of female vocalists from Cait O'Riordan -- who was romantically involved with the band's producer at the time, Elvis Costello, so when Elvis left the building, so did she -- to the late Kirsty MacColl), it's an Irish-style folk ballad that MacGowan explained like this:
"I sat down, opened the sherry, got the peanuts out and pretended it was Christmas. It's even called "A Fairy Tale of New York", it's quite sloppy, more like "A Pair of Brown Eyes" than "Sally MacLennane", but there's also a céilidh bit in the middle which you can definitely dance to. Like a country and Irish ballad, but one you can do a brisk waltz to, especially when you've got about three drinks inside you... But the song itself is quite depressing in the end, it's about these old Irish-American Broadway stars who are sitting round at Christmas talking about whether things are going okay."
Whether apocryphal or not, MacGowan told people that the song came about as the result of a wager between the band and Costello that the group wouldn't ever be able to write a Christmas hit single.
As of December 2023, the song was certified sextuple platinum in the UK and is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in Britain. I made a point of playing it on every Christmas radio show I ever hosted or participated in, it's that great and that much a part of the pop firmament.
Shane's original handwritten lyrics below.
Nov 20, 2024
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This song first came out in 2016
But it feels just as relevant here in 2024.
I have long loved Mac (Superchunk and Portastatic frontman), Merge Records, really anything that the Chapel Hill Gang does is gold.
And as we all know, nothing gold can stay. đ
"Happy new year, it can't be this one again."
Aug 24, 2024
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Incredible. Described in interviews as the âmost punk rockâ song the band ever recorded based on the lyrics. So beautiful
Feb 5, 2024
There arenât many bands or songs out there you can point to and say âthis changed my lifeâ but this band and song did.
It contains one of the dirtiest guitar licks ever recorded, an earworm of melody and noise.
They helped me discover the Velvet Underground đ(and kick-started the so-called Paisley Underground movement that gave birth to the Bangles among others).
My band could even play this song and it sounded BOSS (not every cover did, ha). So simple anyone could play it; but only THEY could write it.
I wrote about the PaIsley Underground years later for Magnet: https://magnetmagazine.com/2001/05/18/one-nation-underground-the-story-of-the-paisley-underground/
God bless Steve Wynn and Co đ¶ this one's still a keeper many decades later.
Apr 10, 2024
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Hey tyler hopefully this doesnât violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I canât wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! â€ïž
Mar 27, 2024
âSongs Of a Lost Worldâ coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 đ€
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
âUnwound is the best band of the â90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesnât say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasnât stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the â90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.â
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really canât say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. đ€
Mar 23, 2024