Next thing you'll be telling me that the Easter Bunny isn't real.

I know! I'm such a callous bastard.

[psst... Shane McGowan died years ago. That ugly old freak they push around in his wheelchair is actually a reanimated corpse]

.....and what the hell is it with bleeping out the word faggot?? Why don't they just go the whole hog and bleep out Fairy, in Fairytale in New York! AARGH!
It is still the greatest Christmas song ever.
(Chuckdarwin are you listening to Radio 1 by any chance?)

.....and what the hell is it with bleeping out the word faggot?? Why don't they just go the whole hog and bleep out Fairy, in Fairytale in New York! AARGH!
It is still the greatest Christmas song ever.
(Chuckdarwin are you listening to Radio 1 by any chance?)

It were one of 'em (Radio 1 or Radio 2) on the old wireless this morning, as I recollect (I tend to flick around like a fickle person will). I'm not currently tuned in, though...

[I hate Chris Moyles. I will never understand how he is the saviour of anything other than unoriginal, fatarse, puerile twats from Leeds who wanted to sell a ghost-written auto-biography at the tender age of 32]

[Jo Wiley also sucks. The next person who compares her to John Peel in my presence is going to need medical attention afterwards]

Yeah, agreed and agreed!
Flicking through this morning in the car, this was the only station playing it, which must be a first in the week before Xmas.

Flicking through this morning in the car, this was the only station playing it, which must be a first in the week before Xmas.
posted by Wilder

I, too, have noticed a dearth of Crimmisy songs being broadcast. Maybe the royalty amounts have increased?

Hmm, happy to ponder this as I artfully avoid writing up that boring set of minutes....
God I have to get working!

Minutes, schminutes. Do 'em after lunch.

Now, back to important matters:

I wonder if we're the only people who are going to be upset by the fact that the word 'faggot' was edited out of a Christmas song?

Surely not. I mean, it's an affront to Britishness. On one hand, 'faggot' is a pretty offensive term. On the other hand, anyone who calls Shane a 'cheap, lousy faggot' probably deserves a medal of some sort. To remove this epithet is to castrate the song of its working class context, surely.

OK, what are you on about? Seriously.

Fairytale of New York, grouse? Is that not a big Crimmis song in your world?

Not sure about the affront to Britishness as I think both Shane and I are Irish (last time I checked!), it's just an affront, full stop.

I'm actually quite conflicted about this because I'm the first to say that the language we use creates an uncomfortable atmosphere for certain groups. I wasn't aware of any serious upset from gay rights organisations about this usage tho'.
Anyway deffo better than writing the minutes!

Never heard of it before now. Thanks for clarifying.

Now, this does bring up a serious matter for consideration.

wiki: MacGowan was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK to Irish parents. His parents lived in many parts of the south-east of England, including Brighton and London, but MacGowan spent the first six years of his life at his mother's family home in Carney, near Nenagh, County Tipperary. Despite his early years in Ireland, to this day he still retains a North London accent.

Can you still be thought of as Irish if you were born in Tunbridge Wells and sound like you're from London? Surely he's British?

This is my all-time favorite Christmas song. Of course, I listen to it year-round because I'm like that.

OK, what are you on about? Seriously.

I had no idea either but I always love the obscure dispatches from the UK that I get to read on Mecha most mornings.

OMG I always read he was from Co. Tipp, thanks for that Chuckdarwin!

Obscure Dispatches. Good title.

Just watched the video. Sounds like a cool song but I couldn't understand a single word that the singer sang. Was he drunk or is that just the accent?

Both, octothorpe. But probably more drunk.

Philip Chevron: “There IS no NYPD Choir, as we discovered when we made the promo video. Just a band of NYPD pipers who can sing the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB song. But it was reasonable of Shane to suppose there WAS a NYPD Choir full of glorious John MacCormack/Ronan Tynan/Frank Patterson manqués. He’s sentimental that way. […] That [Mickey Mouse Club song] IS what they’re singing when you see them on screen. Not enough of them knew enough of ‘Galway Bay’ to take a chance.” (link)

The NYPD Doesn't Have a Choir ... and Americans don't usually sing "Galway Bay".

Well, Shane McGowan is also described as "handsome" in the lyrics, so obviously there's some suspension of disbelief necessary.

Americans don't usually sing "Galway Bay".

You may not have spent enough time in East Coast bars at closing time of a late winter evening. I always took the 'NYPD choir' not literally, but as a way to characterize a group of off-duty cops at the pub singing. If anyone in the US is going to sing 'Galway Bay,' it's definitely off-duty cops at the nearest pub. It's not so far-fetched at all when thought of that way.

The song is a harsh one, lyrically. I mean, not many Christmas-related songs include the line "You're an old slut on junk." And the Pogues have always been consciously putting on a raging-messy-Irish-drunk show. Shane McGowan's vocal style was carefully cultivated to sound angry, inebriated, and unintelligible, but he does it well. When he was kicked out of the band for several years in the 90s, the band worked pretty hard trying to train their stand-in vocalist to sound like Shane.

BUT, when taken for what it is, the song could hardly be better. It's a fantastic immigrant's tale of hope and disappointment. A couple in love, promises made, until we hear them arguing with real vitriol, miserable, everything turned to shit. Then in the last verse there's a sad reconciliation. It's quite cinematic, and musically, very effectively related, with a different setting for the sentimental vs. narrative verses. IT also feels like New York, in a wonderful way.

It's not a "big Crimmis song" in "our world," but it is appreciated by people who grew up on rock and roll and are willing to accept a realistic, skewed, or somewhat cynical view of the holiday. It's not unheard of, but it's not as though the Girl Scouts are singing it at the nursing home.

I wouldn't defend the song as a heartwarming Christmas classic to sip cocoa by, and anyone who sees it that way, or expects it to be that way, could use a dose of perspective. But I do love the song, and in its weird way, like all good Christmas songs, it shows the pervasive influence of the holiday even in lives that aren't perfect enough to 'deserve' it.

Americans don't usually sing "Galway Bay".

Irish-Americans in NYC (and the NYPD is very heavily Irish, still) tend to be sentimental about the auld sod.

(and the NYPD is very heavily Irish, still)

Although according to Edward Conlon's Blue Blood, Latinos are joining the force in such large numbers that as he says 'all the old "Officer O'Malley" jokes are going to become "Officer Gonzalez."'

'all the old "Officer O'Malley" jokes are going to become "Officer Gonzalez."'

What would the Hispanic officers sing? Feliz Navidad?

I wouldn't defend the song as a heartwarming Christmas classic to sip cocoa by, and anyone who sees it that way, or expects it to be that way, could use a dose of perspective.

It's certainly not family sing along material, but I wouldn't say that it's not heartwarming. It's bleak as hell, but the ending ("I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own, Can't make it all alone, I built my dreams around you") is redemptive. I can't sing that part without my voice cracking.

I wouldn't defend the song as a heartwarming Christmas classic to sip cocoa by, and anyone who sees it that way, or expects it to be that way, could use a dose of perspective. But I do love the song, and in its weird way, like all good Christmas songs, it shows the pervasive influence of the holiday even in lives that aren't perfect enough to 'deserve' it.

Well put! I actually quite like the tune. I rarely ever hear Galway Bay.

I wouldn't defend the song as a heartwarming Christmas classic to sip cocoa by

Pour about three fingers of Jameson's in and it'll work fine.

MacGowan spent the first six years of his life at his mother's family home in Carney, near Nenagh, County Tipperary.

Holy SHIT. I spent a summer right by there once in the eighties; I had no idea he was from there. It is the back of fucking beyond and we used to joke about the joys to be had in swingin' Nenagh on market day. Growing up there would leave lasting scars - it's kind of the Irish equivalent of Anderson, South Carolina. Hee, that explains a lot.

Well, Shane McGowan is also described as "handsome" in the lyrics, so obviously there's some suspension of disbelief necessary.

No there isn't. No, think back. I'd hit it, teeth be damned.

I love that song.

≡ Click to see image ≡

Wow, Miko, you really get stuff. I had no idea of whether or not there was an NYPD choir before, and truthfully, I didn't care - I LOVED THIS SONG.

The idea of the NYPD Choir being off-duty cops down at the local watering hole singing Galway Bay makes me love it more. Thanks for that.

that last link is borked MGL.
I agree with richat, it's even better to think of a load of old soaks, maudlin, crooning, "If you've ever been across the sea to Ireland"
(Aargh!I do believe I'm getting homesick!!)

I love the song too, and totally agree with jrossi about the last verse. A tear!

Whoops! Drat. It was a cute picture, too.

I have no desire to knock "Fairytale." It's unquestionably one of the greatest, and most unique, Christmas songs out there. It's funny, angry, and sweet. If it's not 100% accurate about NYC choirs, I don't care.

That said, I've always thought "Thousands Are Sailing" was a more moving song about the Irish in New York from that album. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't written by Shane.

Sorry, MGL. I can't follow you down that road. McGowan is on my Very Short List of Rock Stars I Would Not F@ck.
It's basically him and Ted Nugent. (And the Nuge is only on there because I'm pretty sure his junk smells like beef jerky.)

Americans don't usually sing "Galway Bay".

Irish-Americans in NYC (and the NYPD is very heavily Irish, still) tend to be sentimental about the auld sod.
posted by jonmc 17 December | 08:51

Heh, agreed. I bet Irish Americans sing Galway Bay 100x more than the Irish.

I always supposed MacGowan was playing on the stereotype of the Irish cop in America, presumably homesick at Xmas time.

Which reminds me of Thousands are Sailing (off the same album), which is a brilliant tearjerker.

Heh, agreed. I bet Irish Americans sing Galway Bay 100x more than the Irish.

There's an old ethnic joke my Dad told me:

An Italian gondola driver, when he has all his brain sings "O Soool-ee Mio"

With half his brain, he sings "O Sole..'
With a quarter of his brain he sings "O so...'

with no brain at all, he sings "Oh Danny Boy, the pipes the pipes are calling..."

mgl, your image is occasionally going blank on my server because the Pogues site doesn't like direct linking. Just in case, here you go:

≡ Click to see image ≡

I love this song too. Weirdly though, I've never thought of it as a Christmas song. I mean, yes yes, it's about Christmas, but I never feel the urge to listen to it more at this time of the year than at any other.

(Then again, this song and Sally Maclennane I associate very strongly with a very dear ex of mine so I guess it makes me think of January, and summer in New Zealand and dancing and cricket and having sex under willow trees outside at 4 in the morning)

I love this song, but it always makes me sad. It reminds me of my marriage.

And the Buffalo PD doesn't have a choir, but they do have a marching band and a pipe band. And yes, they do Gallway Bay.

The drunk off-duty cops on The Wire sing The Pogues. Dunno if they've don't "Fairytale of New York," though.

For a long time I thought they were singing Gold Lamé. Well, not quite, I just filled that in because I couldn't tell what Shane was saying.

*favorites miko*