In Defense of the Anti-Christmas song: Fairy Tale of New York
It was 8 am, and I was waiting in my classroom for the first bell to ring. I was anxiously awaiting the start of the winter break. To kill time, I was scrolling through Facebook before school started. I stopped on an article about the “most controversial Christmas song of all time.” I like Christmas music, and it was from a somewhat reputable site–so I clicked.
The article was about a song I had never heard of: Fairy Tale of New York by the Irish band The Pogues. Intrigued, I queued it up on my Spotify and listened as I read the article. As I listened, I stopped reading because two things were running through my head: how had I never heard this song before, and this was unlike any song I had ever heard. I tend to consider myself a connoisseur of Christmas music, but how had I never heard one of the most popular Christmas from the UK1
This is by far the least “Christmasy” Christmas song I have ever heard–in fact, you might even call it an “anti-Christmas song. It is diametrically opposed to the sentiments and feelings of “White Christmas” or “All I Want For Christmas is You.” Fairy Tale of New York is a song that deals with being drunk on Christmas Eve, inflated dreams, drugs, gambling, arguments between romantic partners that end in some serious name-calling (hence the most controversial Christmas song), and ultimately, Christmas bells and choirs. As one journalist put it, “With “Fairytale of New York, The Pogues tapped into something nobody knew they wanted or needed: Christmas misery.” This song is desperately trying to find a glimmer of Christmas cheer in a miserable situation.
I have previously written a few music critiques and find them difficult to write. I’m not here to critique this song per se, but I am here to defend that this is indeed a Christmas song and a good one. If you have never heard the song, let me provide some background. The song is a duet released in 1987, told from the perspective of an Irish immigrant in New York and his girlfriend. Beyond this song being an “anti-Christmas” song, the main reason FTONY is considered offensive is due to some choice insults hurled by the two characters represented in the song.
I have broken down the song into four parts: the introduction, the false dream, the fight, and a final attempt to find some nostalgic sentiment.
The introduction:
It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you
Right from the beginning, the song begins in a dark place. Not many Christmas songs begin with spending Christmas Eve in a drunk tank. The main character fades off, dreaming of his girlfriend.
The false dream:
They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night
These two stanzas introduce a sense of an unattainable reality. New York City is a place of great wealth and extreme poverty. Two exaggerated extremes matched with an unachievable dream of being the next Broadway star because of being able to belt a tune in a pub. It ends with the romantic idea of dancing into the winter night.
The fight:
You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy f****t
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last
This is the problematic stanza. The female character calls the male character a slur. While this was more “acceptable” in the 80s, it is not acceptable now. Shane McGowan, the Pogues lead singer, said in a previous interview:
“She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate.”
He continued: “Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend!
“She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.”
McGowan goes on to say that the word was never intended to offend, and, “If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible, then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word, but I don’t want to get into an argument.”
That word makes me very uncomfortable. It is a slur that has been used to wound and hurt people. This word, along with the slur for a black person, are probably the two words that I would never use. I know that the LGBTQ+ community has worked to reclaim the word as their own and to try to remove the hate associated with the word. And I support reclaiming something negative and turning it into a positive. However, As a straight cis male, I do not have the right to use this word. But the fact that the character uses this slur stings. It mars the song in a way that highlights the anger and emotion running through the lyrics.
The nostalgic sentiment:
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day.
This bridge appears three times in the song. Amidst the pain and suffering in the song, there is an attempt to find a small bit of joy. There is at least a small amount of joy and happiness between the choir singing a traditional Irish song and the bells ringing out.2 There is joy in the instrumentation of this song as well. The music and the instruments that make up this song are not dreary and melancholic. There is a music break that uses traditional Irish instruments–primarily a penny whistle, to play the melody before McGowan launches into the bridge again. A positive happiness and uplifting sense of hope can be felt in the melody and instruments used.
Given the content and the word choice, how can I call this song a good Christmas song? I don’t condemn the song, nor do I condemn Shane McGowan. The easy answer is that FTONY is a product of its time; the 80s were a time that was not as open and sensitive about LGTBQ+ issues. But the more complex answer is that Christmas is not always a happy, warm, festive time. As McGowan has alluded to, the characters in the song are not portraying “a picture print by Currier and Ives.” Classic Christmas songs tend to describe an inviting and loving atmosphere. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many people. Our society has built the holidays into a time when people think they must meet certain expectations. Homes must be decorated a certain way, a certain number of expensive presents must be purchased for everyone, and kitchens must smell of holiday treats at all times. While this makes for a lovely holiday fantasy, it is not grounded in reality. This song bravely looks at the other side of the often saccharine representation of Christmas time.
I was shocked to read a few days ago that Shane McGowan had died. This essay has been bouncing around in my head for the last few years, and in honor of McGowan, I thought it was finally time to put these thoughts on paper.
Pour yourself a glass of Jameson, raise it high, and listen to the boys of the NYPD choir as they sing Galway Bay and the bells that ring out for Christmas day.
This was also the same year I discovered the Christmas story The Snowman and the accompanying song Walking in the Air. Another very popular British Christmas song I had never heard. But that song is the complete opposite of this song. It is full of beautiful imagery of flying through the air on a magical Christmas night.
Historically, there has never been an NYPD choir. However, a group in Dublin decided to make that happen this year. They gathered a group of retired NYPD policemen and had them sing Galway Bay as a tribute to Shane McGowan’s line from the song. Here is a news article and a video of this event.