The man lived way too hard and it showed in his face, his voice and the disconcerting look of missing most of this teeth.
MacGowen, while Irish, was part of the British punk scene prior to forming the Pogues in the early '80s.
I normally do a holiday song for one December MMM post, and this isn't it - though it is.
In the late '80s, the Pogues teamed with Kirsty MacColl to record an extremely critically lauded song "Fairytale of New York", which would be their highest charting single in the UK.
I've always wanted to like this song, but it has never resonated with me. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'm opting to post it here, but I'm not going to consider it my holiday MMM post. That will be another day.
1 comment:
I don't know what the 'status' of this song is in America but in recent years it's become here in the U.K. the most popular Xmas record (now of all time) and is trotted out annually and endlessly at this season. Like you, I WANT to like it, though in my case but for one single thing - yes, it's the inclusion of that 'f' word. There's been endless debate about it over here which still continues, with two clear camps of 'pros' and 'cons' having developed. When it first became a hit in 1987 (it now gets high in the charts every Xmas without fail) and when it was performed live on our then most popular 'pop music' show, the controversial phrase was substituted by "You're HAGGARD" - but that didn't last and the original was reverted to, and has been used ever since. Every so often a gay 'celebrity' is asked if he or she is offended by it and just about always the answer is "Of course not!". I'm rather more equivocal as hearing the word used as an acceptable generic insult brings up all kinds of memories of my campaigning days in the 70s, though, of course in this country 'queer' was the then most frequently anti-gay slur-word - which has now to a large extent been re-habilitated as near-acceptable and hardly pejorative at all. But listening to 'Fairy Tale' in the original still makes me wince when the word comes around. I can't help waiting for it. It's like a little stab.
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