AIBU to think that Fairytale of New York is the most perfect Christmas song?

[warmandwooly]

Not sappy, twee or sentimental and highly singable. I love it!

YANBU - it's my favourite too.

I can't understand a word of it.

Does anyone know the lyrics, cos to me it sounds like
ei reuvu seytu

;awiyr awywi
iyrw v y awioeru
and we'll all be nfc;ev bht on Christmas Eve

YANBU. love it.

no no no YANBU its the most perfect song , Merry christmas you arse, is the best line in a song EVER

It is so sad though. They are both junkies and he is dying in hospital.

Whatever - great song.

redrubyshoes is that what the song is about i thought he was just a roaring drunk ?

He calls her 'you old slag on junk', junk meaning drugs. I read the background story to it once and he is singing it from his hospital bed and thinking back about his life and her.

'Merry Christmas you arsehole, thank god it's our last' - he is dying.

wow redrubyshoes im obviosuly listening to it all wrong
I thought it was a drunken break up song
still a good song though

I just posted the www.lyricsfreak.com/p/pogues/fairytale+of+new+york_20109730.htmllyrics for Mumblechum but unless I'm going mad it disappeared.

I saw a documentary about it.

The original female part was sung by Cait O 'Reardon (sp) who was Shane's girlfriend, until she legged it and married Oliver Costello. (And you think you can't descend from the gutter?)

Steve Lilliewhite (Kirstie's husband) heard the song and re-jigged it.

Apparantly there are no harp players in the Pogues and the flute plays twice as fast.
And they didn't record it with KMcC , it was overlaid.

His hard work paid off!

I really like the christy Moore version.

Is shane Mcgowan still alive ? hes probbaly pickled himself so preserved forever

rubyredshoes isn't it "Merry Christmas yer arse, I pray God it's our last"

Who is Oliver Costello? If you mean Elvis, he was fantastic then and is now. The Pogues fell out with him, which was why Cait had to make a decision there.

But OP, yes, fantastic song - best Christmas song ever and so, so poignant seeing Kirsty McColl.

Oh and I saw a documentary on the making of the video. They ran into difficulty with the NYPD choir, which in fact doesn't exist! There was, however an NYPD marching band but they didn't know the words to Galway bay. They were filmed singing the works to "Mickey Mouse" but you can't tell that from the video.

I like it well enough but it makes me sad as it always reminded my Nana of her childhood in Dublin.

As for "Last Christmas I gev you my heart but the very next day you gev it away"

Utter tripe.

I saw that too, chipmonkey and have tried to find it online since, but can't find it on YouTube. It was a really interesting documentary.

And now I've got a bloody earworm of it. Bah humbug.

I like the video cos Matt Dillon's in it. But it's been replaced by I believe in father christmas by Greg Lake as my fave Chrtistmas song

Another Kirsty fan here. Sadly missed so I like hearing the song every year. I didn't realise what the lyrics meant either. I thought it was 'you old slab of junk'. Shane Mcgowan was apparently getting new teeth last year, anyone got any pics?

love it. I love the darkness xmas song also.

Me and my best friends always sing this very loudly and badly every Christmas. Much to the bewilderment of our kids. It also ended up being played this year at my DS's birthday party - in July. I better make sure of got the CD to hand for tomorrow's get together.

I went to see the Pogues in 1988 at Wembly Arena. Shane McGowan was so pissed he was leaving out whole verses of songs. Kirstie McColl entered onto the stage via a gigantic fridge. Was anybody else there? It was a great gig.

New teeth. He doesn't look the same... :(

"you're an old slut on junk".

New Teeth OMG! Scroll down! They're dreadful