fairytale of new york (the pogues and kirsty mccoll) on accordion

"Fairytale of New York" is a song by Anglo-Irish folk rock group The Pogues, released in 1987 and featuring the British singer Kirsty MacColl. The song is an Irish folk style ballad, written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan, and featured on The Pogues' album If I Should Fall from Grace with God. The song features string arrangements by Fiachra Trench. It is frequently voted the Number One Best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in Ireland and the UK.
The song takes the form of a drunken man's Christmas Eve reverie about holidays past while sleeping off a binge in a New York City drunk tank. After an inebriated old man also incarcerated in the jail cell sings a passage from the Irish drinking ballad "The Rare Old Mountain Dew", the drunken man (MacGowan) begins to dream about a failed relationship. The remainder of the song (which may be an internal monologue) takes the form of a call and response between two Irish immigrants, lovers or ex-lovers, their youthful hopes crushed by alcoholism and drug addiction, reminiscing and bickering on Christmas Eve in New York City. MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice, and the lyrics are sometimes bittersweet—sometimes purely bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it's our last". The lyrics "Sinatra was swinging" and "cars as big as bars" seem to place the song in the 1950's. However, it is possible that the song is actually set in the early 1980s, when one of Sinatra's last chart hits, his 1980 recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb's theme from the movie New York, New York, was a fixture of New York City airwaves and a standard singalong record in the city's many neighborhood bars. The title, taken from author J. P. Donleavy's novel A Fairy Tale of New York, was chosen after the song had been written and recorded.

Twice Shane and Kirsty sing, "The boys of the NYPD choir still singing "Galway Bay". The New York Police Department (NYPD) does not have a choir, but it does have a Pipes and Drums unit that is featured in the video for the song. The NYPD Pipes and Drums did not know "Galway Bay" and so played a different song for the music video, and the editor put it in slow motion to fit the beat. The video featured the actor Matt Dillon as an NYPD patrolman who arrests the intoxicated MacGowan.

MacColl was not originally intended to appear in the song. Instead, the female vocal was meant for the band's bassist, Cait O'Riordan. O'Riordan left the band in 1986, before the song was completed. The Pogues were at the time being produced by Steve Lillywhite, MacColl's then-husband, who asked his wife to provide a guide vocal of the female part for a demo version of the song. The Pogues liked MacColl's contribution so much that they asked her to sing the part on the actual recording.[1]

badlybruisedbob dedicates the song to the memory of the late great kirsty mccoll

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fairytale
• of
• new
• york
• (the
• pogues
• and
• kirsty
• mccoll)
• on
• accordion
• patricks
• paddies
• paddys
• day
• saint
• st
• blackpitts
• clarance
• mangan
• tenters
• donore
• avenue
• south
• circular
• road
• dublin
• leonards
• corner
• dolphins
• barn
• coombe
• francis
• street
• meath
• d'olier
• christmas
• liffey
• inchicore
• baile
• atha
• cliath
• abu
• the
• ferry
• to
• england
• train
• scotland
• feet
• snow
• freezing
• across
• aberdeen
• no
• place
• cold
• rigs
• boats
• money
• drink
• drunk
• union
• market
• belmont
• bon
• accord
• windmill
• lane
• shane
• magowan
• christy
• moore
• synthesizer
• piano

[guyotville06]

Bravo belle mélodie

5*****

Cordialement

André

[badlybruisedbob]

thanks andre

[heidiramone]

nice! i was just trying to learn this song the other day!!!!!

[badlybruisedbob]

thank heidi. look forward to your version :)

[picador100]

Bravo! 5****

Greetings

Paolo

[badlybruisedbob]

thanks Paolo

[TheNaomiGnome]

Oh I have a new project!! .. I wonder I can learn to play this in time for christmas :)

[pikit1a]

lovely thanks

[LizzieAC1]

This is really great!! :)

[geoff1945]

This is one of my all time favourite songs. Great rendition. I can just imagine walking through New York (i did say imagine) late at night and hearing the strains of a piano accordian playing this somewhere nearby. Great one Bob

[ZotMalakhov]

It very beautiful music! ! Thank you a lot for sharing your nice video!

[ShawnCorytube]

Very good at what you do! Cool stuff!

[pianogirl98]

Nice!

[Delmontedel]

I like this interpretation. Nicely played. (I have responded to hatstalkers comment, where he was picking up on 3/4 and 4/4 time, hopefully in a nice manner and not to upset him)>

Mike (Republic of Ireland)

[Delmontedel]

Actually it is in both 4/4 and 3/4, so dear Bob was almost there and I would like to say his verses had a generous 3/4 beat, almost into the 4/4 that the verse should be in. I liked this interpretation.

[hatstalker]

Well executed, but the song is in 4:4 not 3:4 timing, its not a waltz, but still pretty good.