With their stories of lost dreams and love, Fairytale of New York and It’s a Wonderful Life evoke a unique and persistent magic
It’s the most tedious tiiiime … of the year. It is, of course, the week when the Pogues’ alternative carol, Fairytale of New York, returns to the airwaves, only to be immediately drowned out by the stupidest discourse on earth. The sound of rightwing bores insisting that Shane MacGowan’s seasonal anthem should be played unedited on the BBC seems to be getting earlier each year.
Fairytale of New York is one of the great Christmas records. But, like a lot of festive totems, it tends to be seen in isolation from its creators’ other work. It exists in the public imagination as an outlier. A glorious anomaly. As if it’s the only masterpiece Shane MacGowan ever wrote.
