The Pogues are brilliant, and that is my favorite song of theirs. I remember well being told about Kirsty's death some years ago. I was really saddened, she was very talented. Believe it or not, she was killed in some kind of boating accident while trying to save her kids in the water.
An interesting bit of trivia about the song: the writer Shane MacGowan, who is Kirsty's counterpart in the video, was born on Christmas Day. According to lore, he made a bet with the Pogues's producer, Elvis Costello, that he could write a hit song with a Christmas theme. [Cait O'Riordan, Elvis's first wife, was a Pogues member]. Guess what happened?
Now it is the most frequently played Christmas song in the UK
It deserves a lyric post...
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
Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
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
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
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 faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas day
Fantastic! Thanks for the elucidation ThunderRd. I'm watching a show that Declan MacManus helmed on one of the cable networks (Sundance Channel?) from 2008. Called "Spectacle." I REALLY loved his early and not so early material.
Didn't know that he received an OBE. Only fitting, thinking about it. Hopefully an MBE is coming down the road for him.
