The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” Has Long Been Subject of Controversy, Songwriter Says That’s the Point

Some of the most beloved Christmas songs are a bit rough around the edges, from the hokey and macabre “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” to the Pogues’ controversial “Fairytale of New York.” The latter track is a favorite in the U.K. that people have been bickering over since the Pogues released the song in 1987.

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Despite the scandals surrounding the song’s more questionable lyrics, “Fairytale of New York” receives so much airplay each year that, in the mid-aughts, music licensing company PPL determined the Irish ballad to be the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century.

As more and more Christmas songs come under fire for their suggestive, creepy, or downright inappropriate lyrics à la “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” it doesn’t look like the controversy of “Fairytale of New York” will be dying down anytime soon.

The Controversy Of The Pogues’ “Fairytale Of New York”

The Pogues’ 1987 track “Fairytale of New York” is an Irish ballad duet that devolves from nostalgic and wistful to bitter and hateful in a matter of a few verses. The narrator, an Irish immigrant, sings from a drunk tank in a New York City jail. He reminisces on his journey from his native Ireland to the States and the happiness (and turmoil) that ensued. In the third verse, the narrator sings about the shimmery allure of the U.S. They’ve got cars big as bars. They’ve got rivers of gold.

In the following verse, the song sounds romantic. 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.

But eventually, alcohol and drug abuse tears the couple apart, and the verses become far more malicious. You’re a bum, you’re a punk, the duet partners sing to one another. The two singers hurl insults at one another, calling each other slurs like “f*****” and “s***.” Happy Christmas your a***, one particularly nasty verse ends, I pray God it’s our last. 

In the decades since the song’s release, conversations around the censorship of “Fairytale of New York” continue to pop up every year. Some loyalists think censoring the song’s colorful language takes away its authenticity. Others argue the lyrics are inappropriate and offensive. Arguing over whether the song is naughty or nice is as synonymous with British Christmas as mince pies and figgy pudding.

An Argument For The Song, Per The Songwriter

To a certain extent, an artist loses the ability to control the perception of a song as soon as they release it into the world. The song, for better or worse, is now susceptible to the ever-changing whims of the general public. After debate around “Fairytale of New York” ramped up in the late aughts, the Pogues’ Shane MacGowan released a statement responding to the song’s criticism in 2018.

“The word [homophobic slur] was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character,” MacGowan explained. “She is not supposed to be a nice person or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history, and she is down on her luck and desperate. Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it. But she is not intended to offend! She is just supposed to be an authentic character.”

“Not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable,” he continued. “Sometimes, characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively. If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible, then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word. But I don’t want to get into an argument.”

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