The Medusa Fora

Hey...someone's gotta mention this great song. When the "If I Should Fall" album came out, this one emerged as a personal favorite in the household. My husband did his best to sing Shane's part and I'd sing along with Kirsty. We played the hell out of this song...and not just for Christmas. I didn't even know it was a Christmas standard until recently.

As the years rolled along, the song -- trapped on vinyl -- didn't get played that often. But then, after listening to then mayor Rudy Giuliani speak at the mass field promotions of surviving New York City police and fire personnel, I thought of the line "The boys of the NYPD choir were singing 'Galway Bay'..." and the song went back into heavy rotation after that.

Now I'm reading Kevin Baker's "Paradise Alley" which is set in New York City of the 1860s and there's just more legends of police chiefs and fire departments and political shenanigans and all that rough, dirty, and lively history that is the core of the Big Apple.

that's nice.

Definitely one of the greatest songs ever put to vinyl. I was happy to catch the video on VH1 Classic on Christmas Day.

The band never sounded better, and Kirsty's vocal is extraordinary. There are so many little touches to "Fairytale" -- listen to it through a good pair of headphones sometime and you'll discover all sorts of little instrumental bits and flourishes. Remarkable stuff.

Small thing: I particularly love the way the drum bit at the end of each stanza or whatever it's called is completely different each time during the instrumental fadeout.

I've never seen the video to this or any Pogues songs. Any chance there's a DVD out there with all of them?

Just spent a week in NYC and I can confirm that "Fairytale of New York" is an enormously popular choice on the jukeboxes of the bars I frequented. I have some vague memory of attempting to sing BOTH parts to the delight of the bartender at Muldoon's on Third Ave who then treated me to a free shot of Johnnie Walker...

The line "But the wind blows right through you/It's no place for the old" was particularly apt as record low temps and high wind chill factors this week turned NYC into an artic wasteland with taxis.

Other NYC jukebox favorites included "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash, "Dancing Queen" by Abba, and the very cruel and ironic "Summer Wind" by Frank Sinatra which I heard at EVERY bar and diner I visited.

A local access television show played the video for "Fairytale of New York" Saturday night at my request.
Unfortunately it was the only Pogues video they had.
Hopefully I can convince them to broaden their collection.

That was the first pogues song I ever heard and it's still by far my favorite.

I read the book "Fairytale of New York" by J.P Donealvy, which was apperently based on play the song was based on. I think . Anyway it wasn't really the best read I'd ever had, and I well I guess you can't quite compare a book to a song, but I prefer the song although they didn't really relate to each other much. Anyone else read it? Whatcha think?

I did and must admit I liked it. But as for me his best work is "Ginger man". It was the first thing by Donleavy I ever read. Bought it accidentally in fact. Then being really impressed started to search his products purposely. "F. of NY" was the next thing I found and as I said before I liked it too. But the rest I read since that time - "The Saddest Summer of Samuel S" and one or two plays - didn't impress me much.

Just wondering... did the Pogues ever do an instrumental of the Fairytale of New York, or does such a thing exist?

been through all the p2p file sharing places like kazaa and spy-mesh, google gave me links to buy american karaoke cds for $40...

Thanks for the help

the piano music to fairytale of new york? I been looking for it on the internet for a while now, and can't find it anywhere. If anyone has it, or knows where I can find it please let me know! thanks!

lets go murphys wrote:the piano music to fairytale of new york? I been looking for it on the internet for a while now, and can't find it anywhere. If anyone has it, or knows where I can find it please let me know! thanks!

Uhm, Fairytale of New York is very very easy on piano.
Just play the accords on the left and melody starts with A on the right hand...

If you can't figure it out yourselve just add me on your AIM and I'll help you with it.

I don't have AIM, I got MSN messenger. I'm not actually a piano player, but I can sit down and learn things.
I don't know the chords. Would you be able to post them here, just write what notes they are, like:
a, c, e
b, e, a

That's an example, as you can see I don't have a clue! I'll probably be able to work out the right hand.
If you could that would be so so so helpful!
Thanks

I just posted a request for FoNY on piano before seeing this message.
I do know piano chords but i would like it if someone told me them with the notes instead of trying to pick it up by ear.

Please let me know if you had any success with this

Okey then, I'll give you guys a start, but I just don't have time to complete the whole song. I've made the picture with a crappy demo-program, so if anyone knows a free/share-ware app for Mac that can make sheets like these please contact me!



You can find the tabs and lyrics of the whole song here.

By the way I play the A cord in stead of the Asus4/E.

I found an Karaoke mpg video on WinMX. You can download that one and rip the sound from it.

Cheers
Øyvind