First Fairytale of Christmas

[Low D]

CBC Music has released a list of the top 20 "Most Wonderful" Christmas songs, ostensibly chosen by their listeners. While the list does display a Canadian bias, i am pleased to report that Fairytale... comes in at No. 2 on the list, second only to a Joni Mitchell tune.

http://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/19474/the- ... ing-to-you

It seems that this song is eternally destined for #2. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...

[DzM]

It seems that this song is eternally destined for #2. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...

BBC World news had a thing a day or two ago where they reported that the Twitterses made Fairytale #1. So THERE!

[Welshie]

Heard last night at a Christmas party!
Cheers
Aled

[Low D]

Not actually heard it yet, but have seen my first news articles about whether or not it should be censored/banned!

https://www.independent.ie/entertainmen ... 02276.html

[Low D]

Oh, also, this happened:

Saoirse Ronan and Jimmy Sing "Fairytale of New York"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeOVR09ohSU

[Fr. McGreer]

First Fairytale for me last night. Whilst putting up the tree with the girls we had the Christmas tunes going. Sounds as good as ever.

First mince pie of the season. Today. Taste as good as ever.

[firehazard]

First Fairytale for me last night. Whilst putting up the tree with the girls we had the Christmas tunes going. Sounds as good as ever.

First mince pie of the season. Today. Taste as good as ever.

Good to hear, Fr McG.

Hazardette #2 arrived home for the weekend on Friday evening, takeaway curry arrived soon after... as I went to stick the CD player on, "Dad, we need to put the Pogues on. Can we have If I Should Fall From Grace... that's the one with Fairytale, isn't it?"

I have trained them well.

[leadshoes]

The first time this year was Frances' post on the movie Basquiat. Somehow neither of us recalled Fairytale at the start of the movie, which makes me wonder if it's a new edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3uqhDDVrUY

It just repeats the first verse, but that's the best part of the song to me. Like I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of it and I don't live in Ireland or the UK, so I only hear it by accident. I'd almost forgotten exactly why I don't like it, but then I remembered that the female is supposedly singing from a hospital bed recovering from a drug overdose with an IV drip sustaining her. Besides that being just stupid, it seems insanely callous to exploit that kind of scenario for a Christmas song. I'm sure there are tons of people who are really trapped in that kind of desperate situation during the holidays, and to romanticize it is just not cool at all. I'll give Shane and Jem and the Pogues a pass because I feel like it was probably the record company pushing the idea, and I'm not surprised that the powers-that-be in this world would parade the song into the charts every year since they like to milk tragedies for all they're worth. But if it's true that it makes Shane half a million dollars a year in royalties from it (which I somehow doubt), I think all of it should be directly distributed in person to homeless people at Christmastime. Maybe in a different world, huh? But then I doubt there would be homeless in that different world in the first place. So there you have it, my unGrinchly Grinch moment of the season.

[firehazard]

Blimey.

"I turned my face away and dreamed about you." Then the rest of the song is a dream in a drunken mind. Or something.

[leadshoes]

Blimey.

"I turned my face away and dreamed about you." Then the rest of the song is a dream in a drunken mind. Or something.

I never saw it that way. I think the dream about her ends with the first NYPD choir chorus, but the reality abruptly sets in when they start insulting each other. Honestly, however you want to look at it, these are two seriously down-and-out people without a support system during the holidays, and it’s a sad scenario to take advantage of for a Christmas song.

[JohnG]

There was a wonderful (repeated) documentary about FoNY on BBC4 last week. Saw it the first time round a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it again. Well worth catching on BBC iPlayer.

[leadshoes]

There was a wonderful (repeated) documentary about FoNY on BBC4 last week. Saw it the first time round a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it again. Well worth catching on BBC iPlayer.

It's on youtube at the moment, here, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUSNzqqLFT0

I've seen this and it's fun to watch but I'll never get the way-over-the-top attention to the song. It only makes sense to me as some sort of psyop, which I know happens all the time everywhere.

[Low D]

Played through the IISFFG album while decorating the tree on Sunday, so that was my first of the season.

My difficult middle child has been struggling to learn this on guitar (she's primarily a fiddler & pianist), so I directed her to Christy's version, which has slightly less time signatures.

[leadshoes]

There was a wonderful (repeated) documentary about FoNY on BBC4 last week. Saw it the first time round a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it again. Well worth catching on BBC iPlayer.

Don't know how I didn't notice before that at 45:13 of the documentary, you can hear Philomena Begley singing Galway Bay. So beautiful!

[firehazard]

Blimey.

"I turned my face away and dreamed about you." Then the rest of the song is a dream in a drunken mind. Or something.

I never saw it that way. I think the dream about her ends with the first NYPD choir chorus, but the reality abruptly sets in when they start insulting each other...

Have you never experienced a dream in which you had a big falling out with your beloved? Then made up again...