Sunday 29 November 2020

84 - Fairytale

 After talking about the censorship of Fairytale of New York the other day, I kinda feel like talking about the song itself, and why it's one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Heck, I'd put it in my top three of all songs I've ever heard in my life, and this is why...

(Atta Girl by Heavenly, and There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths before you ask!)

Like most people of my age I first heard FONY when it was released in 1987. At the time I was just 14 years old, and I'd never heard anything quite like it. Christmas songs at the time were pretty much all completely joyous, and uplifting, and talking of how great the time of year was. Think Slade, or Wizzard, or Shakey, or... and yes, I know there were some exemptions like Mud or Jonah Lewie, but these were not that common, and none had anything like we were to get with FONY. I must have played the 7" millions of times. Just the a-side. The b-side was an instrumental version. 

The song, is at heart, the story of a relationship between a man and a woman, and catalogues the ups and downs of this relationship. The song begins with a man, arrested by the Police, thrown in the drunk tank on Christmas Eve. Here, he slurs his drunken words, some almost incomprehensible (a theme that would continue through the song with Shane's parts), but here we still get the central theme of the song, about dreaming of how the future could be better. 

The argument verse is the one the seems to get all the press because of the language (not going in to it here; see post 81); but the whole thing is in character. We've had the optimistic first duet of the song when the couple have first met; here, it's where they've been together for a while, and despite the fact they still love each other, things have not been going so well, so they have a full on blistering row. But this is not the end. 

The peak of the song comes with the last verse - the dreams verse - where the woman complains that he "took my dreams from me"; but this is soon countered with "I kept them with me, babe; I put them with my own", and soon reaches a peak with the line "I built my dreams around you", which is one of the most beautiful lines in any song, and this openness on his part suggests there may yet be hope for this couple to live happily ever after, or at least comfortably with each other. 

I like to hope they have a happy ending. 

"There is no harp player in The Pogues."

If you can track it down (and hopefully it'll be repeated on the BBC this year again) there's an hour long documentary about FONY, going in to how the song came about, its reception, its legacy, and acting as a tribute to the late Kirsty MacColl, who was taken from us 20 years ago. It shows early demo versions of the song, which really don't work anything like as well. But there's a sublime moment where the song's producer Steve Lilywhite takes us through the master tape, isolating individual tracks. At one point he isolates Kirsty's vocal, and even unaccompanied it's so very powerful and the reason the song works so well.

Ironically, though, Shane and Kirsty didn't record the song together. Kirsty's vocals were only meant to be a guide vocal so that the Pogues could used it to show the eventual singer what they wanted. However, as soon as Shane heard Kirsty's vocal he insisted that it was just right and that she be the one on the record. He recorded his bits separately. They performed the song live in concert many times, though. 

It is a song that's been covered many times, and this is something I alluded to in the previous post on this topic; if you are going to sing Shane's part on the song, we have to believe you could be in the drunk tank on Christmas Eve, or it just doesn't work. This is because it is a song as much about the performance, the acting of the roles, as it is of singing a song. That belief. Could you imagine Shane McGowan in the drunk tank on Christmas Eve? Hell, yeah! Ronan Keating? Hell, no. 

There's all sorts of covers released of the song over the years, some fairly straight, some giving it their own spin (one reimagining it as a solo song, rather than a duet), but I don't think there'll ever be a version to top the original 1987 version. 

83 - Numbering

 Now I am sure those among you who have been paying attention will notice that every post on this blog is numbered, and that today's is #83, and the previous post was #81. So. Where is post #82?

Well... I was looking through my post list on the dashboard of the site and saw that the post count after #81 was 83 posts. Now, this post count includes unpublished drafts, and there is an unpublished draft from a little while back that never saw light of day. It's called "Manifesto", and one day should I summon up the energy to finish it, it'll be published. 

But that still left a post unaccounted for as there was definitely only the one draft... so, looking back through the blog I happened to realise that a little while back I gave two posts the same number... see if you can find which two...

So, I had two choices; go back and revise all the post numbers from that point, or skip the #82 so that the total number of published posts matches the current post number. 

You can see what I've chosen to do. 

Hopefully, there will be no further duplications...!

Friday 27 November 2020

81 - Language

Well, it's late November so we're now in the annual tedium of the censoring or banning of the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's Christmas classic single, Fairytale of New York. 

This year it seems particularly notable as it's Radio 1 who have decided to blur our the word "slut" and replace "you cheap lousy faggot" with "you're cheap and you're haggard" whenever it plays it as it thinks their listeners are too sensitive to hear a song featuring the omitted words. Other BBC radio stations have apparently left it to the DJ as to which version of the song is played...

I guess before I go on, I should go in to a bit of a history in to the censorship of the song.

Back in 1987, when the song was first released and was to be performed on Top of the Pops, they had no problem at all with the words "slut" or "faggot", and instead took issue with "Happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it's your last", insisting that "your arse" be replaced with "you ass". It is this performance, with Shane's unique lip-syncing, that is most often repeated on the Christmas TOTP2 compilations. 

Much less seen is the performance shown just after Christmas 1991, just in to January 1992. This is the origin of the alternative "you're cheap and you're haggard" version of the song, where Kirsty sings these very lyrics. And, therefore, how Radio 1 can play a version where Kirsty sings these alternative lyrics. 

There are many people who think this alternative originated with the dreadful Ronan Keating cover of the song; they are wrong. They're not wrong about it being dreadful, though; it is. Though after seeing him speak about it on the terrific BBC documentary about the song I understand why he covered it, his version just doesn't work as to sing Shane's part of the song you have to believe the singer could spend Christmas Eve in the drunk tank... can you imagine that about Ronan? No! Nessa, fer sure... (Now if we could have a release of the full version of the Nessa and Bryn version released I would be very happy...)

It has been noted by many that Shane McGowan himself doesn't care which version of FONY is played; well, yes, he's not daft. He'll be more than aware that whichever version is played he'll still get his royalties. If not played at all, then he gets nothing. Radio airplay of FONY is probably enough to keep him in whisky for a whole year... 

And all that's a load of preamble before I get to the point; what do I think? Well, my opinion is that if you're going to play the song, you should play the song as it was released in 1987, bad words and all. 

"'Cos you know sometimes words have two meanings..." Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven. 

It is the use of the word "faggot" that stirs up much negativity towards the song, and it is an unacceptable slur towards gay people. It's also an old Irish (and apparently Liverpudlian) slang for a lazy person. The question is which definition of the word would the Irish chap Shane McGowan have had in mind when writing the song?

I would certainly suggest the latter as it's the definition of the word that actually best fits the context of the story in the song; that of the ups and down in the relationship of a man and a woman, and there is not a single moment in the song that suggests the male character is gay. Therefore, logically, the "lazy person" interpretation to me would be the correct one. 

(Faggot's also an old word for a bundle of twigs, and a very tasty gravy covered meaty dish; neither of those contexts fits either. Oh, I do miss faggots since I went vegetarian. I used to have them a couple of times a month until then. If only Brains could make a vegetarian version. It'd be brilliant. Piers Morgan would disagree, I expect... )

I know there is also the argument that homophobic bullies use this part of the song to denigrate gay people; but let's be honest, bullies will use anything they can get their hands on to use as a weapon. If not this song, they'd just use something else. It's a nothing argument as to give in to the bullies is admitting they've won, and they can never win. They must never win. 

But at the end of the day it comes down to a personal choice. If I play the song, I'll play the original. Other people will play the censored version. It's not like it's being taken away, and never heard. 

You have the choice. 

And that freedom of choice is oh, so very important. 

Now... what have we all got to say about the censoring of Mel and Kim's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and the excision of the line "I haven't had this much fun since Two Little Boys was number one..." 

Monday 9 November 2020

80 - Single

The thought does sometimes enter my mind as to whether I’ll be single for the rest of my life. I realise this may be a somewhat pessimistic outlook, but perhaps it may be realistic, and with how 2020 has been going, the isolation and all that pandemic related malarkey, makes me increasingly think this is my future.

 

And it’s not even necessarily a bad thing.


I have now spent close to 8 and a half years as a single chap, and I am somewhat used to just doing exactly what I feel like, when I feel like it – subject to restrictions of needing to do pesky things like working, and planning around school days/holidays and the other fun things the kids do. Oh, and of course, traversing the may different rules of the lockdowns this year. But, ultimately, decision are mine, and I am rather used to how life is.

 

I sometimes wonder if I’ve spent so much time single that I’d be no good in any kind of relationship, or that I’d need a lot of knocking in to shape to be even remotely bearable around, and that I’d put off anyone that might even contemplate a date with me? You may think this is, again, pessimism; but precedent set would point in this direction. I mean, of the handful of dates I have been in on recent years virtually all of them I’ve thought have gone well… until the inevitable “nah, not for me” follow up. Even the rarer second dates have failed to lead to a third.

 

Oh. Well.

 

And also I really don’t like dating as a concept much anyway as it’s far too much like a two way job interview with all the questions etc (I’ve been told I both ask too many and too few questions!), and trying to cram as much in as you can in a pretty short amount of time. Sometimes the conversation flows better than others, but I guess that’s a part of how things are; conversations with someone you’ve only just met will never be the same as with those who have been your friends for many years. You don’t yet have the shortcuts, in-jokes, and knowledge of the kind of things the other will find funny etc. These things take time, which is in short supply on a date. Also, to be honest, on a first date I really don’t care what your job is; all that can come later. I mean, chances are it’s not that exciting; certainly mine isn’t. I’d rather be talking about the things you choose to do, hobbies, interests, likes, dislikes, opinions on things. All that is much, much, more interesting. I remember one date was a massive EastEnders fan; she talked for ages about that, and it was great. Can’t remember her job at all.  

 

Of course, you have to get someone to go on a date with you in the first place, and these days that’s mainly the apps; even when you match with someone only a small number will actually bother to message you back. And then it’s hard to know exactly what to say in your first message. I always try to make sure I include something that shows I’ve actually paid attention to her profile, so it doesn’t sound like it’s a generic message that could be sent to anyone (though I admit, I have sent some of these). I mean, I don’t expect a reply within 30 seconds of hitting “send”, but when you look in your inbox and see piles of messages without replies it does get a little disheartening. Almost wish you’d not got the match in the first place.

 

Looking back, I sound like a right moaning old whingebag, and that’s really not the tone I was aiming for here. I do retain at least a little optimism that I might not be single forever, but I am much less worried about it than I might have been in the past. I have far fewer expectations now than I might have had in the past, and I guess whatever happens, happens.

 

No-one knows just what the future holds, and in some ways that’s exciting. The pandemic has put things on hold for a while, but it won’t last forever. You never know, maybe a match or two might work out how to reply to a message and it could be the start of something big? Or maybe the start of something nothing much at all?

 

Either way there’s only one way to find out…