Fairytale ending for song with a brew of romantic regret
EVERY YEAR, the Christmas song list is predictable and whether it’s the unforgettable raspy-voiced shriek at the beginning of Slade’s
or Bing Crosby’s super smooth most of the classics are upbeat tributes to the festive spirit.
Not by The Pogues, which was released on November 23, 1987 and tells the story of a love gone sour and a couple resentful of their broken dreams. It was the decision to ignore the usual Christmas spiel that has perhaps cemented the song’s place on radio playlists for the past three decades, according to musician Jem Finer, who co-wrote the song with Shane MacGowan.
“It’s not a vacuous celebration of fun and overconsumption, rather a human story that many people can probably relate to,” he says. “It’s timeless.”
The details of how the song came about are hazy. MacGowan maintains Elvis Costello, who produced The Pogues’ album
challenged him to write a Christmas song. But according to Finer, he and MacGowan began writing
in the autumn of 1985.
What is well-documented, however, is that two Christmases came and went before was ready. Finer puts the delay down to “the ambition of what we were trying to do”. He says the storyline of a couple, finding themselves in hard times and coming to resent one another came from his wife, Marcia Farquhar. MacGowan then transposed the narrative from London to New York and “rewrote it in his own inimitable style”, according to Finer.
Until its release in 1987, the band tried recording the song on a number of occasions but they didn’t have a female lead. Then the late singer Kirsty MacColl, wife of the song’s new producer Steve Lillywhite, took on the female vocals.
For many, the song is the starting pistol to mark that Christmas is well and truly on its way. “It’s got so much going for it – great lyrics, a great melody, themes of nostalgia and regret, love and dissolution,” Rob Hughes, a journalist and BBC 6 Music contributor, says.
“There’s enough romantic allure to make it a wistful Christmas song, even though, essentially, it charts the highs and lows of a turbulent relationship. Christmas time is secondary to the story, rather than its primary thrust.”
According to Hughes it also appeals to Britain’s “immovable national trait” of “inherent cynicism”, adding: “What other Christmas song would dare go for lines like ‘you’re an old slut on junk’?”
In 2007 an attempt to ban the words “faggot” and “slut” from the airwaves led to widespread uproar and after such a long creative process to finish the song, it’s unsurprising. Finer views any attempt at censorship as “absolutely ridiculous”.
Since founding The Pogues along with MacGowan, Peter ‘Spider’ Stacy and James Fearnley in the early eighties, Finer has led a varied career including composing a piece of music lasting 1,000 years.
Does he ever get annoyed to be asked continuously about
“No,” he answers. “I think if what you do finds such popularity then you should be very happy about that.”
In 1987 Finer never thought the song might become so loved. “I don’t think one thinks like that when one writes a song – I certainly don’t. When it was released expectations were on a more day-to-day basis – will it get played on the radio? Will it make the top 40? – rather than ‘will it still be played in 30 years?’”
It reached No 2 in the UK Singles chart in 1987, and every year since 2005 it has scored a place in the top 20. Regardless of whether Finer thinks it’s the best, it’s his favourite. “But I like the one about a mummy kissing Santa Claus, too,” he adds.