This article is from page 15 of the 2012-01-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
ONE OF the world’s all time favourite Christmas songs ‘The Fairytale of New York’ was actually written about County Clare – according to Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.
According to the mercurial Mr MacGowan, the 1987 classic was originally written from the perspective of a West Clare sailor looking out across the Atlantic and dreaming of life in New York. The Clare People has also learned that the song, which was made world famous as a duet performed by MacGowan and the late great Kirsty MacColl, was also written with a Clare woman in mind.
Instead of MacColl, early versions of the song were performed by formed Pogues singer Cait O’Riordan, who father hailed from Lahinch and who used to spend much of her summer time as a girl in North and West Clare.
The Clare connection with ‘The Fairytale of New York’ was revealed as part of an hour-long interview with Shane MacGowan conducted by the BBC over Christmas. This change of emphasis from West Clare to New York was also confirmed by Pogues banjo player Jem Finer, who admitted the song took nearly two years of hard work to perfect after the decision to move the song to New York was made.
According to Pogues guitarist Philip Chevron, the song developed well in its orioginal format but the band was never able to quite finish the ‘Fairytale of West Clare’.
“In the earliest incarnation it took place not in New York, but in the west coast of Clare. If you listen to the early demos we did of that song at a certain point, in each case, they kind of just stop developing. They just fall into a hole where they can go no further,” he said.
According to Finer, it was the record producer Steve Lillywhite who persuaded his then wife, Kirsty MacColl, to perform the song as a duet with MacGowan.
“We tried to record it twice before it finally got it nailed with Steve Lillywhite,” he said.
“So it went through a lot of revisions. There were always things that didn’t quite work and Shane did a lot of editing of the lyrics, coming back to it again and again over a period of about two years, and we played about with the arrangement until it sort of sat properly.”
Despite being more than 24 years old the song continues to beguile listeners and reached an impressive Number 7 in the Irish singles charts this year.