Chords for Fairytale of New York: How the Pogues Created a Christmas Classic

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In 1985, producer Elvis Costello approached the [F] Pogues with a challenge.
He wanted the band to write a Christmas song.
Another version of the story [Dm] says it was manager Frank Murray who asked the [E] Pogues to cover a song,
to which they responded [Am] they could just as easily make their own.
Either way, the Pogues set out to write a [F] Christmas song.
[Dm] That song took two troublesome years to develop and [E] went through a number of versions in that time,
[F] but it was all worth it.
When the Pogues came out the other side in 1987,
they had created Fairy Tale of [E] New York, [Dm] one of the greatest Christmas songs ever recorded.
[E] Let's take a closer look.
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It's hard to understate [C] just how big Fairy Tale of New York is.
Since 2005, it's entered into the UK top 20 [E] like clockwork every [Bm] Christmas,
and in 2013, it got certified platinum.
According to the Telegraph, it's the [C] best-selling Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK.
In a Christmas [Em] music scene filled with cheesy novelty [Bm] songs,
it's a depressing tune full of [C] grime, grit, and genuine humanity.
The earliest version of the song came from [Em] Jem Finer, the Pogues' banjoist.
That [Bm] take was a far cry from the version we know [C] now.
It told the story of a sailor missing his wife,
but Finer's own wife thought the story [Em] was a little too corny.
She suggested an [Bm] outline for the story that would become the Fairy Tale of New [C] York.
A couple falling on hard times and coming eventually to some redemption.
[Em] This laid the groundwork that Shane McGowan and [Bm] Finer spent the next two years honing.
Most of [C] McGowan's lyrics were written when he was bedridden after getting double pneumonia
during a [B] 1985 [Em] tour of Scandinavia.
McGowan also came up with the [Bm] title of the song.
Elvis [C] Costello had suggested Christmas Eve in the drunk tank,
but McGowan opted for another option.
[Em] He titled the song an homage to a novel by J.P. [Bm] Dunleavy, which he had been reading at the time.
While the plot of that novel is [C] unrelated to the song, the spirit is there.
It tells the story of Irish immigrants in New York.
Another big influence on the song was Sergio Leone's film, Once Upon a Time in America.
Ennio Morricone's score for that film [E] even influenced the sound of the song. _
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By the end of 1985, the band had a rough idea [C] of the song,
but demos from that [Em] time show that they hadn't quite gotten the magic yet.
🎵 [G] I'll see [C] you babe, _ _ in [Em] the drunk [F] _
tank 🎵
🎵 An old [C] man said to me, _ _ _ we'll see another [D] one 🎵
[C] Feiner told The Guardian about the band's drive to find the perfect sound for the song.
🎵 Shane and I batted arrangements around for ages and we periodically try and record it 🎵
🎵 Shane's a tireless and meticulous editor 🎵
McGowan added his take on why the song took so long to write.
🎵 It's by far the most complicated song that I have ever been involved in writing and performing 🎵
🎵 The beauty of it is that it sounds really simple 🎵
In [Ab] 1986, the [Em] band started working with a new producer, [Bm] Steve Lilliewhite,
who began to add his touches to [Em] the track.
That's when the Pogues hit another hurdle.
Kate O'Riordan left the group.
Without her, the band had nobody to sing the female side of the duet.
[C] They had the idea of bringing in Chrissy Hynde from The Pretenders,
[D] but they ended up settling on Kirsty McColl, who was married to Lilliewhite.
He recorded her vocals at his home studio and brought them to the band,
[G] who were [A] floored [D] and wanted them on the final song.
🎵 They got cars [A] big as bars, [G] they got rivers of [D] gold 🎵
🎵 But the wind goes right through you, it's no place for [A] the old 🎵
🎵 [Bm] When you first took my hand on a [G] cold Christmas Eve 🎵
🎵 [D] You promised me Broadway [A] was [D] waiting for [C] me 🎵
All of the pieces had fallen into place, and the band had their [B] final [Em] product.
When it was released a few months [Bm] later, people immediately embraced The Drunken Tale.
[C] It tells the story of Irish immigrants who moved to America
in hopes of living [Em] the American dream,
only to find themselves [Bm] desperate and hopeless on Christmas.
Fairytale of New York is a dark song that embraces the struggles [C] people face, even at Christmas.
But [Em] it's also a jaunty fun ride that's a perfect [D] drunken sing-along for any Christmas [G] part.
🎵 [D] _ _
_ _ You're a bad punk, you're a [A] old slut and junk load [D] 🎵
🎵 And they're [G] almost dead [A] on a [D] trippy night, bud 🎵
I think [C] it was such a successful song because it acknowledged that
Christmas isn't magical for everyone and subverted a lot of these tropes,
but at the same time, it has this fun, communal [Em] Christmas magic to it.
It was a long [Bm] road to create Fairytale of New York,
but now [C] the pogues are cemented into the Christmas canon,
[D] and I don't [G] expect they'll be [A] leaving it anytime [D] soon.
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