Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
As I said last year:
There aren’t many songs that can still leave me totally defenseless, no matter how many times I hear them. This is one of the few.
From the opening piano notes and you hear Shane MacGowan sing as only he is capable of: with a tenderness only matched by its raggedness. And then, even though you’ve heard it so many times before, you’re still completely unprepared for the way Kirsty MacColl’s voice emerges, triumphant, joyful, alive beyond words. As the verse unfolds and their voices intertwine you can almost see them, dancing together under the falling snow. It’s all there: the joy, the pain, the anger, the lost dreams, the hope, and the love. And on the final verse, when he sings “can’t make it all alone, I’ve built my dreams around you” there’s nothing left to do except weep for the sheer beauty of it all. It’s all enough to shatter the composure of even the most stolid guy.
This is a song that grows better for me every time I hear it. There’s something transcendent about it. This is not simply a song about two people, or even a song about all people. It’s a song about what it means to exist, to sense, to feel. It goes beyond any definition. It simply is, and so are we, and that is beautiful.
Happy Christmas.