Merry X-Mas

1988, The Pogues' third album. Shane Macgowan delivers a somewhat contrived, novelty pogues duet with Kirsty MacColl that plays on the familiar themes of disassociation and nationality, drug use and the distanced and delusional relationship between Ireland and America. Lacking the chaotic, caustic honesty of songs like "The Old Main Drag", Fairytale of New York turned the pogues' themes of alcoholism and unfulfulfilled life goals into a bluesy, almost cheerful caricature of traditional Irish folk music and the folk narrative, ending with a bittersweet but reassuring final stanza in which its dueting arbiters reach the cheerful social space that seems to betray the Sid and Nancy style, irresistible destructiveness insinuated between the two. As such, it went on to become the most commercially successful Pogues song ever and made "If I should fall from grace with god" their highest selling album. Still, even a commercialized song from the Shane Macgowan era Pogues has a charming, dirt-filled, gritty insanity unparalleled anywhere else in punk or folk or whatever the fuck music. It's also become a kind of Christmas standard for me, and if you have Irish cream and a pretty girl with you, I'd reccomend screaming it drunkenly from the pink and yellow lights on your neighbors overdecorated doorstoop.

Shane:It was christmas eve babe
in the drunk tank
an old man said to me: won`t see another one
but then they sang a song
the rare old mountain dew
I turned my face away and dreamed about you
God, I'm a lucky one
came in eighteen to one
I´ve got a feeling
this year´s for me and you
so happy christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
when all our dreams come true.

Kirsty Maccoll:They got cars big as bars
they got rivers of gold
but the wind goes right through you
it´s no place for the old
when you first took my hand on a cold christmas eve
you promised me broadway was waiting for me
You´re handsome

Shane: you were pretty
queen of new york city

Together:when the band finished playing they howled out for more ,Sinatra was swinging, all the drunks they were singing
we kissed on a corner
and danced through the night.

And the boys from the NYPD choir were singing 'Galway Bay',
and the bells were ringing out for christmas day.

K:You´re a bum you´re a punk

S:you´re an old slut on junk
lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed

K:You scumbag you maggot
you cheap lousy fagott
happy christmas my arse I pray god it´s our last.

And the boys of the NYPD choirwere singing Galway Bay
and the bells were ringing out
for christmas day.

S:I could have been someone

K:well so could anyone
you took my dreams from me
when I first found you

S:I kept them with me, babe
I put them with my own
Can´t make it all alone
I´ve built my dreams around you

Together:And the boys of the NYPD choirwere singing Galway Bay
and the bells were ringing out
for christmas day.