“A song puts words into people’s mouths to drunkenly sing and they might not even realise what they’re singing”: Irish legends discuss the controversy around a Christmas classic

It's a song that has become a pillar of the Christmas canon, yet over the last few years, The Pogues' 1987 festive folk-rock ballad Fairytale of New York has been subject to intense debate over its use of a homophobic slur.

The controversy around the use of the word, which the band's late lead singer Shane McGowan defended in 2018 was brought to the fore by the BBC's decision to censor the track since 2020, pre-empted by an uncensored rendition during a karaoke scene in the 2019 Christmas special of the BBC's comedy monolith Gavin & Stacy.

This prompted a flurry of complaints. It also triggered heated discourse around the rights and wrongs of censorship in general.

The conversation around whether such a staple of the Christmas songbook should be re-analysed and re-configured for modern sensibilities became a battleground in the so-called 'culture wars'.

Now, in a new interview with the NME, surviving Pogues James Fearnley, Jem Finer and Spider Stacy - who had previously defended the BBC's choice to censor the term - were asked for their current perspective on this ongoing debate. “When the BBC announced they were censoring that lyric, I was looking at Twitter where a guy said that he loved The Pogues but every Christmas when he hears drunk blokes shouting that word in the street - when they’re singing along to Fairytale of New York - he’s reminded of the number of times he heard it when having the shit kicked out of him at school for being gay,” said Spider.

Stacy went on to say that, with the empathetic perspective of the above, he agreed with the decision to censor the word; “My personal point of view is that people shouldn’t have to put up with that, so I took it upon myself to say we were in agreement with the BBC’s decision. Times change and you to be more mindful of what you’re saying and when you’re saying it.”

The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York (Official Video) - YouTube

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Is it really 're-writing history' to adapt problematic song lyrics to be more sensitive to our wider collective cultural and emotional language? After all, songs (particularly Christmas songs) aren't simply historical artefacts.

For the best part of two months, Christmas music becomes omnipresent - played out at pubs, bars, parties and on endless playlists. Surely a little sensitivity to those who find the word (rightly) offensive is no bad thing?

As the song's co-writer, Jim Finer, states in the interview; “If those lines were delivered in a play, it would be different, but a song puts words into people’s mouths to drunkenly sing and they might not even realise what they’re singing, but suddenly it’s in the tube station.”

Jim went on to explain that the original lyric was never intended to be homophobic in the first place, with the Irish punk legend's intention being to illustrate the type of character the lyrical co-protagonist of the song is. “He wasn’t homophobic in any way - he was writing a character who would have spoken like that - if it’s being played in a setting where it might be taken out of context and harm people in any way, then it’s fair enough that the word’s substituted or bleeped. We don’t have a problem with that,” Jim states.

Regardless of your stance on the debate, the song - a cinematic back-and-forth between the late Kirsty MacColl and McGowan remains a poignant, beloved piece of work. It's a track we're all going to be hearing a lot more of over the coming weeks…

To read the full interview, head over to NME.com