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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Roisin O'Connor

How The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl made Fairytale of New York

YouTube/Screengrab

“Fairytale of New York” is a drunken hymn for people with broken dreams and abandoned hopes. It is, therefore, a perfect contrast to some of the perkier perennial favourites we wheel out each Christmas.

The song begins with its narrator, an Irish immigrant, being thrown into a drunk tank to sleep off his Christmas Eve binge.

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