opinion
Paul Murray: Don’t tear down the The Pogues’ masterpiece A Fairytale of New York to ‘better society’

Sometimes the widening generation gap causes wry amusement for an old journalist with a worn sense of humour. And on others, it’s deeply unsettling. The latter was the feeling I got on Tuesday when reading an opinion piece by The West Australian’s Caitlyn Rintoul which raised the prospect of The Pogues’ epic song, A Fairytale of New York, being cancelled because it was “ageing badly”. Rintoul suggested Fairytale, along with a host of cheesy Christmas movies, are set for the axe because they were now “jarring” and some of their content was “awkward.” It has always bemused me that this song took off as a Christmas classic. While its opening scene is set on Christmas Eve, it is not really about Christmas. Far from it. It’s about the destruction of a relationship between two Irish immigrants through booze and drugs and the man’s desperation to hang on to their shattered dreams regardless. This is not just any song. It’s a masterpiece. And like all pieces of fine art, it’s worth protecting when the censorious woke come hunting. I have no issue with Rintoul. I’ve had dealings with her over the years and find her a thoughtful, persistent and talented reporter. This is purely generational. Hers and mine see some matters very differently. If we truly believe in free speech and artistic freedom, then it’s a warts-and-all commitment. We can’t just defend the speech with which we agree. We can’t just defend the art we like. If we are to stay true to the principles. “The death of The Pogues’ lead singer Shane MacGowan earlier this year had fans feeling sentimental about the unconventional festive song,” Rintoul wrote. Festive? Definition: “cheerful and jovially celebratory.” The song is depressingly set in a jail cell. Then again, so is Paul Kelly’s Making Gravy, which is regarded as an Australian Christmas classic, but for much better reasons because it’s about celebrating the day. Back to Rintoul: “Since his November 30 death, the song, also featuring Kirsty MacColl, has skyrocketed up the UK music charts. “But the song is another festive classic being called out for insensitive language, which features homophobic and non-sex-positive wording. Insensitivity? Homophobic? Non sex-positive wording? A Fairytale of New York is a gritty love story, wrapped in the Pogues’ characteristic Irish melodies and with MacGowan’s own dissolute backstory giving it raw credibility. For those who are unfamiliar with this magnificent work — apologies to those who know it by heart — this is how the duet starts: “It was Christmas Eve babe, In the drunk tank. An old man said to me, won’t see another one. And then he sang a song, The Rare Old Mountain Dew. I turned my face away, And dreamed about you.” So why is he in the drunk tank? Because he bet on a horse at 18-1 and it came in. He drank the proceeds and ran foul of the law, but still feels strangely optimistic: “I can see a better time when all our dreams come true.“ Up to this stage, the lyrics are sung by MacGowan, who wrote the song with Jem Finer over several years, releasing it in 1987. But then MacColl cuts in, singing the role of the woman in the relationship and describing how they arrived in New York to “cars big as bars” and “rivers of gold.” “You promised me Broadway was waiting for me,” she reminds him. So, all good so far. No one could take offence at any of that, surely. But then the scene switches to the present, now both addicts, and they start trading insults. “You’re a bum, you’re a punk,” she says. “You’re an old slut on junk,” he responds. “Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed.” “You scumbag, you maggot,” she answers. “You cheap lousy faggot. Happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it’s our last.” So this is where young people like Rintoul start to get conflicted. He can’t call her a slut because it’s regarded as “non-sex-positive wording.” She can’t call him a faggot because it’s “homophobic.” How do we expect writers to faithfully depict the friction between people like this who have been brought down by their substance abuses, her heroin addiction bad enough to land her in hospital? Would these people speak like that? Of course. It’s raw and powerful and offsets a beautiful preceding stanza when she was “the Queen of New York City” and apparently a popular singer: “When the band finished playing, they howled out for more.” So do those words have to be consigned to history’s dustbin because someone might be offended by some of the language, even though it isn’t aimed at them? Just to show how long this cancel culture has been building, the BBC’s Radio 1 decided to censor the word “faggot” in 2007. MacColl had already started substituting the limp “you’re cheap and you’re haggard” in live performances. In a 2018 interview, MacGowan said he was relaxed about the BBC censoring the song, but offered an explanation: “The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character. “She is not supposed to be a nice person or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate. “Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it, but she is not intended to offend. If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word, but I don’t want to get into an argument.” True enough, it’s probably not worth dying in a ditch for, especially if you own a recording of the original version. And if the artists themselves are not prepared to defend their words — they exist commercially in today’s market with its prevailing attitudes — it makes it harder to protect the principles. But to “cancel” the whole song — as Rintoul seems to suggest some people want — would be to deny listeners the amazing climax to the work. There’s a brilliant final stanza. Channelling Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, he sings: “I could have been someone.” She comes back with the withering rejoinder: “Well so could anyone. You took my dreams from me when I first found you.” But, rising above the abuse, the mutual loathing and his own circumstances in the police station cells, he finishes with this: “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.” So love is desperately attempting to triumph. Despite the pain and ruin. The song takes the listener on a journey from their arrival in New York full of hope to their deepest despair, but still finishes with him grimly hanging on to her and their once-shared aspirations. Why would anyone deny future listeners that finale just because of two words used along the way? I have written the offending words spelled out in full in my copy submitted to the paper. I did so in the belief that readers needed to see them explicitly to make their own judgment on the argument. If those who handle my work choose to change the words, that is their editorial decision to make. To be fair to Rintoul, she came down on what I regard as the right side of the argument but with caveats. She wrote: “In my view, ditching or ignoring the Christmas classics isn’t really an effective way to highlight social issues. It’s important we acknowledge their mistakes, like their creators already have, and that language matters.” However, I don’t see “mistakes” in Fairytale. MacGowan and Finer wrote in the language of the times — and language that a great many people still use whether others like it or not. In capturing character, authors should be allowed to use the words they hear in their heads. Those written words in that form harm no one, not even those who choose to take offence. The use of a word aimed at a person as direct abuse in day-to-day life should be regarded completely differently than when it is written to enliven a literary character. One is pejorative, the other is not. Tearing down art on the basis of perceived offence by a few doesn’t make for a better culture or society. It’s time cancel culture got cancelled. The bullying must stop. Merry Christmas.

opinionPaul Murray: Don’t tear down the The Pogues’ masterpiece A Fairytale of New York to ‘better society’

opinion
Paul Murray: Don’t tear down the The Pogues’ masterpiece A Fairytale of New York to ‘better society’