Group 4: "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues
LYRICS
The Pogues
The Pogues is an Irish/English band, which plays a mix between punk rock and traditional Irish folk music. The band was founded in 1982 with the name “Pogue Mahone” which comes from the Celtic “póg mo thóin” that means something like “kiss my ass”.
Title - "Fairytale of New York"
When your first hear the title, you think that it is a sweet love song. But when you hear the song and read the lyrics you discover that the title actually is pretty ironic.
Settings
The song is about two lovers, but the fact that they call each other “punk” and “old slut” along with the happy theme in the music makes the song a bit comic. It’s not a typical Christmas love song.
Language
The language is easy and informal. There are not a lot of rhymes in the song, except the chorus and a few in the verse such as “punk”/ “junk” and “maggot”/ “faggot”. Positive words such as “dreams”, “lucky”, “love”, “rivers of gold”, “handsome and pretty”, “kissed” and “danced” stands in contrast with words like “drunk tank”, “punk”, “an old slut on junk”, “dead”, “scumbag”, “maggot”, “cheap lousy faggot” and “arse”.
Composition
The song is a duet. In the first verse man sings alone, and in the second verse the woman sings alone. But in the rest of the song they ”sing to each other”. It's like a conversation. The song starts out with the man telling about how his Christmas at homeless shelter is like. We find out that he miss a certain girl. Then the woman comes in and tells about New York, and their relationship before and how she meet him. She had probably moved to New York as young, and then met him. She tells that he took his hand and promised her a lot of different things. They then talk about how it was when they were young, and how they had “big succes”. The woman was the “queen of New york”, and even Sinatra danced to her music. They had a lot of good times.
Music
The song starts out with only piano and the man singing. After that the drums, the harmonica, the violin, the bass the guitar begins and the woman starts singing. After that the chorus come. After the chorus they start singing together, and after that the chorus comes again. After that comes an other stanza, where they sing together, and before the outro there is a last chorus.
Characters
The man: We imagine that the man in the song is a bit of a bum. It sounds like has a pretty rough life. We think he is homeless, because in first the stanza we hear that he is in the drunk tank. In the song we hear about how he meet the love of his life when he was young. We hear about how they were young, happy and in love. But now when they have grown up it is not the same anymore. I think he misses his old life, now that he has become old. In the last stanza we hear him say that “I could have been someone”. I think he is a bit frustrated that things didn't work out as he expected. And now when it's Christmas all the feelings is overwhelming him. All though he is old and things have changed, he still loves the girl. But maybe it's only because of Christmas.
The woman: We imagine that the lady in the text have been through a lot of things. Perhaps she took to New York when she was young, probably to follow a dream of becoming a star, and there she met the guy from the text. He took her hand, and promised her a lot of things, and she became a singer. Even Sinatra was swinging with them. But now her time as a star is over, and she is outworn and poor now. Her and the guy still live together, probably at a homeless shelter, and they have a love/hate relationship.
Message
This is a story about the blossoming love between two people in New York City. They have been living in the city of dreams, overwhelmed by all the possibilities, and impressions, thinking they could only succeed. Now as they're old, they don't see the city or each other that fairytale-like, as they now are poor and living in the 'drunk tank'. They call each other scumbags and faggots, and blame each other for their own mistakes:
'I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you'
But on this christmas day, they let each other know that in spite of that they still love each other and the city.
The Pogues
The Pogues is an Irish/English band, which plays a mix between punk rock and traditional Irish folk music. The band was founded in 1982 with the name “Pogue Mahone” which comes from the Celtic “póg mo thóin” that means something like “kiss my ass”.
Title - "Fairytale of New York"
When your first hear the title, you think that it is a sweet love song. But when you hear the song and read the lyrics you discover that the title actually is pretty ironic.
Settings
The song is about two lovers, but the fact that they call each other “punk” and “old slut” along with the happy theme in the music makes the song a bit comic. It’s not a typical Christmas love song.
Language
The language is easy and informal. There are not a lot of rhymes in the song, except the chorus and a few in the verse such as “punk”/ “junk” and “maggot”/ “faggot”. Positive words such as “dreams”, “lucky”, “love”, “rivers of gold”, “handsome and pretty”, “kissed” and “danced” stands in contrast with words like “drunk tank”, “punk”, “an old slut on junk”, “dead”, “scumbag”, “maggot”, “cheap lousy faggot” and “arse”.
Composition
The song is a duet. In the first verse man sings alone, and in the second verse the woman sings alone. But in the rest of the song they ”sing to each other”. It's like a conversation. The song starts out with the man telling about how his Christmas at homeless shelter is like. We find out that he miss a certain girl. Then the woman comes in and tells about New York, and their relationship before and how she meet him. She had probably moved to New York as young, and then met him. She tells that he took his hand and promised her a lot of different things. They then talk about how it was when they were young, and how they had “big succes”. The woman was the “queen of New york”, and even Sinatra danced to her music. They had a lot of good times.
Music
The song starts out with only piano and the man singing. After that the drums, the harmonica, the violin, the bass the guitar begins and the woman starts singing. After that the chorus come. After the chorus they start singing together, and after that the chorus comes again. After that comes an other stanza, where they sing together, and before the outro there is a last chorus.
Characters
The man: We imagine that the man in the song is a bit of a bum. It sounds like has a pretty rough life. We think he is homeless, because in first the stanza we hear that he is in the drunk tank. In the song we hear about how he meet the love of his life when he was young. We hear about how they were young, happy and in love. But now when they have grown up it is not the same anymore. I think he misses his old life, now that he has become old. In the last stanza we hear him say that “I could have been someone”. I think he is a bit frustrated that things didn't work out as he expected. And now when it's Christmas all the feelings is overwhelming him. All though he is old and things have changed, he still loves the girl. But maybe it's only because of Christmas.
The woman: We imagine that the lady in the text have been through a lot of things. Perhaps she took to New York when she was young, probably to follow a dream of becoming a star, and there she met the guy from the text. He took her hand, and promised her a lot of things, and she became a singer. Even Sinatra was swinging with them. But now her time as a star is over, and she is outworn and poor now. Her and the guy still live together, probably at a homeless shelter, and they have a love/hate relationship.
Message
This is a story about the blossoming love between two people in New York City. They have been living in the city of dreams, overwhelmed by all the possibilities, and impressions, thinking they could only succeed. Now as they're old, they don't see the city or each other that fairytale-like, as they now are poor and living in the 'drunk tank'. They call each other scumbags and faggots, and blame each other for their own mistakes:
'I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you'
But on this christmas day, they let each other know that in spite of that they still love each other and the city.