“ It was Christmas Eve, in the drunk tank. An old man said to me, won’t see another one”. The fairy tale of New York by the Pogues. Possibly the greatest Christmas song ever written.
This past week Pogues singer, song writer and frontman Shane MacGowan passed away at the age of 65. MacGowan was known to be somewhat of a literary genius. If your not familiar with his work think dark poet meets Celtic music. Shane was known for living his life to the fullest drinking heavy in his teens and continued for his 65 years. As a teen MacGowan received a literary scholarship, dropped out of school, formed multiple punk bands during the hay day of the London punk scene. Eventually forming The Pogues and toured with the Clash. While touring with the Clash the Pogues were noticed by Elvis Costello who produced an album for them. The rest as they say is history. He leaves behind a large body of work.
If our not familiar with “the fairy tale of New York” take a few minutes and listen to it or better yet watch the incredibly stirring black and white video which portrays 2 Irish broadway actors living in New York and reminiscing about the good old days and wondering if things are still good with each other. At times the language is fairly harsh lol but necessary to get an understanding of the characters. On the surface the song/ video seems very dark but if you listen closely and dissect, some parts are very uplifting ( eg you took my dreams from me when I first found you. I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own. Can’t make it on my own. I built my dreams around you..) Take a few minutes and check the song out.
A few facts from the song – the female singer ( Kristy MacColl) was killed in an accident after being run over by a speed boat in Mexico. – the song was originally written after Elvis Costello bet the band they couldn’t write a Christmas song. – the song went through multiple versions and took over 2 years to write. – the NYPD band shown in the video was the real NYPD band. They were reportedly supplied free booze for filming their portion of the video. While filming they ran out and demanded more booze or they wouldn’t continue filming. -recognize anyone famous ( beside the musicians ) in the video? Matt Damon plays the police officer. – recently nfl football players Jason and Travis Kelce covered the song for the Philadelphia Eagles Christmas album
The Pogues are a very cool band. If your not familiar I suggest not only checking out The fairy tale of New York but check out the song American body and Dirty old town to start with.
Now Black Friday.
I’ve written about Jacquie and my love of the city of Pittsburgh. Sports, culture, shopping and The Food!! This past weekend we were in Pittsburgh Black Friday shopping. I mostly go for the outing ( meaning beer and food) but I will say the deals that were available were the best we’ve ever seen. As jacquie said, she was pretty much being paid to buy shoes.
And what would a trip be to Pittsburgh without a little bbq at some of the local bbq joints and of course my very favourite sandwich!! Primantii bros . ( I might have gone there 3 times in the weekend lol) Unless you have had a Primantii bros sandwich you cannot fathom how good they are.
Start with bakery fresh thick white bread, add crazy good coleslaw, mounds of cheese, a huge stack of deli meat and finish it off with the best French fries I have tasted! Pure heaven. Of course all this is washed down with Pittsburghs famous “iron city light beer”. My beer of choice when in the “ iron city”. Needless to say it is also one damn fine sports bar.
Till next time. Fins up! Merry Christmas
