Fairytale of New York (Sydney version)

from Cover me by Mark O'Connor

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€1 EUR or more

about

Recorded in 2 1/2 hours observing the punk 'fuck it, take one is grand' production ethic. Hard to improve on the original, but hey, this one's got sleigh bells!

Happy Xmas to all the Irish around the world and to anyone in the human family who didn't make it home this time.

lyrics

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

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
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 all alone
I've built my dreams around you

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas day

credits

from Cover me, released November 21, 2015
Written by Shane McGowan and Jem Finer.
Made real by The Pogues with Kirsty McColl.

"It was banjo player Finer who came up with the melody and the original concept for the song, which involved a sailor looking out over the ocean. Finer's wife Marcia did not like the original story, and suggested new lyrics regarding a conversation between a couple at Christmas. Finer told NME, "I had written two songs complete with tunes, one had a good tune and crap lyrics, the other had the idea for 'Fairytale' but the tune was poxy, I gave them both to Shane and he gave it a Broadway melody, and there it was"."

license

about

Mark O'Connor Limerick, Ireland

If you like Mark O'Connor, you may also like:

This Could Be Texas
by English Teacher

The UK upstarts' debut veers from sunny, psychedelic folk to bristling post-punk with reckless abandon without ever missing a beat. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 18, 2024
go to album
Move To The Trees
by Winter McQuinn

Winter McQuinn mixes soft rock and psychedelic folk for a sound reminiscent of classic pop purveyors like Cut Worms and the Lemon Twigs. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 16, 2024
go to album
Up On Gravity Hill
by METZ

The Canadian trio's knack for writing bangers plots a steady course through the maelstrom. Bandcamp Album of the Day Apr 12, 2024
go to album
La nuit sauvage
by Tonnerre

featured on Bandcamp Radio Apr 12, 2024
go to album
Summer Of Love
by Jess Ribeiro

Backed by a rotating cast of collaborators, the Australian singer-songwriter refines her folk-tinged indie pop sound. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 11, 2024
go to album
See the World on Fire
by the Ar-Kaics

On their first new record in six years, the Virginia garage punkers take on the end of the world with the requisite clang and clamor. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 9, 2024
go to album
Dreamachine
by Habibi

Habibi's garage minimalism has a bit of post-punk, bubblegum, and indie in its DNA, but remains something entirely, coolly their own. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2024
go to album