Grace Petrie & the Resistance Band - Fairytale of New York video cover

The only Fairytale of New York I’ll play

There’s Whamageddon – a song by a queer artist I actually love to hear, and now MariAhrmageddon (but Mariahilation would have been a better name?) which is much harder to avoid and maybe a better fit for being annoying and over done. I still kind of like ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ but it’s getting close to being a piece of coal in my musical stocking.

But actually there is one Chrisrtmas song I’d rather not hear ever again in it’s original form – The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York. Really that song should be *geddoned out of existence. Wiped from the earth., deleted from the annals of history.

It’s not a bad song, far from it. It’s just that line. You know the one I mean, and as a queer man I can say that word – faggot was never their word to use, and anyone who makes excuses otherwise can fuck right off if you think cishets calling each other faggot was ever acceptable. It wasn’t acceptable in the 80’s 90’s OR 00’s and it definitely isn’t now. Even with the lazy get out that ‘that’s a character and they aren’t a nice person’. Well my queer character says: get in the sea with that toxic shit.

And I’m guessing it was always an inside joke by the band on Fairytale of New York, to use the f-word, it’s a fairy tale! Geddit? Ha ha…not. *death stare* Grr.

So it’s nice to hear what Grace Petrie & the Resistance Band does with that line, it made me laugh and saved a song that always is a black cloud for me when it appears on the radio. Love how Grace and Caitlin’s voices merge, and it’s a queer band so many thumbs up from me (and I agree with the replacement line 😉

So this is the ONLY version of Fairytale of New York I will play anywhere or listen to – sadly like always, found this too late for the recorded first (non-mashup) Xmas podcast of 2021 – aint that always the way? But definitely a shoe-in for next year if I can find a copy.

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Tim B

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3 responses to “The only Fairytale of New York I’ll play”

  1. Richard avatar
    Richard

    A faggot, in the meaning of “bundle”, is an archaic English unit applied to bundles of certain items. Alternate spellings in Early Modern English include fagate, faget, fagett, faggott, fagot, fagatt, fagott, ffagott, and faggat.

    Sometimes called a short faggot, a faggot of sticks equals a bundle of wood sticks or billets that is 3 feet (90 cm) in length and 2 feet (60 cm) in circumference. The measurement was standardised in ordinances by 1474.

    A small short faggot was also called a nicket.

    A brush-faggot (sometimes shortened to brush) was a bundle of similar size made of brushwood.

    A long faggot of sticks equals a bundle larger than 3 feet (90 cm) long. In a book on slang used at Winchester College fire-dogs were fire basket (andirons) that could hold long faggots, and half-faggots were smaller andirons that could only hold short faggots and were later converted for use with coal.

    A long faggot was also called a kidd faggot, kid, kide, or kidde being Middle English for firewood in bundles

    A fascine (or bavin) is a type of long faggot which is approximately 13 to 20 feet (4 to 6 m) long and 8 to 9 inches (20 to 23 cm) in diameter and used to maintain earthworks such as trenches.

    A faggot was also a unit of weight used to measure iron or steel rods or bars totaling 120 pounds (54 kg).

    In the context the word is used in Fairytale of New York it means firewood.

    It’s use as a derogatory term for a gay man is exclusively from the use of it in NORTH AMERICA

    It existed here in the UK since the 1400’s. In this song it is not used in an offensive way, and yet every year Shane McGowan gets dragged through the mud as a homophobe.

    Reply
    1. Tim B avatar
      Tim B

      Sorry you’re wrong there “It’s use as a derogatory term for a gay man is exclusively from the use of it in NORTH AMERICA” – it’s not, I’ve had it here in the UK as well, dunno who you think you’re talking to with this what-aboutery but don’t play this game here. Take it elsewhere.

      I am queer, and I’ve had fag shouted at me in the street, even gaybashed. Are you queer? I bet you’re cis, white, male and heterosexual….I smell gammon. The use IS homophobic and I’m a gay queer man and I’m telling you it’s offensive, and you respond with this drivel telling me I’m wrong? That’s basically cishetsplaining!

      Fully aware of the past meanings, but that’s not the meaning in the song, and you know it. It is NOT firewood, FFS. Total bullshit.

      Please do not comment defending this twaddle on this site again. You will NOT get another warning.

      Reply
    2. Tim B avatar
      Tim B

      P.S. Your IP tracks back to Haslemere. Do I know you?

      Reply

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