«ArtLung»
Joe Crawford's personal website.

Fairytale of New York, selectively annotated.

(bold items sung by Kirsty MacColl)
(otherwise sung by Shane McGowan)
(bold and red by both)
(lyrics from pogues.com)

On YouTube, a live version, and an incomplete version.

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
Were 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
Were singing “Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

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