Shane MacGowan: Outsiders, Underdogs, and Christmas Eve in the Drunk Tank
DISGRACELAND
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 13.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shane MacGowan lived his life as an outsider. He was an Irishman living in England, a troublemaking jug-eared punk with rotten teeth and a voracious appetite for drugs and alcohol. And with his band, The Pogues, he created a powerful synthesis of the traditional music of his homeland and a modern punk attitude. It was this gift for melding the sacred with the profane that led to the creation of one of the finest and most unique Christmas songs ever: "Fairytale of New York."
What are your favorite Christmas songs? Let Jake know at 617-906-6638, disgracelandpod@gmail.com, or on socials @disgracelandpod.
This episode was originally published on December 10, 2024.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis. |
| 0:17.1 | This is the story of an underdog, and it's the story of a drug-dealing juvenile, an acid-eating |
| 0:24.2 | Irish drunk, and a rivalry with Elvis. It's the story of Shane McGowan, but it's also the story |
| 0:32.4 | of one of maybe the greatest Christmas songs ever written. Great music. Unlike that music I played for you |
| 0:40.9 | at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called No Teeth |
| 0:48.1 | All Soul, MK, One. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to moony-money by Billy Idol. |
| 0:57.3 | And why would I play you that specific slice of fist-clenching, fist-pumping, finger-pointing, |
| 1:02.7 | cheese, could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on November 23, 1987. |
| 1:13.3 | And that was the day the Pogues released their single, Fairy Tale of New York, an unorthodox Christmas song, co-written by a man born |
| 1:20.0 | on Christmas Day, and a song that served as a turning point, both good and bad for Shane McGowan. |
| 1:35.6 | On this episode, an underdog's tale, acid-eating drunk madness, a rivalry with Elvis and Shane McGowan. |
| 1:37.4 | I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. |
| 2:12.6 | Music This is disgraceland. Do you hear what I hear? Sleigh bells ringing, Yule-tide carolers singing? |
| 2:16.6 | It's that time again, the Christmas season, which means sleigh bells ringing, Yule-tide carolers singing. |
| 2:23.8 | It's that time again, the Christmas season, which means it's Christmas song season. |
| 2:29.6 | Songs that are everywhere, songs that have been everywhere for weeks already. |
| 2:35.9 | And listen, I love Christmas songs as much as the next guy, but for some of you psychopaths, |
| 2:41.8 | you've been decking the halls since the annual thawing of Mariah Carey began way back before Halloween. |
| 2:49.1 | Now, if you think we are obsessed with Christmas music here in the United States, across the pond, |
| 2:52.7 | they have an entire singles chart dedicated to it. |
| 2:58.8 | It's called The Christmas Number One, a chart that measures the most popular single in the UK during the week of Christmas. |
| 3:01.6 | In the past, the Christmas number one has gone to Slade's Merry Xmas, everybody. |
... |
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