Posted on 12/12/2020 7:42:17 PM PST by nickcarraway
Jon Bon Jovi's new cover of the classic Christmas song “Fairytale of New York” has resulted in a flurry of negative comments from listeners.
He performs the 1987 duet - originally sung by Kirsty MacColl and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan - all by himself, with apparent attempts at an Irish accent in some lines. He also replaced the controversial line “you cheap lousy ******” with “you’ve lost all your swagger.”
The performance, taken from a three-track release titled A Jon Bon Jovi Christmas, is available below for those who wish to listen.
The song currently has more thumbs-down than thumbs-up votes on YouTube, with a number of people not happy with Bon Jovi's take. Comments include “You give Christmas songs a bad name,” “If 2020 was a Christmas song … ,” “Graffiti on a Van Gogh” and “Everybody involved in the production of this should be tried at the Hague for crimes against humanity. This is a reprehensible and unjustified attack on music, Christmas, the Irish and all that is right with the world.”
Even Steve Lillywhite, who produced the Pogues' version of the song and was married to MacColl at the time, is not a fan of Bon Jovi's new version. "The worst ever version of this song," he tweeted. "Sorry Jon ... embarrassing and pointless."
While less well-known in the U.S., “Fairytale of New York” has returned to the U.K. Top 20 on 17 different occasions, including every December since 2005. Written in the style of a traditional Irish ballad, the song is often noted by British critics as the best-ever Christmas single. A public TV poll ranked it the most popular seasonal track of all time.
Rumors persist that "Fairytale of New York" was written as the result of a wager between MacGowan and Elvis Costello, who had produced the Pogues and asserted the band could never make a Christmas hit. The band rejected Costello's suggestion that the track should be titled “Christmas Eve in the Drunk Tank” because the members thought it would certainly flop under that name.
“I sat down, opened the sherry, got the peanuts out and pretended it was Christmas,” MacGowan told Melody Maker in 1985. “It's quite sloppy … but there's also a ceilidh bit in the middle which you can definitely dance to. ... But the song itself is quite depressing in the end.”
For those who don't know, Fairytale of New York starts out as what could be a poignant ballad starting with Christmas in the drunk tank... until the male and female lead start slinging horrible insults at each other. Very un-P.C. for our day.
I guess someone dared Jon to do it... for the craic.
I prefer Frank Sinatra’s version of “Mrs. Robinson”, so I might prefer Mr. Jovi’s, if I had any idea of what the song was.
Jon has lost his voice. Used to be a hell of a singer, but listen to recent shows and he can’t do it. Also, too in your face politics from him...so I am really turned off. Check out Richie Sambora’s stuff!
“The song is often noted by British critics as the best-ever Christmas single.”
Never heard of it,
Even though it takes place in New York, it’s mostly known in the British Isles.
... the song is often noted by British critics as the best-ever Christmas single. ...Which critics might these be? Probably those that praised Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by Wizzard twenty years earlier until the public got sick of hearing those two every December.
He’s become a total douche-bag loser.
Had to look it up on YT just so I could give it a thumbs down. Comments are worth a good laugh!!
ping
This idiot started his career with a Christmas record
R2D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AcZaoFrLOw
A friend of mine and I used to do this at Karaoke, but she would sing the male side, me the female. It was hilarious. Even the old vets in the ANAF (Cdn version of the VFW) used to laugh about it.
Now, I wish they had R2D2 and C3PO doing the Fairytale of New York duet. Just imagine R2D2 calling C3PO and old slut.
It used to be a lot more common for American Entertainers to make jokes about being drunk. I recall Foster Brooks and Dean Martin as just two of them.Red Skelton had Willie Lump Lump, Carol Burnett and Tim Conway had several drunk personae.
Oh, and Otis, the town drunk on the Andy Griffith show.
Otis was known to break into jail and sleep off his nightly drunk.
>>Just imagine R2D2 calling C3PO and old slut.
Frank Zappa wrote that one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPzvr9S34pc
Beat me to it. One of my favorite Christmas songs.
The White Collar Drunk by Lenny Bruce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3-jch8uH4
“How dare you?!” < /Greta >
Here’s Shatner Claus and Henry Rollins singing Jingle Bells (punk version) instead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maiEQSBN5Sc
"To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?" - Kevin Alfred Strom
Is Bon Jovi implying gay men don’t have swagger?
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