Why Nick Cave is wrong about Fairytale of New York.
If we switch the F-Word for the N-word, would we still be having the same discussion?
It’s not Christmas for me until I hear the opening lines of Fairytale of New York.
I can’t remember the first time I heard the song, but its jarring and desolate story has become synonymous with December in my mind. I’ve sung my sober and drunken heart out to this cheerless festive tune, year after year. Which means I’ve also sung the word.
The F-word.
Even as I belted the lyrics out without thought or care, I knew that taboo always lurked within the lines:
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last
Culture is not stagnant. It evolves. And so it does not upset me that the BBC has recently decided to play a censored version of Fairytale on some of its stations. Somebody that it does seem to have upset is Nick Cave, who’s railed against the decision on his website:
The changing of the word ‘faggot’ for the nonsense word ‘haggard’ destroys the song by deflating it right at its essential and most reckless moment, stripping it of its value. It becomes a song that has been tampered with…
