At singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan’s funeral, a group of musicians led by Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill performed “Fairytale of New York.”
I love the Irish saying about “may you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you’re dead.” Maybe it is the part of me that has Irish blood, but I similarly love the traditions of the Irish wake in the way they treats death as something besides a solemn occasion. A funeral is also an opportunity to celebrate the deceased’s life. So with that background, it gave me great joy to see clips from the funeral of singer-songwriter-musician Shane MacGowan, including the performance of what may be his most famous song, “Fairytale of New York.”
After helping create the Pogues, MacGowan co-wrote “Fairytale of New York” with Jem Finer. We’ve called it “one of the greatest Christmas songs of all-time” while also including it in our list of depressing Christmas songs. One of my favorite versions now is this new one from MacGowan’s funeral.
MacGowan passed away on November 30, 2023, dying from pneumonia at home in Dublin with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke next to him. He was 65. Since his death, many have praised his talents, and of course many bring up his classic “Fairytale of New York,” including a rendition on the streets of Dublin.
And then at his funeral at a church in Nenagh, Ireland on Friday, December 8, 2023, a group of musicians led by Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill on vocals, performed “Fairytale of New York.” It was beautiful and uplifting, even leading to some dancing in the aisles.
As the song says, “can’t make it all alone.” We all should have such a send off.
In the documentary “Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul,” filmmaker Hu Jie investigates the life and execution of a young woman who struggled for human rights in China.
The struggle for human rights has been an ongoing battle throughout history. Many heroes, like Martin Luther King Jr., are justly lauded for their work. But for each person we celebrate, there are thousands of forgotten heroes who also stood up to oppression and gave their lives to make the world a better place.
Lin Zhao, who was born January 23, 1932, was a student at Peking University in China when she was imprisoned for speaking out on behalf of students who were being persecuted during Chairman Mao Zedong’s Anti-Rightist Movement in the late 1950s. Lin was a writer who wrote articles and poems. And when her captors forbade her to use pens, she used a hairpin dipped in her own blood to write on the walls of her cell.
On April 29, 1968 the People’s Republic of China executed Lin Zhao by gunshot.
With memory of her seemingly lost to history, filmmaker and independent historian Hu Jie encountered her story. And he quit his job so he could investigate Lin’s struggle for civil rights and bring her story alive in the documentary, “Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul” (Sometimes translated as “In Search of Lin Zhao’s Soul.”
The movie, released in 2012, won Best Film at the Sunshine Chinese Documentary Film Festival. You may watch this moving documentary about Lin Zhao in its entirety in the link below, which includes English subtitles.
The last surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr use recordings of John Lennon and George Harrison to create the final Beatles record, “Now and Then.”
The Beatles have released what will be their final song, “Now and Then.” The surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr finalized the track using old recording of John Lennon and George Harrison.
McCartney and Starr explain the origins of the song in the short documentary below. The track originated after John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono gave the surviving Beatles three recordings of songs written by Lennon before he was killed. McCartney, Starr, and Harrison used two of the three songs earlier. They had created new Beatles songs in the 1990s to along along with the Anthology documentary about the Beatles. Those two songs were “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love.”
The third Lennon song that McCartney, Starr, and Harrison tried to turn into a Beatles song in the 1990s was “Now and Then.” But this Beatles track was not completed at that time, perhaps partly or mainly due to George Harrison’s disdain for the song. Or, according to McCartney’s more recent version of events, the song was not finished due to technical and time constraints. One of the challenges was that Lennon’s demo recording did not have a clear enough separation between his voice and the piano.
But a jump in time has made the new track possible. Director Peter Jackson, in creating the Beatles documentary about the making of the Let It Be (1970) album, The Beatles: Get Back (2021), used a new technology. It allowed him to separate out the voices of the Fab Four in the original film footage from that session. This technology would also allow the Beatles to separate out John Lennon’s voice from the piano on “Now and Then.”
Then, producer Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin, added in guitar parts that George Harrison had created when the three Beatles worked on the song in the 1990s. Ringo Starr recorded a new drum track, while McCartney added bass and other instruments, including a slide guitar track as a tribute to Harrison. McCartney’s voice joins Lennon’s voice in the background during the song, and McCartney also added the line “always to return to me” in the lyrics.
Now and then, I miss you; Oh, now and then, I want you to be there for me, Always to return to me.
And so, we have what is likely the last Beatles song we will ever have created by the four actual Beatles. While it may not be a match for some of their masterpieces, it is great to hear John singing with the other lads again. Check out the official video for “Now and Then.” The video mixes old footage of the four Beatles with today’s Paul and Ringo, leading the viewer to imagine them all together again. It might even bring a few tears to your eyes.
What do you think of the new song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Micky Dolenz is releasing a cover of R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People,” a song that was itself inspired by the music Dolenz created with the Monkees.
Micky Dolenz and the Monkees once inspired Michael Stipe and R.E.M. to create the song “Shiny Happy People.” The song became a hit for the band when it was released as a single following its appearance on their fantastic 1991 album, Out of Time. This month, the Monkees connection to the song comes full circle as Micky Dolenz of that band releases his version of R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People.” The song appears on an EP of R.E.M. covers called Dolenz Sings R.E.M. (2023).
Micky Dolenz reports that one of the inspirations for creating the R.E.M. covers project was to repay the members of R.E.M. for being fans of the Monkees. One might imagine that the singer whose wonderful talents have often not received its due might have found a connection to a song as popular and maligned as “Shiny Happy People” that was also discounted by some as being too poppy for R.E.M. Like the Monkees, though, “Shiny Happy People” had a deeper origin story, with a title inspired by Chinese propaganda posters and written not long after the Tiananmen Square uprising.
For the new recording, Dolenz worked with producer Christian Nesmith, son of his former bandmate Mike Nesmith (who passed away in 2021). Their goal was to re-imagine the R.E.M. tracks on Dolenz Sings R.E.M. Thus, he does not merely provide a note-by-note- cover of the songs. Instead, he brings his own musical background with a psychedelic touch to the songs. Check out his version of “Shiny Happy People.”
Dolenz Sings R.E.M. is officially released on November 3, 2023. The other songs on the EP are “Radio Free Europe,” “Man on the Moon,” and “Leaving New York.”
In 2002, Steve Earle released “Jerusalem,” about hope for the people in a troubled land that remains ever as troubled today.
It is difficult to find any optimism out of what is going on right now in Israel and Gaza. But in 2002, during another period of darkness in the world, Steve Earle tried to find some hope in his song “Jerusalem,” the title track of his 2002 album. There, he sang a fine day where “all the children of Abraham / Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem.”
And there’ll be no barricades then; There’ll be no wire or walls; And we can wash all this blood from our hands, And all this hatred from our souls.
At the time of the album’s release, William Bowers, who was not a fan of Earle generally, in a Pitchfork review mocked such a utopian take on the complicated situation in the Middle East. Bowers saw some attempts to follow John Lennon’s “Imagine” but finds such a plea ultimately doomed for a land divided by religion and race. He concludes, “the song is dang hard to take seriously.”
Earle, though, realizes his song’s dream is a long-shot and, as he explains in the video below, that the dream may remain a dream until he dies. And in the lyrics, he sings, “maybe I’m only dreamin’ and maybe I’m just a fool.”
It is foolish to think of any hope now during all of the horrors going on while people are suffering and dying. But maybe trying to imagine peace is not a bad thing to do, even if it feels futile at the moment.
