Kirsty MacColl

by Will 'The Cranky Music Man' Golightly

So I'm in Florida. Key West no less. The weather's lovely, and I'm not at all unhappy about missing the big snowstorm hurtling towards my home in Virginia. The only problem is that I'm having a lot of trouble getting in the spirit to write what was going to be a year-in-review wrapup column. Who can feel the holiday spirit when it's too warm for pants? Not me, that's for sure. But it all works out in the end-- I've had a few too many drinks, and I don't feel like wrapping up the year at all. What I want to do is talk about Kirsty MacColl.

In December, Ms. MacColl died at the tender age of 41. She was in Mexico for a well deserved vacation with her two sons. She was hit by a speedboat-- in an area reserved for swimmers only-- as her sons looked on. Producer extraordinaire Steve Lillywhite, whom MacColl divorced several years ago, is the father of both teenage boys.

She was the daughter of Ewan "Dirty Old Town" MacColl, but that hardly accounts for her remarkable career. She was a critically acclaimed but commercially ignored solo artist; her fame comes almost exclusively from her appearances on other people's records. Only Emmylou Harris could not be jealous of the body of work MacColl leaves behind as a duetist and background vocalist. Her resume reads like a who's who of an era: the Talking Heads, the Smiths, Morrissey, the Happy Mondays, and Billy Bragg just to name a few. Her most famous moment is courtesy of the Pogues (despite her "They Don't Know" being a top 10 hit for Tracy Ullman in '84).

"Fairy Tale of New York" went to number two in the UK charts Chrismas 1987. At heart a modern Christmas carol, it is the only canonical Christmas song in decades. Well, there was that one by the Waitresses that I forget the name of right now, but "Fairy Tale" is better. It's found on the Pogues' If I Should Fall From Grace With God, their last great album and one of the dreaded eighties' high water marks.

I was checking email when I heard about Kirsty MacColl's death. I promptly dropped the cd in my ancient Discman and went outside to listen to "Fairy Tale if New York" on endless repeat. And damn if it weren't snowing the biggest flakes I'd seen in years out there. It's moments like those when you think there may be a higher power in the universe. But eventually I went back inside and life returned to normal. The world may not be any worse without her but many people's records would have been.