A Pogue and "The Priests" Sing Drummer Boy: The Video

A promotional video is available on the new Shane MacGowan  and "The Priests" video, here, where they'll be singing Little Drummer Boy.   Others have made the comparison between Bing Crosby and David Bowie, which was very popular and somewhat shocking and strange when it came about.  Since we're used to such juxtapositions and irony now, Shane MacGowan will surely surprise those who know of him as anarchic, dark and anti-clerical will be taken by surprise at the singer's reverential treatment of "The Priests".

This meeting of these entertainers in contrast to Bowie standing on equal footing with Bing, gives  the air of the prodigal returning home, as the riotous Pogues lead singer asks "the Priests" for a 'blessin' before they go.  It's much more touching than the Bowie-Crosby meeting lacking the forced generational tension. It certainly looks much darker in this new version and they will possibly be singing as Bowie correctly and properly did, "that men of good will can live in peace" and not  "that each child should be made to care" in its very hyper-educational vein.  Perhaps it's also a lot less preachy as the producers of the Bowie-Crosby show felt the need in that time to tip the hat to the "Peace" Movement in the late date of 1977, whose naive optimism had been shattered the year before when the Punk Rock movement came on the scene, which prepared the way for the Pogues early eighties debut.  It's almost as if Bowie and Crosby are seeking refuge with the remnants of the Ancien Régime  in a country estate as Anarchy came to the UK.  Incidentally, Bing Crosby had been long established and his popularity never really waned.  Bowie's career as a pop icon was just then coming to an end.