Debbie Harry and Jesse Malin took on The Pogues’ classic “Fairytale of New York” over the weekend during a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Clash‘s London Calling. The concert, held at New York’s Bowery Ballroom in support of the Joe Strummer Foundation, saw the pair joining forces offer their own version of the punk song.
In the clip, the Blondie frontwoman sings the lines of Kirsty MacColl while Malin steps in for Shane Macgowan with the help of a backing band. The song was presented in honor of Strummer’s brief stint in The Pogues in the ’90s.
Harry released her memoir, Face It, earlier this year. “Well, at this stage in the game I feel like I’ve had a really, really far out experience,” the singer told Rolling Stone after its release. “And I’ve done a lot of really interesting things, and I’m very fortunate to make music. As Joe E. Brown says at the end of Some Like it Hot, ‘nobody’s perfect.’ And nobody’s life is perfect, and as much as it may look like somebody else’s life is perfect from the outside, there’s always some crap to deal with on the inside.”
She added, “So I don’t know, I’ve had great, happy times and I’ve had some confusion. I kept going somehow and I don’t know if that’s from stubbornness or stupidity, but both those words start with an ‘st.’ You know, I mean is anybody’s life all happy or all sad? It’s impossible. I don’t think it’s over yet. I feel like saying to everybody “Not dead yet! Not dead yet!”