Album: Rum, Sodomy and The Lash
Year: 1985
. . .
One of the great ironies of the Pogues was that while they’ll forever be described as an “Irish folk-punk” band, most of their best songs pushed back against at least part of that description.
And thus it was that their breakthrough, 1985’s Elvis Costello-produced Rum, Sodomy & The Lash revolved around three down-and-out dirges, two of which were covers, and the one original sharing some of the themes as the most devastating of the covers.
We’ll get to the covers in the next couple of days, but that original, of course, was “A Pair of Brown Eyes,” where MacGowan reused the eternal “Wild Mountain Thyme” melody for a meditation on aging, war, love and — of course — drinking. Maybe “A Pair of Brown Eyes” isn’t quite a standard, but it sure as shit should be: Peter Case — whose version probably got played on KFSR more than the Pogues — claims he covered it based upon Costello singing it to him before the Pogues had released it.
Case’s version is great, of course, but MacGowan sings the holy living fuck out of this song, which opens with him drunk and heartbroken in a pub, listening to Johnny Cash, when he’s approached by an old man, who describes how nearly being killed in a war changed his life:
In blood and death ‘neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one, two three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for meAnd a rovin’ a rovin’ a rovin’ I’ll go
For a pair of brown eyes
“Fuck this dude” is basically MacGowan’s thought, so gets the fuck out of there, trying to ignore the fact that he’s also missing a pair of brown eyes, without even having to pay the same price the old man did. But the old man’s words echoed in his mind, and in his heart, and and soon, he’s singing them to himself, over and over.
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I’ll go
A rovin, a rovin, a rovin I’ll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I’ll go
For a pair of brown eyes
For a pair of brown eyes
And supported by roughly perfect harmonies, as well as Jem Finer’s banjo and James Fearnley’s accordion echoing the melody, “A Pair of Brown” eyes takes on a stately and almost otherworldly grandeur, in which the search for a pair of brown eyes — you know, love — becomes the most important thing in the world, bigger than war, bigger than death, even bigger than booze.
“A Pair of Brown Eyes”
“A Pair of Brown Eyes” music video (directed by Alex Cox)
“A Pair of Brown Eyes” performed live in Munich, 1985
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