Hell's Ditch Archives

Album: Hell’s Ditch
Year: 1990

. . .

It’s one of the givens here at Certain Songs that there are going to be a lot of songs that I love that I really don’t have that much to say about, and so when that happens, they get a perfunctory shout-out in a post about some other song, and so it goes with a bunch of songs on Hell’s Ditch — the jaunty “Ghost of A Smile,” the swirling “Rain Street” and even the low-key instrumental “Maidrin Rua,” — none of which hit me as hard as “House of the Gods.”

Combining three of my favorite things: joyous upbeat music, multiple hooks, and lyrics about getting wasted, “House of The Gods” is probably my second-favorite Pogues song, after “Down All The Days,” and spares no time getting to the point.

Album: Hell’s Ditch
Year: 1990

. . .

Yes, I know that by the time the Pogues recorded Hell’s Ditch, Shane MacGowan was a fucked-up mess, and yes, I know that they’d pretty much abandoned the Irish music that was their early mainstay.

And yes, I know that — unlike Elvis Costello and Steve Lillywhite — producer St. Joe Strummer didn’t really add anything to the mix, though he did serve as the only possible alternate frontman on the Hell’s Ditch tour after MacGowan quit or was sacked or both.

But man, do I love this record, and the moody and dark “Lorca’s Novena” is a huge part of it.

Hell's Ditch

Certain Songs #1603: The Pogues – “House of the Gods”

Certain Songs #1602: The Pogues – “Lorca’s Novena”