Pogues

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

August 6, 2019 by Jim Connelly

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.

Certain Songs #1601: The Pogues – “Lorelei”

August 5, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peace and Love
Year: 1989

As you’ve probably figured out, most of my favorite late-period Pogues songs are the ones where they broke formula and tried something different from the expected Irish Folk-Punk that they made their original mark with, and “Lorelei” might be the biggest break of all, while still having roots in things they’d previously done.

So, like “Thousands Are Sailing,” it was written guitarist Phil Chevron. Like “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” it featured a prominent electric guitar, and like the holy “Fairytale of New York,” it featured Kirsty MacColl.

Certain Songs #1597: The Pogues – “Fiesta”

July 31, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Year: 1988

. . .

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, several of The Pogues spent some time in Almeria, Spain filming Alex Cox’s riotous Straight to Hell. As you can imagine, it was a party, the spirit of which was fully caught in one of my very favorite Pogues songs, the utterly hilarious “Fiesta.”

Co-written with banjo player Jem Finer, who based it on a melody he kept hearing at various food stalls that stuck in his head, “Fiesta” is pure and utter nonsense lyrically, and an ridiculous stew of disparate elements musically. That it works at all is a tribute to the gonzo musicianship of The Pogues, who grab hold of the tune from the start and hang on for dear life.

Certain Songs #1595: The Pogues – “If I Should Fall From Grace With God”

July 29, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Year: 1988

While it was over two years after Rum, Sodomy & The Lash before The Pogues released another full-length album, it wasn’t like they weren’t busy.

In early 1986, they released the Poguetry in Motion EP, which was also produced by Elvis Costello, who would soon run off with their bass player, Cait O’Riordian, which featured “Body of an American,” which some of you will recognize as “that song in The Wire they keep playing at the wakes for cops.”

Certain Songs #1594: The Pogues – “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”

July 27, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Year: 1985

. . .

One of the more interesting things about Rum, Sodomy & The Lash is how it’s structured: the first side is nearly all Shane MacGowan originals (or co-writes), and the second side is nearly all covers.

Even for an Irish Folk-Punk band like the Pogues, that was kind of a risky move, but the riskiest of all was closing the album with an eight-minute dirge about the horrors of war. “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” was written in 1971 by Eric Bogle, an Australian singer-songwriter who was born in Scotland. As so often happens.

Certain Songs #1593: The Pogues – “Dirty Old Town”

July 26, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Year: 1985

. . .

Did you know that “Dirty Old Town” celebrates its 70th birthday this year? That’s right, it was written back in 1949 by Ewan MacColl — father of Kirsty MacColl, who of course sang on “Fairytale of New York” — and has been covered countless times, by luminaries ranging from the Dubliners to the Mountain Goats to U2 to Rod Stewart, who used to to close his first solo album.

But as far as I’m concerned, the definitive version was recorded by the Pogues; so definitive that a casual listener might not know that they didn’t write it.

Certain Songs #1592: The Pogues – “A Pair of Brown Eyes”

July 25, 2019 by Jim Connelly

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.

Certain Songs #1591: The Pogues – “Streams of Whiskey”

July 23, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Red Roses For Me
Year: 1984

It’s probably not surprising that the first time anybody publicly took notice of Shane MacGowan, it was because he was bleeding at a Clash gig.

And, of course, the guess here is that he’d been drinking, as Shane MacGowan is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s poet laureates of alcohol — the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems — leading his crack band through five stellar albums that started out mixing traditional Irish music with punk rock, but ended up so much more than that.

21 Musical Moments To Die For

December 19, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the fifth in a series. The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22.

Also: there is a slight — but not total – Christmas theme going on with this one. More of an arc, really. And a couple of mini-arcs, too!

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.