The Pogues

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

August 7, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hell’s Ditch
Year: 1990

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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.

Certain Songs #1600: The Pogues – “Down All The Days”

August 3, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peace and Love
Year: 1989

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Welcome to my favorite Pogues song. And, honestly, one of those songs I love so much, it almost makes me cry sometimes. Not because it’s sad, but because — and because I don’t exactly know how, I don’t know exactly why — “Down All The Days” has a direct hotwire to my soul.

And, to me at least, it’s a song that sounds like no other song I’ve ever heard in my life. The trick of latter-day Pogues — the reason that their last three albums just floored me — was that they used the traditional Irish instruments to make non-Irish music. And when it clicked, like on the wistfully psychedelic “Down All The Days,” it was utterly transcendent.

Certain Songs #1599: The Pogues – “White City”

August 2, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peace and Love
Year: 1989

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I know that the conventional wisdom was that the Pogues probably peaked out with If I Should Fall From Grace With God or Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, I loved 1989’s Peace and Love nearly as much as the former and more than the latter.

And in fact, I loved Peace and Love so much that back in 1989, it was my favorite album of 1989, over such worthies as Freedom, Mekons Rock ‘n’ Roll, New York, The Stone Roses & Full Moon Fever, all of which I’d probably rate over it now.

Certain Songs #1598: The Pogues – “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah”

August 1, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1988

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One one hand, while “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah” continued the partying vibe of If I Should Fall From Grace With God, it also featured an instrument practically absent from nearly all of their previous recordings: an electric guitar.

And in fact, the electric guitar is the first thing you hear, accompanied by drummer Andrew Ranken’s straight-forward double-time bashing, and as such “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah” is probably the most traditional rock ‘n’ roll song this band of miscreants ever did, right down to the thirsty lyrics.

Certain Songs #1596: The Pogues – “Thousands Are Sailing”

July 30, 2019 by Jim Connelly

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

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The story goes that Phillip Chevron was a bit apprehensive to bring “Thousands Are Sailing” to the Pogues. In retrospect, that seems a bit strange since, unless you were paying attention, it was virtually indistinguishable from a Shane MacGowan lyric, both in overall subject matter (Irish emigration) and telling details (Manhattan, Brendan Behan).

And of course one of the things about the Pogues was — in the grand folk tradition — they didn’t really seem to care where a song came from: a great song was a great song. So “Thousands Are Sailing” became the first great Pogues song written by someone else in the band other than MacGowan.

Certain Songs #739: The Pogues – “Fairytale of New York”

December 24, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Year: 1987

I’m sure that when I bought If I Should Fall From Grace With God I knew that “Fairytale of New York” had been a huge hit single in the U.K., though that’s not the reason I bought the album. I bought it because it was the new Pogues album, and “Fairytale of New York” was just one of several songs I loved on it.

And one thing’s for sure: I really didn’t think of “Fairytale of New York” as a Christmas song, but rather just another of Shane MacGowan’s tales of scumbags and maggots which just happened to be set on Christmas Eve. In the drunk tank.