To celebrate the return of Search, I did one for “pogues” and was surprised at how many times they’ve been referenced here. I remember seeing them mentioned but didn’t realize how much.
Well I just saw them perform in Boston and they were spectacular. Best tour in years. I am very annoyed I didn’t get tickets for both nights, and for New York also. If they do a West Coast tour this fall I am on the plane for sure.
So who’s a fan? What’s your favorite song? Can you even pick a “one” favorite above all others? Have you seen them live and how was it? Have you awakened in a cold sweat because you dreamed Shane was really dead this time?
I shall begin by saying that I think Rainy Night in Soho might be the most beautiful love song ever written with the most beautiful closing lines of any song ever:
*Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
Still there’s a light I hold before me
You’re the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams *
Um please don’t make this thread die like a rabid porcupine. It will embarrass me.
Did you see them last fall in CA? Lemme tell you, the spring tour was magnificent. I don’t know how he does it but I keep wishing on a star for him that he doesn’t keel over one day. Not for a long time anyway. The whole band was just great and it was wonderful to see Phil back up there.
I actually just ordered that DVD. Should be here in a few days.
I saw them in about 1987 at the Chestnut Cabaret in Philadelphia. The entire set might have been 50 minutes. Shane McGowan sang the whole set with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
My favorite song is either The Gentleman Soldier or And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.
I adore the Pogues. I don’t know that I’d ever pick a best song, but by far the best album is Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. I had a copy years and years and years ago that was stolen from me. The first Christmas with my husband (we weren’t married yet) his father asked what I’d like and my husband told him I was desperately searching for a copy of that album (in any form, since it is out of print) he found me a pristine, never out of the plastic CD and has been a love of my life ever since. My FIL rocks!
I can’t help but think that Sally MacLennane is one of my all-time favourite songs, it’s just so fun to sing along to, while my daughter much prefers The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn. She began using the term “blackshirts” and brought it into popularity at her school after me explaining the term to her. Gosh…honestly, I could never pick a best song – I look at their discography and think “well, I love the lyrics in this one, but the music in that one is soooo” I second, third, whatever the idea that McGowan is a poet of the highest order. For a time, my screennames/email addresses were all HellsDitch – due to that song really touching me in a way that seems absurd having never been in a physical prison. I can’t think of a single Pogues song I don’t like.
Wow, 50 minutes is short! They go about 2 hours nowadays. As for the beer & cigarette, he’s still doing that.
Supposedly he has said that this is the year he gets his teeth fixed. I think they’re completely gone by this point so he must mean he’ll get dentures. I really wonder why they were so bad. I don’t think it’s just booze; they’ve been that way for years and years. (When he had some, I mean.) Probably a combination of booze, genetics, and bad dental hygiene. I really think a large part of his slurring is due to having no teeth. My mom has a full denture set and when they’re not in she has a really hard time talking. And then the liquor doesn’t help him out any.
I was walking to Starbucks listening to The Sunnyside of the Street when my iPod chose that moment to give up the ghost. Thanks Shane, I’m out $250 and it’s all your fault.
Ah but you probably wouldn’t be liking it so much without his voice behind it, right? So he gets half credit.
It’s been remastered and re-released. In case you need another copy!
Me neither. I guess there’s one or two maybe that are lower on the list but none that I “don’t like.” Just not possible.
They have a box set coming out on 4/28. I believe it’s previously unreleased songs but I am not sure if any of it is new stuff; just songs they didn’t release before. And some other versions of songs that were released.
Shane story: My buddy once lost a job because he extended his vacation in Ireland in order to see a couple Pogues shows. He is one of these guys who can talk himself backstage at any show, so he got to get plastered with Shane and asked him to autograph his passport…next day re-entering the US had to explain why his photo page had "I (HEART) OSAMA and “DEATH TO AMERICA” scrawled on it in magic marker. One of those stories which seems funnier now than it did at the time!
I thought he was more of an acid & heroin man. Edit: not that I’m doubting you; he’s probably done every drug in existence. It would help to see pictures when he was really young but they might have started going by that time anyway, considering how early he started drinking.
Thing Fish: that’s only funny when it happens to someone else!
That too, but remember Shane was one of the original London punk mob (his first band was called The Nipple Erectors which I think is a great name for a band) - they were all speed freaks. Mark E Smith of The Fall has similar dental problems, for the same reason.
Good lord that is a good movie. I am very upset that I can’t find the disk for my copy (I have the case, but the disk is no where to be found).
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite song. My go to album is Rum, Sodemy, and the Lash but it only just barely edges out Red Roses for Me and If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
I missed not one but two chances to see them when the played LA, and one of them was a chance to see them for free. Unfortunatly I work freelance in the theater and I had gigs both Nights (and was cursing myself for lining up work 6 months in advance).
Definitely one of the major soundtracks to my high school life. Don’t know about a single favorite song, but “The Old main Drag”, “Rainy Night In Soho”, and of course “Fairytale of New York” are probably my favorite heart-wrenchers, while “Bottle Of Smoke”, “London Girl” and “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn” are among my favorite uptempo numbers.
