I love The Pogues. I’ve seen them live several times. The first Pogues song I heard was A Pair Of Brown Eyes, which was played frequently on college station KXLU. I had to buy Rum, Sodomy And The Lash (on vinyl). Eventually I got all of the albums on vinyl and CD, plus the EPs and whatnot. I taped and watched Red Hot + Blue because The Pogues were in it. (And it turns out I like nearly all of the songs in it. Got the DVD recently, and the songs have been on my iPod since day one.) Man, there’s nothing like seeing The Pogues in a small venue! But I also enjoyed concerts at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre and The Wiltern. (Even if Shane had been replaced by Joe Strummer – who I saw playing with Shane at The Coachhouse – at The Wiltern.)
The DVD If I Should Fall from Grace - The Shane MacGowan Story could use subtitles.
I’ve got The Snake (The Popes), and Shane sounds as if he wasn’t really trying. Not as good as his earlier work.
A friend sent me a link to a fairly recent Shane MacGowan TV performance. It was a little painful. Shane was bloated/fat, old, tired, and seemed as if he could barely make it through it.
And of course he mentions the Blueshirts in Boys From The County Hell.
As far as a favourite song… Man, it’s hard to pick. As I said, A Pair Of Brown Eyes got me into them. Misty Morning, Albert Bridge is a good one. Thousands Are Sailing was one I particularly liked. I taught myself to play Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six on guitar. I like all of them!
But if I suddenly break out in song, it’s usually The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn or The Broad Majestic Shannon. Or Sit Down By The Fire. Or…
I just saw them at the 9.30 Club in DC. 'Twas great, but I wish I had seen them earlier when Shane was more coherent (not that he was ever a teetotaller, mind you…)
My favorite too is The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, which they didn’t play, unsurprisingly.
As to the show, the one thing that annoyed me was the number of people for whom Shane’s incapacity was apparently the reason they had turned up. It was turning this wonderful artist and poet into a clown, and it made me sad.
The album by Shane MacGowan and The *Popes * called The Snake is worth a listen, especially for the title track, one of the best songs Shane has done IMHO. The material he did with the Popes was patchy but its highlights shouldn’t be dismissed.
I’ve seen The Pogues a few times and The Popes maybe half a dozen times.
It seems like every time anyone mentions him the first thing out is whether he was really drunk or just a little drunk, and then it’s on to talking about the music. It is sad. When I was at my show, I was in the front row and put my beer on the stage while I was getting situated and one of the event crew came over and said just not to leave it there whole night because it might spill onto the equipment and “because Shane might be tempted.” And I laughed but it wasn’t all happy laughter, you know?
There were people yelling at him to drink when I saw him. Just STFU why dontcha?
I’m so looking forward to getting the DVD. I even paid for shipping so I could get it sooner!
It was written by Ewan MacColl, father of the sadly missed Pogues collaboratrix Kirsty MacColl, who both duetted with Shane on “Fairytale Of New York” and sang on the best ever Pogues song “Miss Otis Regrets”/“Just One Of Those Things”, off the album Red, Hot And Blue: “Ah trup ta tha moon, Oan goassamer wungs. Huuaargghhh!”
Gosh, I hadn’t even thought of Young Ned, but that’s definitely in my top 10 of theirs. As for the blackshirts – I see that’s been answered. Does it make me odd that Boys from the County Hell always reminds me of my childhood? Can’t say why, it just does. Sadly, I’ve never gotten the chance (missed or otherwise) to see The Pogues, but I’d just about kill for it.
Funny (but true) story – I used to work for a guy who was a diehard country music fan. He was always talking smack about the music I would listen to while working. One day, just to shut him up, I threw in a Pogues cd and blasted it – I don’t remember which song it was, but he comes in, shock all over his face, and says “Oh my gawd, Litoris, I didn’t know you liked country music! That fiddling is amazing.” It damn near broke his heart when I pointed out that it wasn’t country music, but Irish punk. I did create a new Pogues fan that day…
Understatement of the year right here. I bought it a few years ago and ended up permanently shelving it after several attempts at viewing it. I could barely understand a damn word!
Meant to add in my previous post: there’s a BBC documentary about Shane on Google Video - it sounds somewhat similar to what is in the DVD but not totally the same.
So talking about the music I like again: there are a few songs or performances that when I listen to them I am every time overcome with an almost unbearable filling of emotion, to the point where my heart hurts as it spills out into me. I don’t listen to these songs in public a lot because sometimes they make me cry from the beauty. Those works are:
Beethoven, 9th Symphony, “Ode to Joy”
Maria Callas at La Scala, final aria Madama Butterfly, “Con Onor Muore”
Shane MacGowan / The Pogues
Is closed captioning different from subtitles? Whatever the case, I remember messing with that disc for an hour trying to get some words to pop up on the screen, to no avail.
Ugh, sometimes, I hate the SDMB. I had typed up a whole response to neutron star and it wandered off into the ether to never be heard from again. The major difference between subtitles and closed-captioning is that subtitles are for when a movie/show is in another language (such as the beginning of Naruto – they show subtitles for the theme song, since about half of it is sung in Japanese), whereas closed-captioning is for the hearing impaired – so gramma can read her stories if she can’t get the television loud enough to hear them. Closed-captioning is handy for watching BBCA if you’re not accustomed to the accents (and they actually do a very cute PSA about that before Coupling that makes me giggle every time).
Also, you have to mess with the TV to get closed captions, and you mess with the DVD to get subtitles.
If your TV was made after 1992 (I believe so anyway) here in the US it should have a captioning chip built in. (jeez. I typed ‘born’ and now I have a whole thing in my head about baby TVs in a nursery, swaddlings and all… :eek: )
You should be able to access CC through the menus on the TV.
There was a nice little documentary about the genesis of Fairytale Of New York made about 5 or more years ago that I saw recently. I cannot recall the name alas.
The Pogues are one of the first bands that got me into Irish music, and for that I am eternally grateful. I finally got the chance to see them live last year in Boston and they were spectacular. Shane was clearly wobbly, but basically every third song or so he would leave the stage and the rest would do a tune, then he would shamble back out “refreshed” for a couple more numbers, rinse, repeat. Seemed like a good way to keep him going for a longer show. Great concert and I am SO glad I got to seem them!
As for a favorite, like everyone else says, yikes! Tough to choose. Maybe Lullaby of London or Broad Majestic Shannon. I’m a sucker for ballads
I think he must be going off to go to the bathroom? He can’t be going off for a drink, he doesn’t have to leave for that. Oh god I hope it’s not for anything strong than a drink. He didn’t seem either coked up or heroined out when he returned so I am going to assume bathroom. Anyway it gives the others a good chance to sing when he goes off.
I heard last year was really good too. I again kick myself for not going. I don’t plan to miss them again. If they do a left coast tour this fall I am going and definitely going next spring if they’re back here in the east, and not just to Boston either. Gotta take vacation sometime; might as well be then!
Oh god I hope it’s not for anything strong than a drink. He didn’t seem either coked up or heroined out when he returned so I am going to assume bathroom. Anyway it gives the others a good chance to sing when he goes off.