THE POGUES & SHANE MACGOWAN
Songs & Stories
(part 2)
Songs & Stories
(part 2)
Songs
marked in dark yellow have a story to tell... Click on the
song title (or just scroll down) to read it.
& UNRELEASED
(in alphabetical order)
Aria (Finer)
Black Dogs Ditch (Woods)
Body of an American (MacGowan)
Eyes Of an Angel (Finer)
First Day Of Forever (Chevron)
Garbo (aka In And Out) (MacGowan / Finer)
Haunted (MacGowan)
Honky Tonk Women (Jagger / Richards)
Hot Dogs With Everything (MacGowan)
Irish Rover (traditional)
Jack's Heroes (Stacy / Woods)
Japan (Sanders)
Junk Theme (Finer)
Kerry Polka (traditional)
Mistletrush (Ranken / Chevron)
Murder (version 1 & 2) (Ranken)
Needle For Paddy Garcia (Finer)
NW3 (MacGowan)
Planxty Noel Hill (Finer)
Rabinga (Chevron)
Rainy Night In Soho (MacGowan)
Rake At the Gates Of Hell (MacGowan)
Shanne Bradley (MacGowan)
Who Said Romance Is Dead (Finer)
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (MacGowan)
Young Ned Of the Hill (dub version) (Woods)
(the Nips, the Popes etc.)
(in alphabetical order)
B&I Ferry
Church Of the Holy Spook
Dunes
Gabrielle
Joey’s In America
Man Called Horse
Paddy Public Enemy No. 1
Road To Paradise
St. John Of Gods
Silent Scream
Skipping Rhymes
Snake With Eyes Of Garnet
Tomorrow Belongs To Me
SINGLES,
SOUNDTRACKS,
THE BOX SET
& UNRELEASED
& UNRELEASED
Aria
Philip Chevron:
I just have nothing to say on the matter. It is what it is. And yes, it's Andrew singing.
Although it is given a later copyright date in the box set traxk listing, nobody is at all sure when we made "The Aria" - so it might just as easily have been 1986 as 1988.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Peter (the Pogues fan):
Jem was there - I asked him about the Aria on the box set - he said that he and Shane planned to write an opera, but the aria was the only thing he did. He wrote it using lots of funny sentences from an Italian phrase book. He's got another recording of it he prefers because it's got more scratches on it.
(from Shanemacgowan.com forum)
Black Dogs Ditch
Philip Chevron:
Some tracks were genuinely forgotten by band members, even sometimes if they had apparently written the thing. Also, not everything had a title until one was required for the box set. This allowed, for example, Terry Woods to belatedly name his Hell's Ditch outtake "The Black Dogs Ditch" [the "missing" apostrophe is deliberate, which has not stopped everyone trying to correct it on our behalf] without having the faintest recollection of it, and no inclination to listen to it either, in the hope that this might stimulate memory. On the tape box, it was temporarily listed as "Terry's Heirs" which, I confess, was my doing.
Strummer: "Ask Terry what it's called."
Chevron: "What's it called, Terry?"
Woods: "It's not called anything.............um, call it 'Terry's Airs' for now"
Chevron: "Joe, it's called 'Terry's Heirs'"
(from Pogues.com forum)
Body of an American
Shane MacGowan:
You may not believe this but Body Of An American was the result of me thinking of the line 'Everyone there was pisskey' and I got obsessed with the idea of a song with that line in it. Pisskey means pissed, yeah!? Then I thought of various stories from Ireland in my formative years, like the Cadillac outside the house, the American coming home dead, the boxers….there all mixtures of people and things yeah!
(from a 'A Man You Don't Meet Every Day', 2006 interview with Shane published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Eyes Of an Angel
Jem Finer:
After my first daughter was born I walked home through the rainy dawn. A few years later I wrote this.
(from Poguetry.com website)
First Day Of Forever
Philip Chevron:
The song was learned and on tape "live" in about 30 minutes at Elephant studios. I wanted to give the band a chordally quite complex piece of music (there's bits of Wagner and stuff in there) and have them play it like a conventional mid-tempo Pogues song. Jem Finer won the "that's a doddle award" for cracking it immediately, but then he's an ologist. After that, the "arrangement" is bare except for the later-overdubbed Organ, for which I specifically asked for Jamie Taylor on this track (I think he played on another while he was down at Real World Studios).
My heart went out of this song when I fucked up the writing of the lyrics and could never quite repair them. That said, it is no the most disappointing song in the collection and tends to have a small fan club, notably among non-Pogues fans.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Garbo (aka In And Out)
Question: Any reason why it says "The Pogues" when it came to name the author(s) of this song in the booklet, and not "MacGowan/Finer"?
Philip Chevron: Just a clerical error. It was written by Shane and Jem. It should also credit Jem Finer as Producer, not "The Pogues". It is also called "Garbo", not "In And Out". Seems Australian record companies are just as lovable as British and American ones.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Haunted
"It all went wrong in the mix as far as I'm concerned," says Philip [Chevron]. "We wanted to remix it but there wasn't a chance. On the rough mixes it sounded pretty well like us, there was enough individuality and guts to make it sound like a Pogues record. But it sounds a little bit too American; a little bit too FM. We just didn't have as much control over it as we should have had."
(from The Lost Decade by Ann Scanlon)
Honky Tonk Women
Philip Chevron:
"Honky Tonk Women" was a monumental error.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Hot Dogs With Everything
Afterwards they attempted 'Hot Dogs With Everything', a less than cultured trip around Soho. "I can't sing that!" screeched Spider on reading Shane's scrawled lyrics. Eventually he did, and Stacy's Chainsaw schooling Had never served him better. "It was a good laugh," he smiles. "I'm not keen on recording because, apart from everything else, I'm always the last one to do anything, so I just have to sit around the studio; but I really enjoyed doing 'Hot Dogs'."
(from The Lost Decade by Ann Scanlon)
Irish Rover
About the different versions:
Philip Chevron:
There are almost as many versions of "The Irish Rover" as there are of "Rainy Night In Soho". It had at least three mixing sessions which all rendered up 7", 12" and instrumental versions.
I used the version known as "The Dubliners Mix" for the [remastered] "IISFFGWG" CD for three principal reasons:
a) It was the closest to the original intentions of both ourselves and the Dubs, before the recording was considered for a single.
b) It had never appeared on a Pogues release before, as Warners had tended to favour the more common "Single Mix", which has been freely available elsewhere.
c) Nick Robbins felt that the Master source was the most reliable of all the versions available. There were so many "Rover" tapes to wade through that it was far from clear which one was the supposed "master".
(from Pogues.com forum)
Jack's Heroes
This song was written for Ireland's 1990 World Cup team, the Republic's first trip to the event. That year Ireland was in Group F (with England, Netherlands, and Egypt; all three of their matches ended in ties). In the next round they defeated Romania 5-4 on penalty kicks, and eventually lost (1-0) to host Italy.
(from Poguetry.com website)
Philip Chevron:
In the interests of Poetry we said the World Cup would be lifted on Stephen's Green when, as any fule no, the 1990 Victory Parade terminated at COLLEGE Green. No, all things considered, it's best forgotten, though Tim Booth did make a great fun video for it. Go play the b side instead.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Japan
Philip Chevron:
It's from a 1967 album TAUHID by jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, who was a sideman for John Coltrane at the time. We were in Japan, Shane and Jem had been listening to a lot of jazz, everything Coltrane-related in particular. We tried the tune at a soundcheck, it kinda worked, so it went into the show.
Not all such experiments worked. We did "We built this city on rock n roll" at the soundcheck of one of our Fillmore West, (San Francisco) dates. Suffice to say, it never made it into the show!
(from Pogues.com forum)
Junk Theme
Pressed for time, the band had to abandon the idea of a video, and turned their attention to Alex Cox's Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon movie. Love Kills. Cox screened a roughcut of the terminal romance and invited them to contribute some music to the soundtrack. After experimenting with various instruments, they came up with the atmospheric 'Junk Theme' an instrumental written by Finer, arranged by himself, Chevron and Fearnley and produced by Dave Jordan. "It was after hearing 'Rain Dogs' in Germany that we started talking about different sounds," says James [Fearnley]. "I discovered that if you get a mandolin on your knees, dampen two of the strings and hit it with teaspoons you get a really individual noise. We used that on 'Junk', which starts off pretty straightforwardly then goes off into loads of things. There's violin, banjo, accordion, mandolin, bass, drums, guitar, auto-harp; we just piled everything on."
(from The Lost Decade by Ann Scanlon)
James Fearnley:
I think it was on 'Junk' that I pulled out the violin, wanting to add an element of John Cale, but overall wanting to make the sound I made to be the aural equivalent of sticking one's fingers down one's throat. 'Junk' was indeed credited as being arranged by Philip, myself and Jem, but I think most of us had a hand in it. Quite which scene in the film it was supposed to go with I can't remember at all. With most of the film music we did, which includes Straight to Hell, we flew blind a bit, considering that film composition and recording for film relies a lot on - what are they called - 'flags' or something; visual cues on the film, in any case, and time codes and whatnot. We never had the luxury of that, ever - don't know why. By way of example, Jem and I worked hard to get an orchestral whip to sound at the exact moment that Sue Kiehl and Joe exchange looks, in a scene in Straight to Hell, but not working with time code, the finished product went a bit awry and the orchestral whip cracks in some other fucking place, which was a disappointment. Oh, the effort we went to.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Kerry Polka
Question:
Who's speaking at the beginning and end of song one, "The Kerry Polka"?
"One 2 3 4..."
"There's always one, isn't it?"
And what's the person in question referring to? A good first take?
Philip Chevron:
It's James Fearnley, whose cheery presence has always ensured his garrulousness or volubility in the studio, a fact I could not resist commemorating on the box set. That and the fact that the comment underlines the essentially but unapologetically loose and unpolished nature of much of the material to follow on the collection. "There's always one, isn't there?" is James' comment on the fact that that particular take of "The Kerry Polka" disintegrates at the end into a bit of a train wreck or concentration deficit, the sort of thing that has never bothered any of us in the slightest (and continues not to!). I'm not sure who the "one" is in this instance. Andrew, possibly. I also got a kick out of the fact that the first words heard on the box set are in a Manchester, not Irish accent.
James has always been the person to talk most between takes in the studio, though I did notice, in listening to the archive, that in the very early days, the culprit was more often Jem, who usually had something to say before the take had quite finished. The voices at the end of the box set, after "Goodnight Irene", belong to both James and Jem.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Mistletrush
Philip Chevron:
There's not really much of a story behind "Mistlethrush". Andrew wrote some lyrics and asked if I would write a tune for it. He didn't especially like the results, which is why the song never progressed further. I think the lyrics, a Nature Boy's tribute to his gal pal, are a sort of coded love ballad to Deborah Korner, Andrew's partner, who was still alive then and who was later, tragically, the force behind "My Baby's Gone" and "Four O'Clock In The Morning".
(from Pogues.com forum)
Murder (version 1 & 2)
Philip Chevron:
I think each version has different lyrics, but I have no texts of either. In both cases, they are laments about Margaret Thatcher, who was the most rightwing Prime Minister Britain ever had until Tony Blair came along.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Needle For Paddy Garcia
Philip Chevron:
Thing is, we did actually record "Needle For Paddy Garcia" specifically for Sid And Nancy. "Paddy Garcia" was a half-serious but in any event incomplete or abandoned project of Jem's to tell the narrative story of this Bandito Paddy, using a mixture of aural clues only - no lyrics. "The Junk Theme" would also be part of this project too as is my own unreleased companion piece to that, "Spiked". We had recorded the first tune in the sequence, "A Pistol For Paddy Garcia" as a b side and Cassette/CD bonus in 1985.
(from Pogues.com forum)
NW3
Philip Chevron:
NW3 is North West London area. Which is where Shan'e Dad worked delivering "Meals on wheels" to elderly people.
(from an online chat at shanemacgowan.de)
Philip Chevron:
If Shane had ever finished a lead vocal for NW3 it would have made it past anyone else's songwriting contribution, no contest. The fact is, he didn't, for reasons known only to himself. There is a good vocal on the Falconer Demo but the overall sound on those demos was not in the same class as the Hell's Ditch material - for which the backing track of NW3 was in fact recorded. If the demo had passed muster with the overall feel of Hell's Ditch, I feel sure we would have included it.
Shane has always had some revisionist pleasure out of demonising the rest of us for any number of perceived evils and slights. In fact, the majority of apparently egregious mysteries were of his own making, as was the case with NW3, which we all thought was one of his best ever songs.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Philip Chevron:
We first recorded NW3 in 1987, then in 1990. There was a further recording for the Hell's Ditch album, though this was never completed.
Extract from my sleeve note in the box set:
"Some of our songs seemed to follow us around without ever quite finding a home. I think we all felt that "NW 3" was one of Shane's strongest pieces of work and we kept trying to include it in albums but, for reasons that are likely to remain unclear, it was not to be. The version on here [Disc One] is the first recording we have of it, from October 1987, but certainly not the last. By the time we got to working on our fifth album, the Joe Strummer-produced Hell's Ditch, we even finished a strong new backing track of it for that record, but it never got completed. When Shane came down to Rockfield Studios in Wales, he allocated his time there to other ideas - including the remarkable medley of Culture's "I'm Alone in the Wilderness" with his own "Pinned Down" [Disc One]."
I should add that Shane, fresh back from Thailand with a new outlook on his own independence, not to say song lyrics which attempted to define that independence and his escalating estrangement from his colleagues, was in no mood to submit to the resurrection of old classics. All the same, the half-finished state of pieces like "Aisling" was not necessarily a better option than a "NW 3" that would have required only a vocal line to be considered finished. It remains one of the multiple paradoxes of that album.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Planxty Noel Hill
Relations deteriorated when a concertina player and former member of Planxty, Noel Hill, attacked the band's musicianship. Hill, whose perception of music began and ended with Seamus Ennis, stated that The Pogues - in common with the "rowdy ballad music" of The Dubliners and Clancy Brothers - were "a terrible abortion" of Irish music.
This led to a discussion, as heated as it was inevitable, about the band's 'Irishness'. Journalist Joe Ambrose made a laudable attempt to quell the point, by saying: "It's said that folk music is the background to us being a proud, independent nation and, if you come from a place like Tipperary - which is where the Clancys come from - you'd probably regard folk music as being more suitable for molesting sheep to. Whereas The Pogues reflect elements of sordidity and earthiness and poverty, which are much more interesting and which have nothing to do with being Irish or English or American."
Noel Hill, however, laboured his case and it was at this stage that Andrew went for an unexpected Grundy, and said: "I think it just comes down to I sex. I mean, are you a better fucker than me!" The session continued in similar style for another half hour, and eventually ended with the contemptuous Cait being branded "a pig". She replied with five seconds of suitable snorts.
(from The Lost Decade by Ann Scanlon)
Rabinga
About the authorship:
Philip Chevron:
I am the guilty party, though the title was provided by Del Zamora who acted in the movie and who sings (or at least proclaims) the lyrics. I wrote it on the Straight To Hell set on a cheap Spanish 12-string guitar I bought in Almeria to amuse myself when not acting my heart out, drinking Vino Tinto by the gallon or slowly going crazy in the noon desert sun. In fact, that's the predominant instrument on the recording.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Rainy Night In Soho
About the different versions:
Philip Chevron:
I'm not exactly sure, without listening to the records, where else the American mix of "Rainy" appears, but it definitely appears on the USA MCA and Canada MCA versions of "Poguetry" and on the 1986 Canadian CD, the only CD release of the EP at that point.
Elvis Costello produced both versions, and some elements of his production remain in the 1991 Steve Lillywhite remake (the "third" version). Essentially, the "American" version is the one with an oboe instead of a flugelhorn (which is a type of trumpet). Orchestrator Fiachra Trench (who later worked on "Fairytale") wrote a score for Oboe and Strings. Costello, myself and Nick Robbins mixed it. Unfortunately, Shane hated the oboe, as it did not give the effect he - as the writer - had intended. Costello was inclined to stand by his work rather than attempt to hear Shane's alternative. He washed his hands of the record. He had already lost the battle to have our recording of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe In Magic?" (produced by Elvis, sung by Shane and Cait and a near-cert for the box set) included on the EP in favour of "Planxty Noel Hill". He was faltering too, in the birth of "Fairytale" around this time and, in retrospect, it seems clear Elvis and The Pogues had simply outgrown each other - nobody's fault, just a natural end.
Anyway, Dave Jordan and myself worked on the new version, with Dick Cuthell's flugelhorn replacing the oboe but with everything else as before. Dave mixed this and it was the version Shane was happiest with. However, Stiff and MCA liked the original version and found ways of getting both versions on the market.
So there are three versions in all, not counting edited radio-play versions etc. To be honest, I love all three of them - Kirsty's backing vocals on the 1991 version are extraordinary. The song is so beautiful that it's next to bulletproof.
(...)
The version on the remastered "Rum Sodomy" is the same as the 12" of the UK EP. It has the repeated "now the song is nearly over" chorus.
The "American/oboe" mix was only ever pressed in the UK on the "Rainy Night In Soho/Planxty Noel Hill" DJ promo single (STIFF BUY DJ 243). It was ALSO used for the German "info" single "London Girl/Rainy Night In Soho" (TELDEC 6.14589) as well as in the American and Canadian releases mentioned already.
I THINK that all the other versions released on the EP around the world are the Flugelhorn version, but as I don't have copies of everything in the Archive, I don't know for sure. Bear in mind two further points: 1) I have not even BEGUN to allow for edited down versions which appeared in various places and 2) Stiff Records may have further confused the issue by deliberately releasing "wrong" pressings, which is the sort of thing they did in those days.
In contrast, the version of "London Girl" on "The Rest of the Best" is just a cock-up. Warners simply used the wrong tape and what you hear there is a not-very-good rough mix!! It was this, more than anything, that made me determined to take a more "hands on" approach to our relations with Warners.
(from Shanemacgowan.com forum)
Rake At the Gates Of Hell
Although The Pogues had started the Straight To Hell film score back home, it was in Almeria that Shane composed 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God' and finished his delirious rhapsody 'Rake At The Gates Of Hell'. "They're both cowboy death songs which I wrote for the film. The whole idea of 'Rake At The Gates Of Hell' is very violent and romantic. It's the sort of thing that your classic maniac gunslinger would be thinking, about anybody who'd ever done anything to them, as they were waiting to go. It's inspired by Marty Robbins, you know, doom and death in the hot sun."
(from The Lost Decade by Ann Scanlon)
Shanne Bradley
Philip Chevron:
We recorded it twice, first at Abbey Road and then at RAK, both 1987. The Abbey Road recording, available on the 5-CD Box Set, was a fairly conventional one, with myself (guitar), James (accordion), Terry (cittern), Darryl (Bass), Andrew (drums) and Jem (does he play banjo on this?) all shielded away behind sound baffles to aid separation. The RAK version took a different approach, with Steve Lillywhite placing us all in a circle aroubd the mikes to encourage sound spillage, though the subsequent overdubs - harp, tin whistle etc, are all recorded in the conventional way. Sorry I can't be more specific about all the instruments, it was a long time ago. The RAK recording is the one on the b side of Fairytale of New York and on the various versions of the If I Should Fall From Grace With God CD.
The piece is so titled in the tradition of the Irish harper and composer Turlough O'Carolan, who frequently wrote pieces (usually called a "Planxty", but not always) in praise of or in honour of a favoured patron, friend or lover. The tune itself is certainly inspired by O'Carolan's work, first heard to its astonishingly contemporary-sounding effect on Sean O'Riada's albums on Gael Linn from the late 50s through the mid-60s, before his orchestra, Ceoltóirí Chualann, mutated into The Chieftains.
Seán O'Riada's work was an enormous influence on Celtic-Rock band Horslips, in particular their keyboard player/flautist Jim Lockhart, and this was the route that took me back to both O'Carolan and O'Riada. Interestingly enough, bith O'Riada and Lockhart were essentially jazz musicians who addressed Irish music with that particular skill set. O'Riada was an extraordinary revelation to me - I had never heard Irish music played like that before or since. Just listen to "The Rights Of Man" and get transported. O'Riada also had one of Ireland's greatest ever singers, Sean O'Sé, in his line up, a man who is, fortunately, still with us.
I have digressed somewhat from the topic but perhaps not - I know that Shane (who of course wrote "Shanne Bradley") is at least as big an O'Riada nut as myself.
Sean O'Riada's son Peadar, a great musician in his own right, supplied the Carolanesque/O'Riadaesque string arrangement for the end of "London You're A Lady" on the Peace And Love album.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Who Said Romance Is Dead
Jem Finer:
Back at the beginning of the 1980's I visited New York with my girlfriend. A graffiti artist asked her if she'd like him to spray her name on the side of a train ... who said romance is dead ...!
(from the Jem Finer (Of The Pogues) BMG Publishing Sampler; quoted at www.ktv.no/~oyl-ktv)
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Philip Chevron:
We all genuinely loved "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah". The record company were far from convinced (no shamrocks), but at least we didn't offer them "Contact Yourself" [Shane’s twenty minute acid house experimental track] instead, he he he he he.
We were going through one of our periodic "let's see what *else* we can do" moments. As it was Shane's baby, and he who reintroduced it for the December 2004 shows, it kind of shows up his argument that "the Pogues were drifting away from Irish music in directions I didn't like" for the bollocks it always was.
Shane, like the rest of us, has always been restlessly curious about music of all types. Also, he was a genuine Northern Soul kid, and can still, in his more athletic moments, execute a great backflip. There is a direct line from "Gabrielle" to "London Girl" to "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah".
"Yeah" showed up most of the Manc e-bands and acid bands for the frauds they really were. We weren't even *supposed* to be good at this.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Young Ned Of the Hill (dub version)
Jem Finer:
Songs are written, they are written very simply with a guitar or whatever. Everyone comes along and makes suggestions.... This song "Ned of the Hill," a slightly reggae/ska one. Well Terry Woods wrote that, and when he played it to us, it was a reverent sort of folk song, you know, with your finger in your ear. And Darryl and Andrew just started messing around and playing this back beat reggae/ska rhythm and it just clicked. So instantly this song was transformed... It's really strong. It's brilliant. It's got a blend of influences that no one's really done before and it works perfectly. That was totally instinctual on Darryl and Andrew's part. Terry Woods would never have thought of that in a thousand years. It's that sort of thing that makes our music very distinctive.
Darryl Hunt:
Most times it's easy to work with, because the material generally is very good. You know, when Shane, Jem, and Terry bring things along to rehearsal. It's easy to see the potential straightaway in just 3 chords. I mean, Shane can play you one chord and half a verse or something, but you can see straightaway the power... you know that you really got to work on it a bit. But it happens very quickly. Alot of people will struggle madly over a whole sort of tune, but it never actually happens. We tend to build them up like that, and ideas get put in as they go on.
(from an interview with Darryl and Jem, released on the 1989 "Picture Disc" 12 inch, published at Poguetry.com website)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHANE MACGOWAN’S SOLO SONGS
B&I Ferry
Shane MacGowan:
B&I Ferry was my idea. Like, y'know, the idea of the 'Black Star Liner' and jarrrr, instead of jah - Paddyfarianism. It was a joke that me and my mates had for years.
(from 'Shane's Gonna send 'Em Home Sweatin' Irish Post, 1997, published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Church Of the Holy Spook
He [Shane MacGowan] still looks to Catholicism, especially as a songwriting inspiration. "You can find God in a pub," he asserts. Is that what inspired "Church of the Holy Spook" on The Snake? "Actually, 'Church of the Holy Spook' is straight down the line what it says -- good ol' Irish Catholicism was good enough for my dear old dad or mum or granny, if people died for it, then it's good enough for me," MacGowan says. "I don't believe in the Holy Trinity -- but I do believe in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spook is just a friendly way of saying Holy Ghost."
(from 'The Mighty Mac', The Irish Voice, 1999, published at Shanemacgowan.com)
The Dunes
Martin Roddy: You have written a lot of songs about London, can you tell me about the song you wrote about Ireland and the Famine, the one you gave to Ronnie Drew?
Shane MacGowan: …….well they are gone now, the dunes, they got blown in a storm a few years back…….when I wrote the song they were still there though…..they are in Mayo…..right in the bleakest part……they didn't have any earth, they had rocks and sand, where they had to bury the dead in the famine…..yeah?......I had a friend up there and …..ah… me and some other friends went up there visiting and stuff, you know?, years ago, when I was about 14 or so yeah? …….and we went to the dunes right?.....well there are plenty of family graves around here (Tipperary) and everywhere in Ireland yeah?.........but it was particularly horrific……we were all a bit pissed and stoned and 'codding' about a bit……..we got up on the dunes and these bones fell out - which I've seen before too, right?...........then we started to get that feeling of panic……sort of voice inside saying "go away - fuck off !"……and we fucking ran like hell…….well we froze first and then ran like hell……..I mean it was probably more scary for the people that were under the dunes……./laughs/……it was one of those things that stunned us. It was one of the grimmest places I've been….and the bleakest feelings I've had yeah? ….I used to think about it a lot…….you know what I mean? And I ended up writing a song about a guy who comes back…who survived the famine....and sees the bailiff and the landlord…..and goes drinking in Westport yeah! /laughs/
(from 'A Rockin Roll Paddy On The Donegal Express', a 2003 interview with Shane)
Gabrielle
Shane MacGowan:
And as for Gabrielle, she used to have blonde hair and tight leather-look plastic trousers... She used to be my first real love, but she wouldn't ever go to bed with me. She just used to take me back to her bedsit in Streatham and jerk me off.
(from 'It's a long way from Tipperary', VOX Magazine, 1997, published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Joey’s In America
Danny Heatley (former drummer of the Popes):
The title of the instrumental "Joey's In America" was due to the band constantly asking where Joey [Cashman, Shane's manager] was after a U.S. tour, as they all wanted to be paid. Shanes stock answer was..."Joey's in America" And he was, in America, spending everyones hard earned wages...
(from Shanemacgowan.com forum)
Man Called Horse
Noel from Wexford:
It wasn't unknown for Shane to arrive at his favorite north London Pub (Filthy McNasty's) at let's just say unusual hours. The head bar man at the time was a chap called Noel Byrne who was from a small place outside Kilkenny city called Castlecomber. Most of Noel's mates were from the same area so there was a good contingent of Castlecomber men at the place. Anyhow a particular colloquium of the area (Castlecomber) is to refer to each other as Horse as in "What's the craic Horse?" or "Give us a pint of Guinness there Horse" "No problem Horse." In fact people who frequented the pub would refer to the Castlecomber men as the Horses as in "Where are the Horses tonight?" Meaning where was Noel and the Castlecomber men tonight?
Anyhow one night Noel "Horse" was dead keen on going out (to a night club or a gig or something) and was just finishing up when Shane and the band arrived after working late in the studio. Noel was less than happy to say the least, especially as in a another couple of minutes he would have been away, but now he would have to stay and serve (He is Shane MacGowan after all). Anyway as Noel threw out drinks (not literally but in a less than friendly manner) to Shane and the band, Shane could see that he had the "hump" so started singing "Big bad Noel" which the rest of the band picked up on and started singing as well.
Soon the few others (including myself) that were in the pub joined in. I'm not sure if Shane started singing it just to wind Noel up a bit more as he could see he was in a bad humor (probably) or if it was an attempt to cheer him out of his foul mood, but in any case, it did cheer Noel up as he started laughing and, as they used to say in the old days, a good time was had by all.
I have to be a little careful on the timing here as I can't say for certain whether Shane went on to complete the song (additional murder lyrics) that night and record it following this incident or if they had recorded it or most of it before the above incident and this just cemented his discussion to include it on the B side of "Lonesome Highway" with the additional lyrics (murder) springing from the above (also Shane singing it because he had just come from the studio and it was fresh in his head).
What I can say for certain is it is definitely about the barman Noel and my own belief is that "Murder in the first degree" refers to the humor Noel was in on that particular night and the rest of the lyrics as explained (Horse as above, Noel [obviously]).
To summarize this song came from a need for a B side on Lonesome Highway, Shane liking the song obviously and the fact that it was a tribute/compliment to the barman Noel was a bonus because Noel's services would be often be required in the future. It would be difficult at the best of times not to offer Shane a late drink but after him writing a song about you (and that's something not many could claim) harder still if not impossible. I've lost touch with Noel and the Castlecomber men over the years and I sometimes imagine poor Noel drunk somewhere telling an unbelieving soul that Shane MacGowan once wrote a song about him (Yeah sure he did) but its true, he did, I was there!!!
(from Poguetry.com website)
Paddy Public Enemy No. 1
Shane MacGowan:
Yeah, 'Public Enemy' is an outlaw song about an IRA man and like all outlaw songs, it ends in his demise, shot by his former allies. It seems to be a recurring story in the topsy-turvy world of the war in Northern Ireland. There does seem to be a lot of shootings and bombings of ex-IRA men. It's not specifically about Dominic McGlinchey, but it was - to a certain extent - inspired by him.
(from 'Shane's Gonna send 'Em Home Sweatin', Irish Post, 1997, published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Road To Paradise
In this case, the track is a charity single featuring Celtic legend Jimmy Johnstone which aims to raise funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Tribute Fund. The triple A-side also features Jim Kerr from Simple Minds, with whom Johnstone sings a version of ‘Dirty Old Town’, and Scottish singer-songwriter John McLaughlin, who has worked with pop acts such as Westlife and Busted.
MacGowan was asked by Glasgow producer Phil Ferns to contribute a song when he was in town in January for the Celtic Connections festival. After his show at the Barrowlands, MacGowan appeared on stage the following night with Primal Scream at the Glasgow Academy. Watching the punk survivor thrash out ‘Loaded’ and Johnny Thunder covers on stage was quite a sight to behold. Naturally, a night of debauchery in the Scream’s hometown followed, but MacGowan managed to make it to the studio on the Sunday night to write and record ‘Road to Paradise’.
"I heard about Jimmy’s illness and I know it can be cured with money," says MacGowan. "The last time I saw him he seemed fine, but people can seem fine and drop down dead the next day. The reason for doing this record is to raise money and prolong Jimmy’s life, which is as good a reason to do anything. Put it this way: I hope to be having a drink with Jimmy in a few years’ time."
(from 'Shane Returns To Paradise', by Richard Purden, Scotland On Sunday, 2004 - currently available here)
St. John Of Gods
Shane MacGowan:
St. John of God's was put in charge of Christ's mother when he was being crucified. It's also a name of a detox centre where you can dry out in Dublin. It's a portrait of someone I met in St. John of God's...
(from 'Waiting for MacGowan', Rock'n'Reel, 1998, published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Silent Scream
Franco Lautieri:
I was partly responsible for this track – the Franco Lautieri part of it. I co-wrote the song with Kenny Young and Shane, and I engineered and co-produced the recording. My memory of the actual recording session was that he turned up to the studio with an entourage of five or six people, and when I set eyes on him I couldn't believe that this guy was ready to even simply talk down the mic let alone sing into it. But he completely confounded me because not only did he sing, but he also managed to put passion into what was a moving and honest performance.
He wasn't very long getting that performance onto tape either (it was good old magnetic tape back then). I think the session was over in a couple of hours, and along with his 'friends', he departed without really having said that much. And despite the condition he seemed to be in, he was professional about his work, and heartfelt in his interpretation of the song. So, not surprising then, that he left a lasting impression on me.
Oh, and just to set the record straight, apart from some reverb and delay, no effects were used to alter the pitch or tone of his voice, what you hear is how he sang it on the day. I think the song was pitched in his higher register but it didn't seem to bother him too much.
(from Pogues.com forum)
Skipping Rhymes
Shane MacGowan:
'Skipping Rhymes'- all it is, is preserving traditional music. It's kids' street rhymes, which I've heard them singing. I didn't write the words, I overheard them. When you hear little kids singing it ["First we put a hood around his head, then we shot the bastard dead..."], it sends chills up your spine. But I suppose they don't know anything else. It's like 'Ring-a-Ring-a Rosie', which is about the plague, the Black Death in London. No, there's no way I'm trying to get people to go out and kill other people. I mean, it might annoy David Trimble and people like that, but then I suppose David Trimble is not going to listen to the album anyway.
(from 'Shane's Gonna send 'Em Home Sweatin', Irish Post, 1997, published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Snake With Eyes Of Garnet
Shane MacGowan:
It's one of those ones that I don't know if I was asleep or awake when I wrote it.
(from 'Adder Few Drinks', NME, 1994 published at Shanemacgowan.com)
Tomorrow Belongs To Me
It all began in McGinn's Bar on Hope Street, where Shane MacGowan pulled his career back from the brink with two classic songs about Glasgow. After talking a break from writing and recording, Shane found fresh inspiration in the city when some friends asked him to contribute an Irish folk ballad to a Celtic FC-sponsored charity record to help raise funds for Motor Neurone Disease.
"I wrote that song with Phil Ferns and John McLaughlin (Westlife and Busted songwriters)," says Shane. "It was a real co-operative effort. I basically started thinking about the River Clyde and then the Liffey in Dublin and what was different about them."
"We were in McGinn's pub at four in the afternoon to write the song," remembers Glaswegian co-writer Phil Ferns. "At quarter past twelve that night the pub was closing and Shane decided that inspiration had finally arrived. Shane, John and I sat down with a guitar and thrashed out the song in about 15 minutes. At that point, John used his contacts to sort out a studio in Lenzie for that night. I think the guy in the studio was flabbergasted when he saw Shane and this drunken band fall into the studio in the early hours of the morning. I got the record pressed in London the next day to make the release date and we sold 32,000 copies in the first week. We even outsold Oasis."
(from 'Glasgow belongs to me - Shane MacGowan immortalises his love in song' by Richard Purden, Evening Times, 2004 - currently available here)
The first charity single, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” was a charming and ragged Irish ballad depicting Shane’s love affair with Glasgow.
(from 'MacGowan’s Road to Paradise', Irish America Magazine, 2004 - currently available here at Shanemacgowan.com)
© Zuzana
zuzana(at)pogues.com
