As we celebrate the brilliant, often chaotic, yet all-too-short life of Shane MacGowan—who passed on November 30 after a long illness—it’s only fitting to look back on some of his greatest works as the founder and frontman of the Irish punk band The Pogues. MacGowan fronted the band from 1982 until 1991, then reunited with them for sold-out shows in the early 2000s. Here are some must-listen songs from Shane MacGowan and The Pogues, highlighting the band’s musical excellence and MacGowan’s songwriting prowess.
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Fairytale of New York
This is an obvious choice for many reasons, one being that it’s now December 1 and it’s time for Christmas. But, The Pogues aren’t just for the holidays. While “Fairytale of New York” is considered an underrated Christmas song, it’s also one of The Pogues’ biggest hits and a look into how MacGowan used storytelling in his lyrics.
Written with founding Pogues member Jem Finer and performed with Kristy MacColl, “Fairytale of New York” tells the story of a tumultuous couple at Christmastime. The actual writing and production of the song was about as complicated as the song’s subject. There’s some debate about how it came about, with The Pogues’ former producer, Elvis Costello, previously stating he wagered the band couldn’t write a Christmas hit, and their manager at the time, Frank Murray, claiming it was his idea for the band to write a Christmas song.
While the origins are convoluted, the song has become timeless. MacGowan once described the process of writing it in a 1985 issue of Melody Maker. “I sat down, opened the sherry, got the peanuts out and pretended it was Christmas,” he said at the time. “[I]t’s quite sloppy, more like ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’ than ‘Sally MacLennane,’ but there’s also a céilidh bit in the middle which you can definitely dance to. Like a country and Irish ballad, but one you can do a brisk waltz to, especially when you’ve got about three [drinks] inside you. But the song itself is quite depressing in the end, it’s about these old Irish-American Broadway stars who are sitting round at Christmas talking about whether things are going okay.”
The Irish Rover
In 1987, The Pogues recorded a version of “The Irish Rover” with The Dubliners. The song itself is about an improbable and unfortunate ship with “twenty-seven masts” that hits a rock, “turns nine times around,” and sinks, with the song’s narrator being “the last of the Irish Rover.”
The Pogues and The Dubliners appeared on a 1987 episode of The Late Late Show to perform the song as part of a tribute to 25 years of The Dubliners. The video features Ronnie Drew and Shane MacGowan standing center stage surrounded by their band members. Drew takes the first verse with his recognizably traditional Irish voice, then kicks it over to MacGowan. With a drink and cigarette in hand, MacGowan unleashes his brogue-ish growl into the mic, lending a modern punk sound to Drew’s classic vocals.
The unique blend of Pogues and Dubliners makes this song and performance a must for fans of either band. According to The Dubliners’ description of the video, it was Eamonn Campbell who first considered a collaboration with The Pogues, and Barney McKenna who suggested “The Irish Rover.”
The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn
“The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn” was the opening track to The Pogues’ second album, Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. This song is a prime example of the influence that being Irish had on MacGowan’s songwriting, as well as his propensity to get political. Serglige Con Culainn is a tale from Irish mythology of a curse that befell the warrior Cú Chulainn as punishment for attacking two Otherworldly women disguised as birds.
Cú Chulainn falls ill and is bedridden for nearly a year while the two women beat him nearly to death with whips. Later, he takes up arms against their enemies in order to lift the curse, falling in love with one of them though he is already married. The song, however, uses the imagery of someone staying by Cuchulainn’s bedside as he dies while “ghosts are rattling at the door” and “the devil’s in the chair.”
This track takes on a political tone in the lyrics while it stays sonically light and cheerful, almost masking the darker aspects. It mentions “decking a f—ing blackshirt,” which were Oswald Mosley’s group of fascists in the early 1930s and makes references to several political leaders, and while much of it seems like rambling, there is a strong undertone of liberty for oppressed groups. While this isn’t one of The Pogues’ most popular hits, it’s still worth a listen just for the artistry of it all.
The Body of an American
“The Body of an American” was originally released on the Poguetry in Motion EP in 1986, but was then added to the 2005 reissue of Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. In popular culture, it was used at wakes for Boston Police Department officers on the HBO series The Wire.
Similarly to their song “If I Should Fall from Grace with God,” this is a great song for remember we’re all going to die someday. Although, “The Body of an American” uses narrative to drive home the point, while “If I Should Fall…” is more like giving instructions to your friends on what to do when you die. “The Body of an American” creates a fictional boxer, Jim Dwyer, and invites us to his wake, where fifteen minutes later / we had our first taste of whiskey and at five o’clock in the evening / every bastard there was piskey.
The fourth verse becomes more a multi-interpretational ode to either America, an old flame, or dead Jim Dwyer. However you spin it, the final verse is an example of MacGowan’s beautiful songwriting, painting a clear, rich picture of a love the speaker holds.
This morning on the harbor / when I said goodbye to you
I remembered how I swore / that I’d come back to you one day
And as the sunset came / to meet evening on the hill
I told you I’d always love you / I always did, I always will
Love You Till the End
This is a love song, pure and simple. It’s not an extraordinary feat of songwriting, but the simplicity of it makes it something special. It’s in lines like I just want to be there / When the morning light explodes / On your face it radiates / I can’t escape and I just want to feel you / When the night puts on it’s cloak.
“Love You Till the End” is not a huge hit. It’s not rich in imagery or metaphor, and it doesn’t touch on anything divisive or political or raunchy. But, what is does do is make a difficult, enormous declaration of love. Love is complicated. As Erich Fromm said, it’s an art that must be learned and practiced like any other. Shane MacGowan managed to take the difficult parts of love and strip them away with this song, leaving only the light on someone’s face in the morning and the rain in their hair.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images
