THE BEST OF THE POGUES ALBUM (The Best Of The Pogues - Pogues)

Member Name: GentleGenius

Product:	The Best Of The Pogues - Pogues
Date:	28/10/08 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Shane is a 1st class poet/songwriter, and The Pogues are gifted musicians

Disadvantages: None whatsoever

THE BEST OF THE POGUES

RELEASED: 1991

Accordion/Piano - James Fearnley
Citern/Vocals - Terry Woods
Guitar/Vocals - Philip Chevron
Tin Whistle/Vocals - Spider Stacey
Banjo/Saxophone - Jem Finer
Drums/Vocals - Andrew Ranken
Lead Vocals/Guitar - Shane MacGowan
Bass/Vocals - Darryl Hunt

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Back in the mid 1980s when I first saw The Pogues on Top Of The Pops, I pretty much wrote them off, very unfairly biasing myself away from them, as I allowed Shane MacGowan's appearance to have a negative influence on me. Apart from Fairy Tale Of New York (which we all are so very familiar with), I heard nothing at all of The Pogues - I for some reason didn't even connect at the time that it was them doing Fairy Tale of New York.

About ten years later, I was very bored one evening - flicking round the TV channels looking for something even remotely watchable, and being in one of those moods whereby, even if I couldn't find a half-decent programme, I wanted to hear the background noise of it. Nothing caught my immediate attention, so I turned the sound down just a little and began to browse through a trashy magazine. After a few minutes, I found myself becoming drawn into the TV programme which was showing....it was an interview with Shane MacGowan which I hadn't been too enthusiastic about, but was suddenly sitting up and taking an interest in what he was saying. On this occasion, though he was swigging from a bottle whilst being interviewed, he appeared only mildly sloshed, and was making a lot of sense. From the point during the interview where it caught my attention until the end, I just couldn't tear myself away from the TV screen. The person who I'd dismissed as a drunken, loudmouthed idiot was talking about his life, his feelings, his influences, his music, and I was totally captivated. Amazed at Shane's depth of perception of people and the world, plus his high level of articulating those perceptions - even if slightly slurred - I listened intently as the program drew to a close, winding down with a Pogues song that was so very deeply moving for me, I was almost in tears - and I'm not the tearful type!

I was at that time in my life considerably richer than I am now, and the next day I smashed out my credit card in Adrian's music shop in Wickford, Essex (the largest music/record/CD shop in Essex). I did take a bit of a risk buying every CD that the Pogues had ever recorded, and maybe it was rather foolhardy to be making such a purchase which was judged solely on the one song I'd heard on TV the previous evening; but the investment paid off, a million times over.

Gradually over a period of weeks, I listened - again utterly spellbound - to all of the CDs, and humbly reversed my opinion and his band.....this was not the drunken ramblings of a bar-room moron I was listening to - I was experiencing and deeply enjoying a superbly gifted songwriter. At first, I decided to listen to "The Best Of The Pogues", followed by "The Best Of The Rest" in order to give myself a good grounding before I moved onto their albums "proper". It wasn't until I played "The Best Of The Pogues" that I'd realised one of my all-time favourite songs, "Fairy Tale Of New York" was in fact the Pogues....and that's pretty shameful, considering how music is the thing which has always been the driving force in my life! Ever since, I have had the greatest admiration for not just Shane and his unique, deep and very sensitive songwriting skills, but the band as a whole.

So, here is my rundown, track by track, on "The Best Of The Pogues".......

1) FAIRY TALE OF NEW YORK

I'd imagine everyone is already more familiar with this track than words can say, and it's probably at or near the top of most people's all time favourite Christmas songs list. Accompanied by the late Kirsty MacColl, Shane and the band take us through this very poignant Christmassy-sounding song which depicts a verbal exchange between a man and a woman whilst she's lying in a hospital bed. The female lines are acerbic and attacking, expressing disappointment with her shattered dreams - the male lines are of a wistful nature, looking back to the past - both of them are reflecting on how things could have been. My favourite lines....... Kirsty: "You took my dreams from me when I first found you"..... Shane: "I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own, can't make it all alone, I've built my dreams around you". This song for me has one of the best tunes ever written, and some years ago I dedicated it to my late mother and stepfather, who had the type of relationship with one another that isn't too far away from the topic of this song. I was delighted last Christmas whilst browsing through YouTube, to find a video clip of Shane singing Fairy Tale Of New York with his mum....and they did a little dance at the end. There was something very heartwarming about it - but, despite intensive hunting through the site, I've sadly not been able to find that little video clip since. Overall, Fairy Tale Of New York is not only a first class and very atmospheric, poignant Christmas song - it is also an exceptionally brilliant work of art in itself, whatever the time of year.
........10/10

2) SALLY MacLENNANE

A very cheerful sounding drinking song, done in Irish reel style, telling the story of Jimmy going away....and his friends seeing off with a few bevvies. Later Jimmy returns and by all accounts, appears to have drunk himself stupid on returning to his local pub and girlfriend, Sally MacLennane, who the unnamed character Shane sings in first person about, has been "looking after" (so to speak!) in Jimmy's absence. All Jimmy's friends had vanished, gone off to other places and to do other things, or had died. Though a lot of the words of this song are quite sad and a bit wistful, Shane has managed to build them into an extraordinarily happy-sounding tune that makes me wish I'd learn Irish dancing when I was young, slim and fit.
.......10/10

3) DIRTY OLD TOWN

This is a traditional Irish song, which I believe was written in the early part of the 20th century. I remember this song by The Dubliners being played on the radio a lot in the mid 1960s, but my research shows that though it was released as a single in the UK, it never made the top 40. The words of this song are largely about somebody being in love and correlating the feeling of being in love with his surroundings, a depressing slum - "I met my love by the gas works wall, dreamed a dream by the old canal....I kissed my girl by the factory wall...." The Pogues' rendition of this old Irish standard is just as good as The Dubliners' version, and all other versions I have heard by many other Irish performers.
.......9/10

4) THE IRISH ROVER

Another traditional Irish song, where The Pogues and The Dubliners get together and sound as if they are having a really good time performing it. Not much I can say about this other than the instrumental backing is very lively - all so "up" and positive-sounding, that tells the story of a group of Irish men taking a boat (which is called "The Irish Rover") to New York...and the boat sinks. This is one of the best versions I've ever heard of an old Irish classic.
.......9/10

5) A PAIR OF BROWN EYES

This is a Shane-penned song...which he opens with a line about being drunk to hell! I'm not exactly sure what the song is about, despite reading the words on the CD sleeve - and I'm thus guessing it's perhaps about a drunken pub brawl. The subject of the song, sung by Shane in the first person, crawls home still drunk, then sits cogitating and reminiscing in his room, about something from the past. There are some clever lines in this song which I'm still trying to get to the bottom of and understand fully, and they are built into a somewhat wistful tune that rolls along at a medium tempo, with traditional Irish instrumental backing.
........8/10

6) STREAMS OF WHISKY

Another very Irish-sounding song, done in a reel style, that almost has a vague military feel. This song appears to me to be about pub and street life in London, but also pays reference to the Irish writer Brendan Behan, who is quoted several times in the words. A jolly-sounding, up-tempo song that seems to see booze as the answer to all the world's problems, with rather deep, and somewhat evasive imagery in the lyrics.
........9/10

7) A RAINY NIGHT IN SOHO
This is a very tender love song of moderately slow tempo, where the character (Shane in first person) writes/sings, as if to the object of his love, recapping and reminiscing about how they met, the good times they've had together, as the relationship is just about to break down. The last couple of lines of the song are almost akin to something like Shakespeare...... "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..." This is such a bitingly wistful song that touches on something very sad inside the human psyche, and I've known it not only make a few people cry, but make them sit up in startled amazement when they learn that Shane MacGowan wrote it.
........10/10

8) FIESTA
This very up-tempo song appears to be about some kind of Spanish (or possibly South American?) free-for-all booze-fest, with singing, dancing easy women, and all things decadent. "Fiesta" doesn't have much of an Irish sound, even though you can hear an accordion being pounded away in the background - I think Shane was a little worse for wear (when is he not??? lol) whilst recording this song in the studio, as he is slurring quite badly on some of the lines. The mood of the song really for me epitomises a huge and rather raucous, boozy party - the type that you wake up from the next morning and wish you hadn't! Even though they don't appear to tell a story as such, the words are very interestingly put together from an artistic point of view.
........7/10

9) RAIN STREET
Shane with his words here takes us on a journey through the destructiveness of life on the wrong side of town - I'm not sure if the scenes the song speaks of are supposed to be in Ireland or elsewhere, but maybe that doesn't matter. What does matter to me enormously in this song is the incredible skill with which Shane observes all that is wasteful and on a street level, destructive about day to day life in a deprived community. His artistic and at times hard-hitting way with words holds no bounds in this song, and through the song Shane holds the sanctity of Catholicism up next to what appears to be a lack of respect for traditional values and religious icons. He creates with his words some very depressing scenes of sex, drunkenness, drug abuse and financial hardship - yet constantly remaining aware of something deeper looking on...... "...There's a Tesco on the sacred ground, where I pulled her knickers down....while Judas took his measly price and St Anthony gazed in awe at Christ, down on Rain Street". I sense the Catholic guilt coming through here too - he had his way with a girl outside Tescos, a modern edifice built on ancient hallowed ground.....Judas taking his measly price....all under the watchful eye of St Anthony. The tune of this track is rather jaunty, with a strong Irish-style instrumental backing......the last line of the song casts a ray of hope..... "That night on Rain Street, somebody smiled".
........10/10

10) MISTY MORNING ALBERT BRIDGE
Wow this song is sooooo sad! Shane dreams of an old flame, and we are taken through the dream scene of them standing by Victoria & Albert Bridge, by the Thames.....sharing a cigarette together....only to awake, feeling cold and lonely, staring at the cracks on the ceiling which spelt hell....he turns to the wall, pulls the sheets around his head, and tries to sleep and return to the dream. This song has a strong Irish instrumental backing, with one of the most poignant tunes and musical arrangements I have ever heard.
........10/10

11) WHITE CITY
This song has such a brilliant, very up-tempo, very Irish-sounding tune with strong Irish style musical backing. It's also got a powerful wistful feel - and speaks of the boredom of another bloody rainy day in London, presumably in the White City district. The song is about disillusionment.....maybe from the point of view of somebody who left small town life to chase the bright lights in London, only to find that it can be a very dark, lonely, cold and depressing place. The instrumentals on this track are superb, with a wonderful middle-eight.
........10/10

12) THOUSANDS ARE SAILING
This song seems to be most people's favourite on the CD, but though I love the start of it, for me it's the worst. I just find it drags on and gets rather boring, plus I don't like the tune....but, I do like the words. Basically, it's about the mass Irish immigration early in the 20th century to the USA...their heads, eyes and hearts filled with dreams of breaking away from the poverty they were born into in Ireland and away from the grasp of the more hard-line section of the Catholic church....making a new life for themselves in the Big Apple. Brendan Behan is once again mentioned in this song....the Irish immigrants walking in his footsteps on the streets of New York. A lot of the poetry in this song is not surreal exactly, but a little difficult to ground - nevertheless, it's pure art with words.....art at its very best!
........7/10

13) THE BROAD MAJESTIC SHANNON
Wow! This has an amazing, and typically Irish/Celtic tune, quite cheerful and fast. It's a song of missing someone, and reminiscing back to the days by the Shannon in Ireland. Inside of his head and memories, the man tries to assure his lady friend that everything is going to be alright. Shane really reaches out and touches the heart in this song....right on the nail with his skilful use of blending some quite complex and poetic word structures inside of some incredible music.
.......10/10

14) THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN
This is my favourite track on the CD. It begins slowly with flute and aeolian pipes, gradually speeding up, then Shane's voice comes in....introducing us to an Irish wake in New York....and then the whole thing launches into a fast, Irish jig type piece. The song is done from the point of view of a young person, probably a child, observing the dead body....... "we turned and shook as we had a look in the room where the dead man lay...", then having their first taste of whisky whilst listening to "uncles giving lectures on ancient Irish history", watching the women get frisky as everyone gets drunk ("pisskey"). The song then goes on with the children present listening to the adult conversation as they mused over the dead man's life - he having been a drinker, and rather keen with his fists. Shane then jumps forward to a kind of remembering saying goodbye to a loved one, reminding her that he said he'd be back...that he loves her, and always will, then he finishes the verse of the song off by having a drink to her......he toasts her with an "adieu", and raises his glass to big Jim Dyer, the dead man, who was often heard to say "I'm a free born man of the USA". The final part of the song then goes slow, with just flute and aeolian pipes, giving a kind of a "last stand" feel, down to its close.
........10/10

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Well well well! Whoever thought that, looking through the eyes for a moment of how I viewed Shane McGowan in about 1985-ish, that he'd end up being in my all-time top five favourite songwriters? OK this man is a drunk, a rebel-rouser and I'm amazed he's still alive, but inside of his soul he carries the world and knows exactly how to express the tender side of human nature. He is also able to pinpoint some rather dark life situations, yet inject a ray of positivity and light into them. This man has true depth, even if it doesn't seem like it by his appearance, and is a very skilled poet - right up there with people like Bob Dylan. Sometimes it's hard to understand all the words of his songs, due to him maybe being a little less than stone-cold sober during the recording process, but if you read the words on the CD/DVD sleeve, they become clear - and reveal a true master of lyrics, not to mention his wonderful tunes that range from softly poignant through the scale to being deliriously happy.

Shane - you are magic, and you have taught me through your wonderful music, amongst other things, that I should never, ever judge by appearances.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Summary: Shine on Shane!!!!