Pogue Mahone... (Rum Sodomy And The Lash - The Pogues)

Member Name: steerpyke

Product:	Rum Sodomy And The Lash - The Pogues
Date:	30/11/04 (803 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: folk with punk attitude

Disadvantages: none

The Pogues have always been an odd band to pigeon hole, punks with folk instuments, folkies with a punk attitue, bar room boozers, who knows, but thats really not the point. The point is that the Pogues kick out a great range of Irish folk with an attitude and stance that takes no prisoners. Even though they share some common ground with more traditional celtic folk bands such as the Dubliners and the Chieftans, they also are not a million miles away from bands such as the Clash or the Sex Pistols.

The title of the album comes from a quote from Churchill "dont talk to me of naval tradition, its all rum, sodomy and the lash", and the cover art work is an adaption of a naval painting from 1819 called the Raft of Medusa, with the bands faces super-imposed in the relevant places. This was the second album for the band, and followed a full calender of playing every toilet and folk club in London, fusing punk, folk, traditional reworks and original tunes at a time when being Irish and a folk band were the two most unfasionable things to be. They did it anyway.

Sick Bed of Cuchulainn opens preceedings in typicaly Irish fashion. Cuchulainn was the greatest of Irish ancient heroes, who according to legend and in poem also, lay ill in bed for a year after being attacked in a dream. The Pogues version of this theme is littered with reference to a whole range of other Irish notaries. After an almost pub singer style introduction the band pile in behind the whiskey cracked voice and carry you away in a drunken ceildah of sound. Mandolins sing, accordians scream and a pounding bass keeps the beat, and by the time the hook line comes in for the second time you will be spinning around the room. If not open that bottle of whiskey left over from last Christmas and put it to good use. John McCormack and Richard Tauber are named dropped as is Frank Ryan, as does the mythical bandit Billy in The Bowl, all meaningless except to those with a knowledge of Irish culture, but the names seem almost magical and add to the anthemic quality of the song.

The Old Main Drag is a slow banjo and accordian led waltz, berating the downward spiral of drugs and prostitution in the back streets of the big city. Amongst this dark tale is a small autobiographical set of lines about how singer Shane MacGowan was given a beating by the police at Vine Street police station.

A scream opens up Wild Cats of Kilkenny, a full on folk jig instrumental, heavy on the bass and drums until it builds the whistle takes command. The title is again from Irish history, but I wont go into that one as this is beginning to turn into a history lesson as it is.

Bass player Cait O`Riordan takes the vocals on the traditional song, Im a Man You Dont Meet Every Day. With minimal musical arragement to detract from her gorgeous voice, it carries the tune, of Scottish derivation by the way, beautifully.

The full band are back in on A Pair of Brown Eyes, a real pub sing along, you can smell the Guiness. The song is about drunken bar room reminiscences of the girl who has just left you, again littered with references to Irish singers and stars.

The most famous song of the album follows. Sally MacLennane is more bar room nonsense, and I defy you to keep still to this. The beat is infectious, the whistle plays the part of lead guitar, the accordian the rythymn. By contrast the slow and dark tones build like a spaghetti westarn on a Pistol for Paddy Garcia, the whistling in the background very "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". If Clint Eastwood had been Irish then the man with no name would have ridden in to town to this tune.

Dirty Old Town is a cover of Ewan MacColls tune, him being the father of Kirsty who joined the Pogues for their most famous song, Fairy Tale of New York, and the town of the title is actually Salford, where MacColl was born. The guitar and harmonica play a wistful and sorrowful tune as MacGowan launches into tales of romance in the poor and grim back streets of an industrial metropolis. Again a slow ballad but with a thumping beat and a hook line that gets you moving.

Jesse James is another traditional jig, whistle fronted about the famous western gang. Side guitar helps lend a country feel to the song. Navigator is a dedication to the Irish work gangs that sought work in England building the canals and railways. The banjo begins this slow waltz and the band back it up with subtle harmonies, the accordian running through all the available gaps in the song.

Billys Bones is about an Irish Man serving in the middle east, a fast punk-folk rant all rockabily drum shuffle and whistle lead parts playing along to the vocal harmony. More soldier songs in the form of the Gentleman Soldier, which combines a hand fully of familiar military melodies and the funniest female vocal impression from MacGowan.

The finale is Eric Bogles much covered And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, the ballad of an Australian soldier who survives the horrors of Galipoli in the first world war, and the album is worth buying just for this. Mainly banjo and voice for the first half of the song, but the words are so poiniant that you could get away with out having any music at all. The tune Waltzing Matilda is the Australians equivalant of the Irish Danny Boy and the chorus of this song is a constant reference to it. The song builds to a become an almost military march before merging into the aformentioned Waltzing Matilda for the play out of the song.

The album is not about power, many of the songs have a minimum of kick, but creates its dynamic from a magical weave of instruments and knowing who to orcestrate songs. There are some faster numbers but this is not about speed either but it does have attitude and it is full of great tunes. It is probably a bit non-traditional for the folk purists, not fast enough for the punks and not punchy enough for the rockers, but as I said in the opening, they are not easy to categorise, oh just buy the album.

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