Some stories behind the songs and albums.
If You have anything to contribute with
please email me.
Shane MacGowan & Friends - I Put a Spell on You
In the early 80s I
used to see quite a bit of Shane in the Devonshire Arms in Camden Town. I was
working in "Rock On" and producing other peoples albums, he was at
"Rocks Off" and starting this new band Pogue Mahone. Shane and I knew
each other from 1977, his days with The Nips and mine with The Radiators - at
one stage we were both on Chiswick Records.
In any event, we always had plenty of things to chatter about in the pub. Sooner
or later, the following exchange would always take place:
Shane: "So......you havin' another drink?"
Me: "Cheers Shane, a pint of bitter thanks".
Shane: "Right. Can you loan me some money?"
Me: "Tenner?"
Shane: "Cheers. Bitter, yeah?"
Me: "Cheers"
"Philip Chevron, August 5th 2005"
Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Here is a little storyabout the launch party
from Philip Chevron.
The title was suggested by Andrew Ranken and was, yes,
Churchill's quote about the British Navy. All the other subsidiary meanings you
have mentioned appealed to us as well. An additional one is "the Lash"
as in "spirited effort" - a later well known Irish World Cup song
exhorted Mr Jack Charlton to "Give it a lash, Jack" for instance.
We had a launch party on board HMS Belfast, moored on the Thames, at which we
were piped aboard, from a feeder boat, in the full naval regalia we wear on the
cover, and played a short set for the assembled liggers. This took such
organisation that by the time we played, all the Rum (the only drink on board,
if I recall) had been quaffed by the Melody Maker and NME journalists who then
went on to throw each other overboard.
We stayed sober.
Hells Ditch
Post by Phillip Chevron on www.shanemacgowan.com
1990 was a World Cup summer. We decamped to the Welsh countryside, to Rockfield, a residential studio where some of my favourite albums (including Horslips' "Dancehall Sweethearts" and Dave Edmunds' "Subtle As A Flying Mallet") had been recorded in the 1970s.
The last 4 years had been exciting but exhausting - we needed to slow down and just be a band, without all the outside pressures. We would watch the football, make music and generally just be together, miles away from the bright lights of Newport! Joe Strummer was, as ever, asked to come along at almost the last minute, something he was getting used to by then!
I know it's not everyone's favourite Pogues album, but personally I have mostly warm feelings about "Hell's Ditch". It is our least intense album, reflecting how we needed to be after the craziness of the past few years. Shane arrived from London infrequently although, in the songs he brought, it was very clear that he too had felt the need to get away from it all, in Thailand.
"Hell's Ditch" is our most pastoral record and contains, incidentally, the most number of Shane songs that have been covered by other people.
The football was pretty good too.
Waiting For Herb
Interview with Spider Stacy: "Who's
Herb?
MANY thought right away that the "Herb" of the album's title referred
to marijuana. Not so, clarified Spider, it's far more socially responsible. It's
the name of a German cartoon pornography character." Source
Songs
The Quotes of Jem Finer are taken from the "Jem Finer (Of
The Pogues) BMG Publishing sampler.
A Pistol For paddy Garcia
Jem Finer: "I wrote this during the period in which I became obsessed with Sergio Leone!"
Afro Cuban Be-Bop
Lyrics
Joe Strummer with The Pogues aka
"The Astro Physicians"
This promo 7" was rereleased in 2003 as bootleg with a black
and white cover. This song was recorded at the Hells Ditch
sessions at Rockfield Studios, Wales in the summer of 1990. The
Astrophysicians lineup on this song is: Joe Strummer, Darryl
Hunt, Jem Finer, James Fearnley, Phillip Chevron, Spider Stacy
and Andrew Ranken. Source: Post by Phillip Chevron on
www.shanemacgowan.com
Anniversary
Jem Finer: "Written in a snowbound Boston on my wedding anniversary. Looking out into the slushy gloom I imagined a rather different scenario."
Blue Heaven
Post by Phillip Chevron on www.shanemacgowan.com:
"Blue Heaven" sounded really wonderful at a soundcheck in Birmingham,
Alabama when Darryl, Andrew and I first played it. It was all downhill after
that - we could never get the original vibe back!! In the studio we kept
throwing instrumentation on top in an attempt to rescue it. But it was a lost
cause.
It's a much darker song than it first appears. Darryl and I, as Nottingham
Forest fans, were both at the Liverpool v Forest semi-final at Hillsborough in
1989, when we watched helplessly as 96 people lost their lives.
"Blue Heaven" is an attempt to describe/exorcise the weird
survivor-guilt that follows such a trauma. We set it in New Orleans because I
think that was the first time we were happy again after Hillsborough.
Bright Lights
Jem Finer: "Darryl Hunt wrote a song called Big City ... so I thought I'd write one called Bright Lights. Banal inspiration or what ... though come to think ot it titles have quite often been the seeds of my songs."
Broad Majestic Shannon
The instrumental bridge seems to be borrowed from an O'Cathain (c.1570-c.1650) harp tune called
"Tabhair Dom Do Lamh" ("Give me your hand") which Planxty recorded on their first album.
Dingle Regatta
Jem Finer: "This instrumental is half a traditional tune. Dingle Regatta and half a tune I wrote".
"My writing career started with making up instrumental interludes, intros etc. This was the first tune I wrote that was too big to fit inside a
song!"
Eyes Of An Angel
Jem Finer: "After my first daughter was born I walked home through the rainy dawn. A few years later wrote this."
Fairytale Of New York
Jem Finer: "I'm indepted to Marcia Farquhar for the story line that spawned this song. I'd written a banal Christmas duet and she put me on the right track. I wrote a second song with her narrativ. Shane took the melody from the first song, the lyrical thread of the second, added his own magic ... and after several years of attempts to record it we finally got it."
Reached Number 2 in the UK singles charts in December 1987.
Fiesta
Jem Finer: "Having spent a week in Almeria staying in a hotel next to the fiesta, the fairground cacophony got stuck in my head. The choice was to inflict it on the rest of the world or go mad."
The melody is borrowed from an old polka called "Lichtensteiner
Polka" by Edmund Koetscher and Rudi Lindt
Girl From The Wadi Hammamat
Jem Finer: "In his book The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin mentions a Sudanese camel-man who "as he walked, he sang: a song, usually, about a girl from the Wadi Hammamat who was lovely as a green parakeet". Andrew (Ranken) and I often talked about writing the rest of the song. After a few years of speculating as to what exactly that might be, he gave me the lyrics."
Gridlock
Jem Finer: "See Metropolis"
Hell's Ditch
This tune first appears as the track
"Greek Salad" on the 1986 Abbey Road recordings that The Pogues
recorded as "The Terry Woods Solo Album".
Honky Tonk Women
Phillip Chevron: "Advice to all young bands: if you ever do a cover version for a laugh for a "b" side, make sure it's not so competent that, a couple of years later, the record company persuades you it should be re-released as an A side. Better still, never listen to your record company."
House of the Gods
The intro is borrowed from the intro of the Beach Boy's song
"You Still Believe in Me" (from the Pet Sounds album)
Hot Dogs With Everything
This is also the name on Shanes first
band. This was orignally a Nips song.
Kitty
Comment by Socrates on the Lilting at the
end:
"The lilt on end of Kitty came froma crazy idea in the pub with Shane,Ii suggested a mad Psyched out lilt at end of
Transmetropolitan. i forgot all about until Shane said they wanted ME to do it. a few weeks later i found myself at
Elephant but the day was running late an they decided to just have me say something in irish ( F in inter cert ) with a wee lilt. both
James and Shanes attempt to stop me speeding up were in vain and it was the wrong tempo so it didnt work for intended purpose . listening to it now it was the right tempo in parts but then again its the right tempo in parts for most any feckin song, so it twas stuck on end of album, something missed by most people incuding whoever recut it,
Danny Kelly give it a mention in the NME review at the time as did Dave
Quantick. the fact that Dingle Regatta came out was lost on me until the re-issue. i only had two regrets
1. false modesty when asked by Stan what i wanted as credit i said "nothing"
2. " nil aon...." was the first thing that came into my head and i wish straight away i had repeated
Michael O' Hares famous saturday afternoon phrase on RTE. "sin a bhfui ag coursai sport" - excuse spelling (F in inter cert)."
Metropolis
Jem Finer: "To be honest I just wanted to write the Leonard Bernstein bit but I thought I'd never get away with it without a bit of Irish thrown in! The combination turned out to be quite interesting."
"(Later with Gridlock I was amazed no one complained ... 100 % Pogues play hard bop. Probably the first jazz track with a hurdy gurdy on it!)"
"Miss Otis Regrets / Just One of Those Things"
This song was recorded in 1990 for one of the first AIDS benefits Red Hot + Blue.
Besides the compilation album with various artist's versions of Cole Porter's songs a TV special was made featuring video clips for the songs shot by renowned film directors.
The Pogues video was to be directed by Neil Jordan. The band got caught the middle of another UK tour and couldn't grant Neil
the 3 days he was asking for. But still The Pogues had to drive down to London's Hackney Empire after Liverpool show to make the video. The band didn't like the rush, didn't like the costumes and hated the very idea of shooting clips (always did). So the tention was there right from the start.
Shane went up to Jordan and said, "Oh, Neil Jordan, so you're the wanker who fucking decided to dress me up in this costume" and told him he'd stayed up all night especially to look like he was dead and he wanted to put a bullethole in the middle of his head. "BBC wouldn't like it" wasn't an arguement for Shane, obviously, and he said, "Fuck the BBC! What kind of director are you?" Shane DID do his best to look as much like a corpse as possible. Then he walked into make-up and commanded, "Bullethole in the middle of the head, please!" and that's when Neil came in and vetoed it...
Misty Morning Albert Bridge
Jem Finer: "Sometimes I felt pretty damn lonely away for what seemed eternity on tour. I wrote this in some dump in New Zealand. I just wrote what I felt".
Night Train To Lorca
Jem Finer: "I made several drives through the night to the town of Lorca in Andalucia. Years earlier I'd travelled throught Spain on a train ... the 2 memories merged."
Once Upon A Time
Jem Finer: "This started off as an attempt to write a song for Rod Stewart! It retains that Faces swing ..."
Oretown
Jem Finer: "Dystopia. A song for all the towns sold down the river by greed and stupidity."
Pachinko
Jem Finer: "The first time I went to Japan I wondered what Pachinko parlours were. The second time I went in one and tried to play ... but was hopelessly lost. The third time I bought a book on how to play but still made little headway. The fourth time an old Japanese man came ans stood by me. He rested his hand on mine and subtly guided me to the jackpot .... "uchi domi".
"Pachinko, lest you don't know, is a Japanese variation on pinball. Pachinko parlours are wonderful halls of noise and light with aisles and aisles of machines."
Pont Mirabeau
This beautiful ballad is a poem by Parisian poet Guillaume Apollinaire; set to music by Jem Finer and translated by Finer's father.
Jem Finer: "Among the things my father left me was a translation of Appolinaire's poem, Pont Mirabeau and a note saying that he'd love to hear it set to music. I adapted his translation to make it work as a lyric and wrote the tune in the romantic surroundings of a cheap Redcar hotel."
Sea Shanty
Shane used an Irish jig called, "The Kesh".
Small Hours
Jem Finer: "A hotel room song..."
Streams of Whiskey
Shane MacGowan: "It's a totally
irresponsible and blatant defence of heavy drinking, there's no other way to
describe it.
I like to think it is at least poetically written. It's about meeting Behan in a
dream and having him expound his philosophy on life, which is basically - fuck
it!"
Source: NME interview with Pogue Mahone 13.08 1983.
Sunny Side Of The Street
Jem Finer: "I wrote this in New Zealand ... walking down a street in the shadows I thought 'sod this' and crossed over to the sunnyside. The only words I wrote were "on the sunny side of the street". Later back in England, Shane wrote the rest".
Turkish Song Of The Damned
Jem Finer: "On an early visit to Germany a fan asked Shane if he liked The Turkish song of the Damned ... referring to a song by the Damned. Thank you German fan for a wonderful title."
Shane MacGowan in a NME interview:
"It's about a guy on a Turkish island who deserted a sinking ship with all
the money and all his mates went down. I'm not totally sure about this - he's
haunted and he's dancing around with all this Turkish music playing endlessly in
his brain - NYEAHH NYE NEE NEE HYEAHH NYEAHHH NIN NIN NYIN NEAHH... He just
spends his time, haunted - dancing, drinking and fucking. Then his best mate
comes back, and all the crew, to drag him down to hell or wherever they are. The
thing is, he knew it was going to happen. So he's been waiting. Haunted, it's
definitely about being haunted."
A metaphor for yourself? "Fuck that. I don't live on a Turkish
island. I'm not haunted either."
USA
Borrowed from the old American song "Battle Hymn of the Republic".
White City
Parts of the melody is boorowed from
"The curragh Of Kildare".
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 ...!"
The Astro-Physicians
According to Philip Chevron the Astro-Physicians were Joe, Darryl,
Jem, James, Andrew, Spider and Philip.
Afro-Cuban Be-Bop was recorded during the Hell's Ditch sessions in Wales.
Gabrielle
Shanne Bradley: Thank you! Gabby was a bottle blonde freak model who wore leather pants. She used to dance around and tease Shane at The Roxy disco -- he was slightly obsessed with her.
Source: Interview with Shanne at www.punkglobe.com
Happy Song
In 1980 The Nips recorded a demo for Polydor Records at their studio in Bond Street. It was produced by Paul Weller. There were four songs recorded for this session, including "Happy Song" "Nobody to Love", "Ghost Town" and "Love To Make You Cry".
The Line up for this recording was, Shane MacGowan-Vocals, Shanne Bradley-Bass, Gavin Douglas-Guitar and Mark Harrison-Drums. "Happy Song"/"Nobody to Love" was released as a single in October 1981, on Test Pressing Records.
Some sources say that Paul Weller contributed on guitar on "Nobody to
Love". Source: "Paul Weller: my ever changing moods" by John Reed.
Thanks To Graek on the www.pogues.com forum for posting some info on music that the Pogues borrowed from others. Contact me and I will post your real name here if you wan't to.