RIP Shane McGowan

Rip Shane bhoy.

 

Don't say this often but nice touch from Sky playing one of the Pogues songs at the end today.

 

Might be a little bit biased but always used to argue Shane's version of this song was the most heartfelt.

 

Shane MACGOWAN

 

Someone posted a photo from his recent Hospital stay a week back and you could tell he didn't have long left, the human body can only take so much damage before it can no longer heal, RIP to a Legend

 

Too early obviously, but sadly not a huge surprise.

His lyricism was second to none, a true genius in IMHO.
Sally MacLennane is still my favourite Pogues song,
the lyrics still hit me the same way as they did the first time I heard them.

We walked him to the station in the rain
We kissed him as we put him on the train
And we sang him a song of times long gone
Though we knew that we'd be seeing him again

 

RIP.

Never knew much about him tbh only learned that song we play sometimes after a goal was by The Pogues. Never knew he was a Celtic fan either. Looked like he enjoyed what he done. What more can you ask in life.

 

Been reading some articles the last few days of music critics, fans, journalists etc on their experiences of Shane and the band over the years. Some stunningly beautiful words written about him.

Most people think he was just a mad drunk wae no teeth but honestly, if you appreciate good songwriters to any degree have a look for some of the recent articles on his legacy and musical genius.

Here's the one I read today, but there are others: https://louderthanwar.com/raise-a-parting-glass-to-shane-macgowan/

 

And this. It's an old Irish song they covered, but * me it is Shane and the Pogues at their absolute best. * obsessed with this performance.

 

Another cracker here:

Rest in Power, Shane MacGowan.
Tim Evans reflects on the life and death of Shane MacGowan, the perfect poet and frontman of the peerless Pogues, the band that used the power of punk to save folk music from itself.



"So I walked as the day was dawning
Where small birds sang and leaves were falling
Where we once watched the row boats landing
By the broad majestic Shannon"

I saw the Pogues several times, including with Kirsty MacColl in the Brixton Academy, they were the band that saved folk music from itself. Many of the lyrics were pure poetry.Shane MacGowan was a poet, singer, songwriter and one of the great bandleaders of all time. As a writer he was a chronicler of the mean streets and seedy low-life bars, brothels and gambling dens of London and Ireland. His greatest songs in my opinion rank up there with Dylan and Cohen.


"I come old friend from * tonight
Across the rotting sea
Nor the nails of the cross, nor the blood of Christ
Can bring you help this eve
The dead have come to claim a debt from thee
They stand outside your door
Four score and three"

His rhythms and imagery combine Irish mythology, British imperialism, life on the streets, sea shanties and lyrical evocations of the natural world.

The band's music was a mixture of folk, rock and punk, and the powerful 'Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six' was banned by the BBC. His songs reflected Irish history, the experience of the Irish diaspora, and the struggle for liberation, both personal and political.



"There were six men in Birmingham
In Guildford there's four
That were picked up and tortured
And framed by the law
And the filth got promotion
But they're still doing time
For being Irish in the wrong place
And at the wrong time"

Of course it feels slightly weird that the death of a singer affects you more than the death of a relative. But Shane MacGowan's death was more than the death of one man.

For millions, his death evoked the years of weekend music, excessive dancing and crazy drinking which was the way to go mad but stay sane. Many of us at some point cleaned up (up to a point), but Shane, in the old Pompey saying, 'didn't stop at Fratton'.

He resisted all limitations on the body and spirit, and although I would have liked a few more great songs from him, he burned bright, incandescent, before the forces of gravity claimed him... However Mike Healy makes the important point that Shane MacGowan died of viral encephalitis, a virus which can strike anyone, anywhere, regardless of lifestyle. That kinda undercuts the romantic 'he burned so brightly he burned out' line.

Sure, he was an alcoholic and an addict. But the bars of the world are full of beat-up old guys who've been abusing their bodies for fifty-odd years.

But not all of them will have written great songs that people will still be singing in 200 years' time...


"At the sick bed of Cuchulainn
We'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door
And the devil's in the chair"

Shane MacGowan's songs are simply outstanding.


They contain imagery from Irish mythology, from the struggle for Irish liberation, from the emigration which was such an aspect of Irish history, from the New York and London metropolis to the rural scenes of Tipperary.

But it was the experience of a Pogues performance which was at the heart of the band, especially if the gig was at Christmas, New Year or St Patrick's Day, and especially if you could get down into the mosh pit in front of the stage. The frantic pogoing inevitably meant you'd lose your footing. But immediately ten pairs of hands would reach down to lift you up again. And everybody knew the words of all the songs!

If any music fulfilled a shamanistic function, it was that of the Pogues, and shaman-in-chief was Shane. There is a sense in which all good rock n roll is a ritualistic expression of energy - catharsis, if you like. And being at a gig where Shane was the MC was always a memorable experience. Sure, there'll be the stories of drink and drugs, and he did plenty. But what will really go down in history is his brilliant capture of the squalid glamour of street life blended in with the painful beauty of the natural world.

And of course the most played Christmas Number One in History!

Go dté tú slán, Shane!

Tim Evans



"In Manhattan's desert twilight
In the death of afternoon
We stepped hand in hand on Broadway
Like the first man on the moon
And a blackbird broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in Brendan Behan's footsteps
I danced up and down the street"

 

Anyone have the clip of Shane trying to get onto the pitch at Celtic Park with a bottle of Jack Daniels lol

 

"We put the hood, around his head,
Then we shot the * dead.
Nick nack Paddy whack give the dog a bone,
Send the Brirish army home"

 

His funerals live the now
http://www.youtube.com/live/iVkRDrDyi6w?si=zUfKtAoU0ZxAzYMG

 

I just watched it all on RTE news channel, what a send off, only in Ireland could there be a funeral mass like it, there was singing, dancing, story telling, tears and laughter, Shane would have loved it.

 

This has totally ended me. Could not imagine a better send off for the man.

 

Outstanding, what a send off!

 

Couldny hold back the tears there man. Dancing in the aisles!