(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The Pogues made music with the color of tobacco smoke and alcohol, says filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Now the entire catalog of the Irish-English fireworks is released in new editions with rich text and a total of 36 bonus songs.
The Pogues still stand as a pile in the folk rock, though they released their last record in 1995 and began to lose their grip in the late 80s. The reason for the decline and the secret of the group's success was the same: Songwriter and vocalist Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (47).
MacGowan was born in England, but his Irish parents moved home after only a few months. The family moved to London when he was six years old, and the split between traditional Irish and modern English has characterized him ever since. He was the teenager who wrote promising poems, but was thrown out of school because of drugs. He grew up with Irish folk music, but fell for punk in the late 70's. He became infamous in London's punk world under the alias Shane O'Hooligan, wrote for the fanzine Oh Bondage and sang in the punk band The Nipple Erectors. They released a single like The Nips, but neither it nor the band The Millwall Chainsaws were a success. Then he formed Pogue Mahone (Gaelic for "kiss me in the ass").
Post Punk
The great punk glow was about to fade away in the early 80s, but the spirit lived on in the postpunk's musical mergers between white punk and black funk. The Pogues were mostly post-punk, but they paired the punk attitude with Irish folk. They were The Chieftains in a fight with Sex Pistols, The Clash at the party with The Dubliners. The debut Red Roses For Me (Warner 1984) was a peculiar blend of old songs and MacGowan originals with death, fill, dark alleyways and darkened pleasures of life as ingredients.
The band took the stage a step further on Elvis Costello-produced Rum, Sodomy & The Lash (Warner 1985), which was even more death-fixating, dark and humorous than the debut. "Their music is like the brandy of the damned," writes Tom Waits, and The Pogues became critics' favorites and infamous party lions. They also deserve a lot of credit for the explosive interest in Irish folk music around the world, and Norwegian bands such as Ompakara, The Hoodlums, The Rovers and Little Beggarmen would hardly exist without The Pogues.
filling found
The band's commercial breakthrough came If I Should Fall From Grace With God (Warner 1988), which contained everything from raucous party songs to perhaps the best Christmas song of all time; Kirsty MacColl duet "Fairytale of New York". Guitarist Philip Chevron proved to be a great songwriter with "Thousands Are Sailing", and the rest of the band then also got use for their songwriting skills on Peace & Love (Warner 1989).
Now MacGowan's drug abuse began to catch up with him, and it hurt worse that he fell head over heels for the acid house culture and its accompanying chemical stimuli. He insisted that his acid house song "Connect With Yourself" be included on the album, which fortunately did not happen. Instead, the rest of the group had to step in as songwriters, and Peace & Love is a sprawling and fragmentary album with several strong singles. "The" in The Pogues disappeared from the cover, and so did the magic.
At this time, MacGowan collapsed or failed to appear from more and more concerts, and Hell's Ditch (Warner 1990) became his swan song in the group. The album was created according to the same collective pattern as Peace & Love, and was more holistic – but without the really strong songs.
MacGowan's way of life meant that the rest of the group saw no other way out than to kick him, and flutist Spider Stacy took over the microphone. It never became the same, and ironically, MacGowan experienced greater sales and criticism success with his new group The Popes. The Pogeus albums Waiting For Herb (Warner 1993) and Pogue Mahone (Warner 1995) is like porridge without cinnamon and sugar.
The Pogues conducted a reunion tour just before Christmas, and both live record and CD box are promised in the time to come. But until we get a brand new album with MacGowan behind the microphone, we have to concentrate on the band's first three and timeless albums.
