Hey everybody I am back for another Tuesday of Three tunes where I spend a few minutes trying to bully you into listening to music that I love. It's some kind of kink of mine that I want everybody to listen to my playlist at parties and family gatherings but I have exhausted all avenues because they all think I have a questionable taste in music, even the little DJ when I pushed him out of his DJ box. This is until 
Today I want to talk about the Pogues led by front man Shane McGowan famous for his Christmas song Fairytale in New York. At the moment Shane is confined to a wheelchair having a bad fall a couple of years back. Shane liked a drop or two of the hard stuff and maybe dabbled in some hard drugs for a couple of decades. He has that Ozzy Osbourne type presence these days that is a result of his hedonistic lifestyle in the 80's and 90's. I once met him in a bar in Dublin and he had a pint of water in front of him. I soon realized that the water was a different form of liquid called vodka. A pint of vodka. Mother of god. Shane lives life to the fullest. The rest of the band grew tired of Shanes hedonistic ways and they eventually broke up when Shane fell off a train in Japan going to his next gig. The band just left him there and continued on their voyage to the next gig. And that was the end of the Pogues. Before this however the Pogues had many a great hit and their album. Shane's song writing skills are second to none and many musical commentators think his lyrics are genius. One of my favourite songs from the Pogues is a song called Rainy Night in Soho and its a beautiful song about love. The lyrics are just brilliant. Shane may have been a Hellraiser but he is a traditional singer at heart and a storyteller. I will post the lyrics up with this one because I love this song so much. Read the lyrics before you listen to the song. They are so poetic that in my opinion it is one of the greatest songs ever written.
Lyrics
I've been loving you a long time
Down all the years, down all the days
And I've cried for all your troubles
Smiled at your funny little ways
We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell
I took shelter from a shower
And I stepped into your arms
On a rainy night in Soho
The wind was whistling all its charms
I sang you all my sorrows
You told me all your joys
Whatever happened to that old song?
To all those little girls and boys
Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning
The ginger lady by my bed
Covered in a cloak of silence
I'd hear you talking in my head
I'm not singing for the future
I'm not dreaming of the past
I'm not talking of the first times
I never think about the last
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
The measure of my dreams
Now enough with the romantic ones. We will go back to the time on what the Pogues are really famous for. Banging tunes. I was at their reunion gig and the crowd was mad. I ended up with footprints on my shirt after it. It was the craziest gig I was ever at. Mcgowans voice is unique in a way that the second you hear it , you know it is him. I don't know what it is about Shanes voice but it improves every song. He is known to do some Irish covers of traditional songs and they automatically become the played song as Shane sings on it. Sally Maclennane a guy called Jimmy and it's about drinking, drinking and more drinking. Pretty much what the Pogues are famous for. This is a fast one and a great one at gigs. Not many bands cover this song as its hard enough to pull off so when you do hear this song it is always the Pogues.
I remember back in collage and my friend used to drive us around in an Opel Astra. The people I lived with were all in the same course so we would all have the same timetable. We would finish at 1pm on Fridays as we had no more classes and we would go back to our house and have a great time for the weekend. We always played Fiesta in the car to get us in the mood for a party. The car used to be hopping up and down and I'd say any passerby thought we were mad. Of course the bit bit we chanted was the instrumental. When it got played in bars and pubs , everyone used to go mad. I was at the Euros in France and the Irish took over the Moulin Rouge, not for the reasons you would think. Someone played Fiesta and the place went mad. I will always remember laughing and jumping around at this. It's just one of those songs that you hear that really put you in great form. That's the Pogues for you
And now that Christmas is coming I might as well leave you with Shane's most famous song. Fairytale in New York. When I lived in the Canary Islands, it did not feel very Christmassy in December. The fact that the sun was shining and it was 28 degrees in Winter was very new to me. In the evenings I used to go to the local bar beside the AC Hotel in Las Palmas called Lolita and I asked them to play Fairytale in New York. I had a few Spanish friends at this stage and they were shocked and horrified that I was playing such a sad song on their paradise island. So whenever I requested it , the Spanish requested a more upbeat song such as Feliz Navidad or Kylie Minoghue. So after Fairytale in New York, cheering and dancing broke out in the bar because the bad music had good and upbeat music was back. I used to laugh. Fairytale in New York was lost on them but it is still my favourite Christmas song..... after Feliz Navidad.
So that's it ladies and gentlemen. See you all next week.
