if i should fall from grace with God

The Pogues expanded their merry band and diversified their sound to great success with the drunken Gaelic punk revelry of this irreverant magnum opus.  After the success of their second album 'Rum Sodomy & the Lash', the band was resistant to recording a followup.  Bassist Cait O'Riordan married the producer of that album Elvis Costello and left the band.  They brought in  Darryl Hunt from Plummet Airlines and Pride of the Cross to take her place; as well as a  Terry Woods from Steeleye Span.  The excessive drinking of lead singer Shane MacGowan had created problems as well:  "There's been a long history of the drink angle being concentrated on. The fact is, we don't drink more than any other band, you know. When we started we were playing in bars. We had short hair and suits and we drank on stage, right? We regarded ourselves as a dance band, an Irish dance band basically that also did slower numbers with more feeling. Because we drank on stage, which lots do, and because our audience had a good time and got drunk and generally looned around a bit, that's where all that thing came from...At one stage I was doing a lot of whiskey. I started doing my stomach in. I wasn't eating enough or anything. I was leading up to an ulcer, but I never got that far...So pulled out. I still drink a lot, but I try to lay off the spirits, whereas I used to drink shorts all the time."

The band finally went into the studio with producer Steve Lillywhite who managed to rein in their raucous energy enough to cut through the din and come up with some original melodies.  The sessions included Shane MacGowan on vocals and guitar; Spider Stacy on tin whistle and vocals; James Fearnley on accordion, piano, mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, cello, and percussion; Jem Finer on banjo and saxophone; Andrew Ranken on drums and vocals; Philip Chevron on guitar, mandolin; Darryl Hunt on bass, percussion, and vocals; and Terry Woods on cittern lute, concertina, strings, banjo, dulcimer, guitar, and vocals; with Ron Kavana on banjo, spoons, and mandolin; Siobhan Sheahan on harp; Brian Clarke on alto saxophone; Joe Cashman on tenor saxophone; Paul Taylor on trombone; Chris Lee on trumpet; Eli Thompson on trumpet; and Kirsty MacColl on vocals. 

'If I Should Fall From Grace With God' was a rousing success, going to number eighty-eight in the US and number three in the UK. The expansion of their sound from the punkish covers of traditional Irish songs to a more diverse mix that added jazz, Spanish and Middle Eastern folk made for something completely new.  Shane called himself "a lapsed Catholic, but I'm still a Catholic. I wouldn't say I'm a bad Catholic. What my Catholic upbringing means to me now is, I have an idea of the connection between the physical world and the supernatural world, or whatever, and a lot of things still really move me. I occasionally go to Mass and that still moves me. Things like the rosary still move me. There's alot of different ways of appreciating life: through music, or nature, or through people whether it's conversationally or sexually or just looking at them. A very deep, heavy, poverful, symbolic religion like Catholicism is another way of appreciating that. I know it's been corrupted over the years, and abused. I think the chruch's position on things like divorce in Ireland is wrong, in terms that it causes a lot of suffering. I don't think these should be crucial issues in the church. But I think most religions have got heavy attitudes about things like that. Catholicism is not an isolated religion."






"If I Should Fall from Grace with God"
went to number fifty-eight in the UK and four in Ireland.

If I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I'm buried 'neath the sod
But the angels won't receive me
Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry
This land was always ours
Was the proud land of our fathers
It belongs to us and them
Not to any of the others
Let them go, boys
Let them go, boys
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry
Bury me at sea
Where no murdered ghost can haunt me
If I rock upon the waves
Then no corpse can lie upon me
It's coming up three, boys
Keeps coming up three, boys
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry
If I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I'm buried 'neath the sod
But the angels won't receive me
Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry









"Fairytale of New York"
Shane says:  “It was the perfect time, and the perfect female singer.  But it was kept off the top of the charts in England by the worst record the Pet Shop Boys ever made.” It reached number two in the UK and number one in Ireland.



It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me,
Won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true
They've got cars
Big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on the corner
Then danced through the night
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells are ringing
Out for Christmas day
You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It's our last
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells are ringing
Out for Christmas day
I could have been someone
Well, so could anyone
You took my dreams
From me when I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing 'Galway Bay'
And the bells are ringing
Out for Christmas day





'If I Should Fall from Grace with God'
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Lw9545dCM



1. "If I Should Fall from Grace with God"   MacGowan 2:20
2. "Turkish Song of the Damned"   MacGowan, Finer 3:27
3. "Bottle of Smoke"   MacGowan, Finer 2:47
4. "Fairytale of New York"   MacGowan, Finer 4:36
5. "Metropolis"   Finer 2:50
6. "Thousands Are Sailing"   Chevron 5:28
7. "Fiesta"   MacGowan, Finer 4:13
8. "Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road to Dublin/The Galway Races"   Traditional 4:03
9. "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six"   MacGowan, Woods 4:39
10. "Lullaby of London"   MacGowan 3:32
11. "Sit Down by the Fire"   MacGowan 2:18
12. "The Broad Majestic Shannon"   MacGowan 2:55
13. "Worms"   Traditional 1:01
14. "The Battle March Medley"   Woods 4:10
15. "The Irish Rover" (bonus track, not on original release) Joseph Crofts/Traditional  
16. "Mountain Dew" (bonus track, not on original release) Traditional  
17. "Shanne Bradley" (bonus track, not on original release) MacGowan  
18. "Sketches of Spain" (bonus track, not on original release) The Pogues  
19. "South Australia"   Traditional 3:27