rum, sodomy & the lash

The Pogues went a' rovin' down the old main drag of a dirty old town to turn out the twisted and torn rambunctious magnificence of this anecdotal earthly delight.  Their debut album 'Red Roses for Me' had failed to capture the energy of their live performances; so for their next album they brought in the big guns.   

'Rum Sodomy & the Lash' was produced by a bearded Elvis Costello at Elephant Studios in London.   The sessions featured  Shane MacGowan on vocals;   Spider Stacy on tin whistle;   James Fearnley on accordion;  Jem Finer on banjo;  Cait O'Riordan on bass and vocals;   Andrew Ranken on drums; and  Philip Chevron on guitar and mandolin;   with   Henry Benagh on fiddle;   Dick Cuthell on horn;   and  Tommy Keane on uileann pipes.    During the proceedings a romance developed between the producer and Cait.  


O’Riordan almost remembers:   “I was just drunk... I was the only girl, and I had a lot of chips on my shoulder, so I tried to drink as much as them and be the roughest and toughest. And, of course, I can’t drink; I’d get drunk so fast...I was a music-mad kid, and after school, which was right out near Heathrow, I’d go into London and into this record shop. And, one day, they were just closing up and asked me if I wanted to go to the pub with them. Shane walks in, and I recognised him, because he’d been in a band called The Nips. And the first time I met him I said, ‘Wow, you’re a Nip,’ and he said, ‘Am I?’ and pulled a big face at me. I can’t believe how lucky I was. But I don’t think I ever took him for granted. I always knew he was a genius, but I don’t think I realised how much of a one-off he was. I think I just assumed everyone I’d meet was going to be a genius...Once the teenage thing had kicked in, I think, I was in lockdown. I went from being an angry schoolchild to being an angry homeless kid — I left as soon as it was legal — to being the angry kid in The Pogues, to being the angry one who was married to the famous guy.”

MacGowan muses:  "Well, there are similar Irish and Scottish folk songs. There's only eight notes, or sixteen if you want to count it the proper way. I like story songs. Most really good songs, I'm not necessarily saying mine, but if you think of rock & roll, or blues, go as far back as you want, they all have a story. They're all about a revolution, or a battle, or a love affair, or whatever. I came from a really musical family. Everybody played music and told stories and made up songs. All the neighbours did as well...That's the thing about Irish writing. It developed from story-telling. Story-telling is a huge thing in Ireland, or used to be. All the playwrights, all the novelists, all the poets… well they're all poets. It's all poetry, really, the same way that Shakespeare is poetry in play-form...Music and poetry are meant to be performed. I mean you can get a really good poem, but if somebody reads it out without really thinking about what it means then it's a total waste of everybody's time."


'Rum Sodomy & the Lash' sailed to number thirty-nine in Sweden, seventeen in New Zealand, and thirteen in the UK.   The title comes from a description of the British Navy that is often attributed to Winston Churchill:  "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash."    The album cover is based on the painting The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault, with the faces of the band painted by Peter Mennim.  

http://www.pogues.com/

http://www.poguetry.com/rsl.htm






"A Pair of Brown Eyes"
MacGowan says:   "That song's about a guy who's pissed off because he's broken up with his girlfriend.  There's also this older guy whinging away in the corner. There's people singing songs and it gives you the titles of them. There's a bit where Johnny Cash sings 'A Thing Called Love' on the jukebox, and 'My Elusive Dreams' is by Ray Lynam and Philomena Begley. That particular song is kind of autobiographical. It's set in The Scottish Stores which is an Irish bar near Camden...There'll always be someone, you'd be sitting there feeling miserable and some old geezer says: 'Why do you look so bloody miserable? Listen to what happened to me!' and he tells him about whatever war it was. Of course, there was a war going on at the time in Ireland, as usual."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNtQ5AnRlz8






'Rum Sodomy & the Lash'  full album:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68D998D2C9FC89B8





Side one
"The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn" (Shane MacGowan) – 2:59
"The Old Main Drag" (MacGowan) – 3:19
"Wild Cats of Kilkenny" (MacGowan, Jem Finer) – 2:48
"I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (Traditional) – 2:55
"A Pair of Brown Eyes" (MacGowan) – 4:54
"Sally MacLennane" (MacGowan) – 2:43
"A Pistol for Paddy Garcia"  bonus track (Finer) – 2:32
Side two
"Dirty Old Town" (Ewan MacColl) – 3:45
"Jesse James" (Traditional) – 2:58
"Navigator" (Phil Gaston) – 4:12
"Billy's Bones" (MacGowan) – 2:02
"The Gentleman Soldier" (Traditional) – 2:04
"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (Eric Bogle) – 8:10




live 1985

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21C-I-SwxJ4


- Greenland Whale Fisheries 0:01
- Repeal of the Licensing Laws 2:25
- Boys from County Hell 4:25
- Pair of Brown Eyes 7:10
- Sally MacLennane 11:33
- Dingle Regatta 14:10
- Paddy on the Railway 16:42
- Battle of Brisbane 19:53
- Waxies Dargle 21:30
- Dark Streetos of London 23:30
- Muirsheen Durkin 26:35
- Whiskey youre the Devil 28:30
- Battle of Brisbane 30:44
- Transmetropolitan 32:25
- The Band played Waltzing Matilda 33:28


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAKyA2ttv0I


Intro song-Battle of Brisbane
2 Waxie's Dargle
3 Dark streets of London
4 Muirsheen Durkin
5 Whiskey you're the devil
6 Battle of Brisbane...again
7 Transmetropolitan
8 The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

fisherman's blues

The Waterboys relocated to Ireland and immersed themselves in traditional Celtic music to create this sweeping folk rock tour de force.  After the artistic triumph of 'This is the Sea', Karl Wallinger left the band to form World Party.   Scott considers 'This is the Sea'  "the creative peak of my life thus far, and the song itself was the top of that particular mountain...When I got up there and looked at the landscape ahead I could see a new land beckoning, one in which, instead of me imagining the record and then making it according to my blueprint, the musicians would concoct their own parts and play spontaneously in a spirit of freedom, and a different kind of energy would be channelled. This is what led to 'Fisherman's Blues'."

Mike Scott and  violinist Steve Wickham went to Dublin to pursue a new direction for the band. They would eventually decide to stay there and record their new album.  The sessions took place over two year at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and at Spiddal House in Galway, where Scott was living.  Mike Scott, Vinnie Killduff, Bob Johnston & John Dunford all shared production duties and the expanded lineup of the band featured:  Mike Scott on vocals, guitar, piano, hammond organ, drums, and bouzouki; Anthony Thistlethwaite on saxophone, mandolin, harmonica, and hammond organ; Steve Wickham and Charlie Lennon on violin; Trevor Hutchinson on bass guitar and double bass; Roddy Lorimer on trumpet; Colin Blakey on piano, flute, and border horn; Vinnie Kilduff on guitar; Noel Bridgeman on tambourine and congas; Mairtín O'Connor on accordion; Alec Finn and Brendan O'Regan on bouzouki; Paraig Stevens on bells; Kevin Wilkinson, Peter McKinney, Dave Ruffy, Jay Dee Daugherty, and Fran Breen on drums; with Tomás Mac Eoin, Jenne Haan, Ruth Nolan, Rachel Nolan, and The Abergavenny Male Voice Choir on vocals.  

Scott recalls:  "We didn’t do demos. We just played. And I didn’t remix anything for the box set because the desk mixes from the night were always superb. We had a great engineer, so it all sounded great. It would spoil it to remix it, really... It was an incredibly creative time for The Waterboys, and I’m happy that it still has a currency. The 'Fisherman’s Blues' era was some of the best music we made, and think some of the albums since haven’t been as good as that. I don’t count Mr. Yeats; I think Mr. Yeats is a top-line Waterboys album, one of the top three or four we’ve ever made. But I do feel that some of the other albums were not as good as Fisherman’s Blues, so I think it’s fair ...  If there was anything we did think about it was the Pogues; they were just breaking through at that time. We really liked their combination of instruments with the tin whistle and accordion. At that time we didn’t have those instruments, but we really liked the mix of a punky beat and these very authentic, old-sound instruments. The voice of those instruments was memory. I could hear the past of great cities into those instruments. Our version was fiddle and mandolin. I could hear it there as well. There was the sound of America too in those instruments."

'Fisherman's Blues' charted at number seventy-six in the US, sixty-seven in Ireland, eighteen in Sweden, fifteen in New Zealand, thirteen in the UK, and seven in Norway.  It became the best selling album of the Waterboys career, being certified Gold in the UK.  This month the band released a seven disk box set featuring one hundred and twenty-one songs from the sessions plus another unreleased eighty-five songs.  



http://www.mikescottwaterboys.com/















'Fisherman's Blues' 
full album: 



01 00:00 "Fisherman's Blues"
02 04:16 "We Will Not Be Lovers"
03 11:17 "Strange Boat"
04 14:17 "World Party"
05 18:14 "Sweet Thing"
06 25:25 "Jimmy Hickey's Waltz"
07 27:29 "And a Bang on the Ear"
08 34:54 "Has Anybody Here Seen Hank"
09 38:10 "When Will We Be Married"
10 41:08 "When Ye Go Away"
11 44:50 "Dunford's Fancy"

the crossing

Big Country came up screaming with the Scottish new wave folk of their dynamic debut.  The band was started by Stuart Adamson after the breakup of punk pop group the Skids.  He teamed up with his friend Bruce Watson in Scotland's Dunfermline. They originally were a five piece with Peter Wishart (later of Runrig) on keyboards, his brother Alan Wishart on bass, and Clive Parker, drummer from Spizz Energi.   After an unsuccessful tour with Alice Cooper, Adamson and Watson fired the rest of the band and their manager brought in studio musicians bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brezezicki.  

'The Crossing' was produced by Steve Lillywhite in London at The Manor, Oxfordshire, and RAK Studios with Stuart Adamson on vocals, guitar, piano, and e-bow; Bruce Watson on guitar, mandolin, sitar, vocals, and e-bow; Tony Butler on bass and vocals; and Mark Brzezicki on drums, percussion, and vocals.  Through the use of a MXR Pitch Transposer 129 Guitar Effect, they were able to mimic the sound of Scottish bagpipes with their guitars.  

'The Crossing' was an international phenomenon, going to number eighteen in the US, seventeen in Sweden, eleven in Denmark, eight in New Zealand, four in Canada, and number three in the UK.   Adamson from the liner notes:    "It all begins with a sound in your head, a disarray of word and music, an awareness of something coming to the surface. Small pieces occasionally break through but the whole is a mystery. Take the mood, the emotion, the passion for it and make it live. Focus it all, crystallize the essence of it, let it become a living thing, share it.   The music I felt wasn't like the music I had grown up hearing, or rather, not like any one of them. It was all of them jumbled up and drawn into something I could understand as mine.   I found I could play this music and connect the guitar directly to my heart. I found others who could make the same connection, who could see the music as well as play it.   The sound made pictures. It spread out wide landscapes. Great dramas were played out under its turbulent skies. There was romance reality, truth and dare. People being people, no heroes just you and me, like it always is.    The music told stories, little stories. Lands were not conquered, treasure was left in the tombs, the magic was in the everyday. We learned how we are together and how we come apart. Life happens."




http://www.bigcountry.co.uk/


http://www.bigcountry.co.uk/thecrossing/







"In a Big Country" became the band's biggest hit in the US, going to number seventeen on the pop chart and number three on the modern rock tracks chart.  It charted around the world, hitting thirty-four in New Zealand, seventeen in the UK, and number three in Canada.  Watson recalls:    "Dreams are great especially when you are young, but the older and more cynical I get, the only thing I believe in is reality. I always remember after we recorded the demo for "In a Big Country," and letting Bono and Lilywhite hear it and they both went ape-shit for it. It was around this time that we were starting to get early success and media attention. It was a wild, crazy, exciting time but that was 20 years ago and I am no longer a young boy with the same dreams and ambition. Although to say I don't have dreams and ambitions would be untrue they are just not the same ones."
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn759i_in-a-big-country-big-country-1983_music

In A Big Country - Big Country~1983 by Mark215

I've never seen you look like this without a reason,
Another promise fallen through, another season passes by you.
I never took the smile away from anybody's face,
And that's a desperate way to look for someone who is still a child.

And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive...

(I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered 
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered)

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime...

And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive...

So take that look out of here, it doesn't fit you.
Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded.
Pull up your head off the floor, come up screaming.
Cry out for everything you ever might have wanted.
I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered.

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime...

And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive...






"Harvest Home" was their first single released before they recorded 'The Crossing'.  It peaked at number ninety-one in the UK.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhqh1CdUDd4



"Fields of Fire" was their second single.  It made it to number fifty-three in the US, twenty-six in New Zealand, and ten in the UK. 


Big Country - Fields Of Fire by theCooltrax





'Chance' went to eighteen in the Netherlands and nine in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er8J4JSqb3E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsUPtkQlYU




'Wonderland' was recorded and released on an EP after 'The Crossing'; but  was added to some versions of the album.  The single charted at eighty-six on the US pop chart, forty-eight on the US modern rock tracks chart, and number eight in the UK.  
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xkvx_big-country-wonderland_music

Big Country - Wonderland by jpdc11

'The Crossing'
full album:


"In a Big Country" -- 4:44
"Inwards" -- 4:36
"Chance" -- 4:26
"1000 Stars" -- 3:50
"The Storm" -- 6:19
"Harvest Home" -- 4:19
"Lost Patrol" -- 4:52
"Close Action" -- 4:15
"Fields of Fire (400 Miles)" -- 3:31
"Porrohman" -- 7:52
"Angle Park" -- 4:08
"All Of Us" - 4:09
"The Crossing" -- 7:09
"Heart & Soul" -- 5:13
"In a Big Country'' - (Pure Mix) -- 6:19
"Fields of Fire (400 Miles)''(Alternate Mix) -- 5:19

the waterboys

The Waterboys came together as Mike Scott was pouring his overflowing heart into solo sessions that expanded into the dramatic poetry of their eponymous debut.  Scott recounts the band's genesis in the sleevenotes of the reissue:    "I began recording this music at Christmas 1981. I was living in Wembley and was still a member of a mostly Scottish band called Funhouse. Thinking of striking out on my own, I took a bunch of songs and my newly purchased Danelectro "Bellzouki" twelve string guitar to a little 8-track studio in Islington, North London called Redshop. And "red shop" is exactly what it was - a red painted storefront, an empty shop within and some stairs at the rear leading to a little funky bright-lit basement studio. I asked the engineer - a gentle wizard called Jim Preen - if he had a drum machine. No, but he did have some pre-recorded drum loops. I chose a couple of these and started recording on top of them, playing everything myself. In a few hours we'd recorded "December", "The Three Day Man" and "Bury My Heart" and - though I didn't quite realise it then - I'd set the direction of what would become The Waterboys for the next four years.   I left Funhouse shortly afterwards. Around this time I was friends with an English bohemian musician called Nikki Sudden who came to my flat one day and played me his new record. On one track was a fantastic roaring sax solo. I had to find the guy who played it and finally tracked him down. His name was Anthony Thistlethwaite and he was staying in the house of a girl known as Lizard, in the World's End part of King's Road. Anthony and I hit it off straight away and he came and did a few shows with me in a short-lived new group I started, The Red And The Black. He played great sax on a new song, "A Girl Called Johnny" and knew a terrific drummer called Kevin Wilkinson, who was soon in The Red And The Black too.   In Spring 1982 my record company Ensign packed me off to work for a week with the producer Rupert Hine in his studio in the English countryside. Rupert had a tough job because I already knew I was my own best producer. But he did some great work anyway, recording "A Girl Called Johnny" and mixing some of my Redshop tracks. His engineer - another gentle wizard called Steven W. Tayler - went on to mix much of the first album and "A Pagan Place".   Meanwhile I kept working on my own in London, recording "Savage Earth Heart", "Gala", "The Girl In The Swing" and others. By this time I was living on Aldridge Road Villas, near the Portobello Road. I had a cowboy hat and a manager who looked like Rod Stewart. Towards the end of '82 I expanded the recording sessions - still at Redshop - to include Kevin's drums and Anthony's sax and mandolin. Violin was added to the sound too, courtesy of Tim Blanthorn who'd played with a Liverpool band I'd once produced called The Last Chant. These November '82 sessions were a watershed in my writing and music-making. I learned how to work with real drums, to arrange and layer the sound with acoustic and electric guitars, pianos and lead instruments. Over a dozen songs got recorded including "I Will Not Follow", "Red Army Blues", "All The Things She Gave Me" and "The Thrill Is Gone".   When Ensign wanted to put out the first album in 1983, they still expected me to be a solo artist. I had my own ideas. I wanted a band and now I wanted it to be called The Waterboys. The only Waterboy I'd found for sure was Anthony (Kevin Wilkinson was committed to another group), but I knew I'd find the others somewhere. We put out the record in the Summer of that year. Eight songs were chosen from the dozens that had been recorded, the selection a product of deliberations between Ensign and myself. Some songs were held over for the second album ('A Pagan Place'), but many remained unreleased or only surfaced briefly as 'b' sides. Some came out in 1994 on 'The Secret Life Of The Waterboys'." 

'The Waterboys' features Mike Scott on vocals, piano, guitar, 12-string "bellzouki" guitar, bass guitar, and mandolin; Anthony Thistlethwaite on bass, mandolin, and drums; Kevin Wilkinson on drums; Delahaye on organ; Nick Linden on bass guitar and background vocals; Norman Rodger on bass guitar; Ray Massey on drums; and Stephen W Tayler on bass, keyboards, engineering, and mixing.  'The Waterboys' never charted; but it charted the course the band would take for the next few years.  Kevin Wilkinson eventually became the drummer and Karl Wallinger would join the band after the album was completed.  





http://www.mikescottwaterboys.com/








"December" – 6:48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpif53KdvI



"A Girl Called Johnny" was inspired by Patti Smith.  The single charted at number eighty in the UK. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx7Lw8y201w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL5L5Y61Jyk



"The Three Day Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIGhpYiNbCc



"Gala" 
https://myspace.com/mikescottwaterboys/music/song/gala-unedited-2002-digital-remaster-34509657-35905230
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH4LzRzdgag



"Where are You Now When I Need You?" – 5:06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyeVXYANB7k



"I Will Not Follow" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b51rBaKRNtM




"The Girl in the Swing" – 4:27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjqrWGFm8gs





"Savage Earth Heart"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiid56sEe_I




bonus tracks:

"Something Fantastic" – 3:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRG6O82KoUk









'The Waterboys'
full album:

https://myspace.com/mikescottwaterboys/music/album/the-waterboys-9636637

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Waterboys/The+Waterboys




All songs written by Mike Scott, unless otherwise noted.


"December" – 6:48
"A Girl Called Johnny" – 3:57
"The Three Day Man" – 4:08
"Gala" (Unedited) – 9:31
"Where are You Now When I Need You?" – 5:06
"I Will Not Follow" – 5:18
"It Should Have Been You" – 4:30
"The Girl in the Swing" – 4:27
"Savage Earth Heart" – 6:40
"Something Fantastic" – 3:12
"Ready for the Monkeyhouse" – 3:59
"Another Kind of Circus" – 4:05
"A Boy in Black Leather" – 7:04
"December" (Original 8-track mix) – 6:49
"Jack of Diamonds" – 0:50

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