So if Keith Allison over at Teleport City reads this he’ll
probably think I’m ripping him off. This is and isn’t true.
About a year and a half ago, I was looking to get into some
new music besides the usual metal stuff I had been listening
to. I was perusing the music section on the Teleport site
and a band called The Pogues caught my eye. He went on about
how they were this kickass Irish band and wrote these amazingly
profound and emotional, yet very simple songs. I’ve always loved
Irish music but I never knew where to find any of it. I looked
high and low and couldn’t find anything by them anywhere (like
any big chain store would carry something GOOD). Just then,
huzzah! One of the biggest independent record stores in the
country opened up right near our hometown. I was lucky enough
to get a job there last year, and I quite like it, but that’s
another story. They have everything, and so of course they had
The Pogues. Where to start? Well, how about at the beginning.
So I picked up their first record, Red Roses For Me, and fell in
love. They are, along with Tanglefoot (who shall be covered
elsewhere in these ethereal electronic pages), pretty much the
greatest band ever. So here we go. I’m not going to comment
on every song from every record I review, just the ones that
are particularly notable. The numbers are the track numbers.
But you’re smart kids, you’d have gotten that anyway.
1. Transmetropolitan - The songs of The Pogues are split
approximately in this way: 45% crazy drinking songs, 45% soft
lilting songs of love and reminiscing, and 10% instrumental
fillers. Transmetropolitan falls into the first category. A
fun song about raising hell all over London.
3. The Auld Triangle - When I first heard this song, I wasn’t
quite sure what to think. I’d never heard anything like it.
It’s a quiet mourning of lives wasted in prison, and is quite
haunting.
4. Waxie’s Dargle - A good chunk of those crazy drinking songs
are also traditional Irish tunes given a little Pogues-ification.
This particular song becomes about a hundred times cooler (like
it needed to be) when you see the live video for it on the new
documentary about Shane MacGowan, singer and songwriter
extraordinaire. It’s called If I Should Fall From Grace.
Go check it out.
12. Down In The Ground Where The Dead Men Go - I’m a hardened
horror vet, but one thing that can crawl up my spine and rake
its claws along my brain every time are creepy-ass sounds. Along
with the eerie ghost tale this song weaves, the band pulls off
some of the most blood-curdling screams I have ever heard.
13. Kitty - Shane had been cutting his teeth on bands like
the Nipple Erectors for some time before The Pogues came together.
On Red Roses, it’s apparent that his uniquely simple and beautiful
style of lyrics is developing at a rapid rate, and along with The
Auld Triangle, Kitty is probably the best example of this. A
heart-wrenching tale of young lovers torn apart by a wrongful
accusation.
Red Roses For Me is a great place to start if you’re looking to
get into The Pogues. Their debut effort proves that they’re a
force to be reckoned with, and given time to grow they’ll become
something truly great. And so they do. Their masterpiece was
yet to come.
FINAL VERDICT: 4
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