Shane Macgowan. What to say. A public school boy who became a Punk. And then a Pogue. 'Kiss my arse' in Gaelic. A very Punk assertion. But he was a poet first and foremost. In a noble line of Irish drinking and brawling poets.
I never saw The Pogues. I'm not sure why that is. I came of age at the time when they were constantly touring. So it wasn't for the lack of opportumity. I loved the band though they were not known for their guitar sounds. It was a time in my life when guitars were the common denominator of the bands I loved the most.
The Pogues records were consistently excellent and Macgowan's lyrics consistently a cut above those of his contemporaries. Here he used his education. He knew his Beckett, his Joyce, his Behan. Seamus Heaney.. The band he fronted provided a noble, sensitive and robust undertow to carry and magnify his words until you were obliged to notice them. If you had a brain. Or a heart. His singing voice was not perhaps the best. But it fitted. Completely,
He did well to last as long as he did. Given his taste for a jar or a shot. Or several. We have the songs. And the lines. And the memories. Drink a toast to him. Spin the records. He's worth remembering. But shouldn't be mourned. In a line from one of my favourite Pogues songs Navigator written for the faceless, nameless Irish labourers that built the monuments and byways and railway tracks and bridges and stations of a great empire;
'Navigator, navigator rise up and be strong. The morning is here and there's work to be done.'
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