Another of my favourite singers gone – Shane MacGowan, who died yesterday.
I have to say, I didn’t quite keep up with his post-Pogues career, but a handful of Pogues albums were among the CDs I carted around Europe and the UK when I was travelling in the mid-90s. I had one of those big zip up CD holders, and a portable CD player that chewed up the batteries, but kept me company on my travels.
I haven’t listened to them lately.
Fairytale Of New York is one of my favourite Christmas songs. It’s possibly not for the fainthearted, but it is oddly…romantic? Optimistic?
Pogues songs seem to me to have been a mixture of drunken Irish ditties, romantic ballads, and some deep thoughts on life, death, and society and its inequities. For a supposed punk band, there are a lot of beautiful songs.
Shane’s voice is part of the soundtrack of my youth.
Thank you for travelling with me.
Down all the years. Down all the days.
1000 Fields of Roses 