The Pogues: A Pair of Brown Eyes
Congratulations to Shane McGowan, for surviving 3 score years. Who would have expected that?
The Pogues opened my ears like no other band before or after. They were my paradigm shift. They completely changed the way I listened to music. Let me explain.
In 1982 I mainly listened to Punk Rock, Post Punk and New Wave, like everybody else. Some Batcave music too (the word „Goth“ hadn’t been invented yet), the Sisters and such like.
Then one night I heard the Pogues on John Peel and travelled to Berlin one month or so later to see them live at the Loft. They played with complete abandon, the drummer had one arm in plaster and, to compensate for that, one of the other musicians hit a frying pan against his forehead for percussive accents. They had an authentic punk attitude but expressed it with accordion and penny whistle. The Böhse Onkelz were in the audience, who were at that time just a newly founded underground skinhead band with lots of tattoos and some bad ideas but they had just as much fun as everybody else and nobody cared (later they grew hair and became famous in Germany, but that’s another story).
I saw the Pogues a few more times on stage and met them once at a party in London (sans Shane) and they were all cultivated people and intelligent, critical minds. No alcoholics, as far as I could tell. I told them that their version of „The Auld Triangle“ was my favourite song.
But that’s not the reason why they were so important for me. It was not even the music. I liked other 80s bands more and still do: Hüsker Dü, The Pop Group, Microdisney. They were all great but nobody opened doors like the Pogues did.
They kindled my interest in more „traditional“ forms of popular music. First they inspired me to explore the Irish folk bands, The Bothy Band and The Chanting House were particular favourites. That slowly guided me to the English (John Renbourn, Sandy Denny) and the Scots (Robin Williamson, Nyah Fearties). From there it was not such a big step to the folk music from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. At that time you could still find cheap vinyl records from these countries at specialist retailers, such as university book shops or in Marxist mail order catalogues. Having gone through all that the next door led me to traditional British folk songs performed by Alfred Deller and his consort, among others, the works of John Dowland and his contemporaries and other so-called „Early Music“. Bach.
By that time I had lost interest in the Pogues. I saw them one more time on stage with Joe Strummer, and they had become bloodless. But I will forever be grateful for the musical education they inadvertently endowed me with.
A Pair of Brown Eyes - 4:56
Whiskey You're the Devil - 2:05
Muirshin Durkin - 1:50
Photo by Barry Marsden
Produced by Elvis Costello (no link needed)
The Pogues: A Pair of Brown Eyes
Congratulations to Shane McGowan, for surviving 3 score years. Who would have expected that?
The Pogues opened my ears like no other band before or after. They were my paradigm shift. They completely changed the way I listened to music. Let me explain.
In 1982 I mainly listened to Punk Rock, Post Punk and New Wave, like everybody else. Some Batcave music too (the word „Goth“ hadn’t been invented yet), the Sisters and such like.
Then one night I heard the Pogues on John Peel and travelled to Berlin one month or so later to see them live at the Loft. They played with complete abandon, the drummer had one arm in plaster and, to compensate for that, one of the other musicians hit a frying pan against his forehead for percussive accents. They had an authentic punk attitude but expressed it with accordion and penny whistle. The Böhse Onkelz were in the audience, who were at that time just a newly founded underground skinhead band with lots of tattoos and some bad ideas but they had just as much fun as everybody else and nobody cared (later they grew hair and became famous in Germany, but that’s another story).
I saw the Pogues a few more times on stage and met them once at a party in London (sans Shane) and they were all cultivated people and intelligent, critical minds. No alcoholics, as far as I could tell. I told them that their version of „The Auld Triangle“ was my favourite song.
But that’s not the reason why they were so important for me. It was not even the music. I liked other 80s bands more and still do: Hüsker Dü, The Pop Group, Microdisney. They were all great but nobody opened doors like the Pogues did.
They kindled my interest in more „traditional“ forms of popular music. First they inspired me to explore the Irish folk bands, The Bothy Band and The Chanting House were particular favourites. That slowly guided me to the English (John Renbourn, Sandy Denny) and the Scots (Robin Williamson, Nyah Fearties). From there it was not such a big step to the folk music from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. At that time you could still find cheap vinyl records from these countries at specialist retailers, such as university book shops or in Marxist mail order catalogues. Having gone through all that the next door led me to traditional British folk songs performed by Alfred Deller and his consort, among others, the works of John Dowland and his contemporaries and other so-called „Early Music“. Bach.
By that time I had lost interest in the Pogues. I saw them one more time on stage with Joe Strummer, and they had become bloodless. But I will forever be grateful for the musical education they inadvertently endowed me with.
A Pair of Brown Eyes - 4:56
Whiskey You're the Devil - 2:05
Muirshin Durkin - 1:50
Photo by Barry Marsden
Produced by Elvis Costello (no link needed)