BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Greenbean
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 05:07 PM

Just saw Shane & the Popes in Portland a few mos. ago. It was kinda like watching a train wreck--like a sick fascination! I too think the man is a fine lyricist (although some things he writes are unholy unclean, which is part of the appeal, I suppose) but he sure looks like a living corpse. A particularly homely one. Still like him, tho', and I think some of his songs are haunting.

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:50 PM

"we should just be damned glad our own problems aren't quite that serious."

BOLLOX ALLERT!!! BOLLOX ALLERT!!!

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Big Tim
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:47 PM

Shane and the Popes made two albums, the first "The Snake" (1994)is excellent, as good as the early Pogues, the second "Crock of Gold" is pretty awful c&w flavoured stuff but with a couple of real gems also in there, like "Saint John of Gods" (an alcohol drying out place in Ireland, I think). Shane has serious psychological problems which causes him to drink ridiculous amounts and do all sorts of heavy drugs as well. However he makes heroic efforts to make it to gigs tho I've had tickets for three that he never showed for. To dismiss him as a drunk is too easy, he hasn't been sober since he was 14 (born 1957), we should just be damned glad our own problems aren't quite that serious.

Long live Shane, Up the Republic (as Shane always signs off). (Dario from Osijek, Croatia, are you out there?)

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Den
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:44 PM

Like him or loathe him the man is a poet and a brilliant song writer. I have to wonder sometimes when I look at him,its hard to appreciate that someone who looks and acts as he does can produce such hauntingly beautiful lyrics such as You're the one and The song with no name, to name just two. I think there's a touch of the Behan in him and in the main people just don't understand him. Den

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Tedham Porterhouse
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:33 PM

I quite liked the early Pogues albums; the traditional stuff and Shane's original material. However, when I went to see them in concert, Shane was drunk, incoherent and abusive to the audience.

A year or two later, I read that the rest of the Pogues kicked him out of the band and went on without him. I've never heard the Popes, his later band.

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:14 PM

to each his own Grab, the beatles were in the right place at the right time too. Neil Young doesnt have a great voice either, or play guitar for that matter, so what does that mean

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Grab
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 04:08 PM

Bad singer? Even to call him a singer is insulting! A BBC TV programme showed him recording a new song. He's "singing" along, and they're playing the actual song (produced, fiddles, guitars, the works) to you know how it sounds. Then they switch from playing the song against it to playing the recording of what he actually sounded like when he did it.

Cruel. There's no intonation, no shadings of the sound, he's basically just drawling the words out in a monotone, not even sounding like he's interested in it. Every single variation in his voice on the final song is pure post-production. God, even Bob Dylan puts some effort into it, but SMcG is just sat there mumbling.

The Pogues just happened to be in the right place to cash in on punk music, for which you didn't need to be able to sing or play particularly well, you just needed to be able to hit those strings hard, shout loud and get in fights! Sorry.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 03:38 PM

Id say it was the Pogues and especially SHane that turned me onto to Trad. Irish music. I think hes a great songwriter and singer as well. Its a shame he hits the sauce so much. I saw him here in Vancouver a few years ago with the popes, the sound was way too loud and you couldnt make out what he said or sang half the time he was so drunk. It was still a great show anyway. I owned every cd the Pogues put out and the Shane and the Popes cds as well, although I hardly listen to it now it certainly was an influence on me. IF Tommy Makem really said that it doesnt make a bit of difference because (IMHO it was bands like the Pogues that were responsible for the current popularity of Trad. Irish music and that cant be a bad thing. Sure some people are indifferent but Im indifferent about ClintonHammond too.

I still love some of his lyrics, "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, cant make it all alone.. I built my dreams around you."

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: GUEST,Winick
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 03:00 PM

Oops, I am at work and my cookie is on my computer at home. I wanted to identify myself as the author of the post giving info on Shane above--the one by an anonymous guest. But I'm really a member. Honest!

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 02:42 PM

A chum of mine once knocked Shane out with a thrown bottle when the wanker shoed up 3 hours late for a gig and was too pissed to sing!

The *Whoonk* sound of that bottle connecting with toss-pots head reverberating over the mic is a sound I pray I'll never forget!

The bouncers at said gig carried my mate around on their shoulders to cheering all round for about half an hour!

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 02:30 PM

Shane is definitely more sinner than saint, but equally surely he has made important contributions to Irish music. For those who don't know him, he's a London Irish punk musician turned folk musician. In the seventies he was with the punk band Nipple Erectors, which shortened its name to Nips to get radio airplay. In the eighties he formed Pogue Mahone, ("kiss my arse" in Irish) and once again changed the name to The Pogues. He eventually left the Pogues and joined the Popes.

I think to say Shane has contributed nothing to Irish music is ridiculous. Although he is a bad singer and a bad drinker and often an annoying lout, he has written some magnificent songs. Pair of Brown Eyes, Sally MacLennane, Fairytale of New York, The Broad Majestic Shannon, etc.

Weirdly, I believe that Shane wrote The Broad Majestic Shannon for Tommy Makem to sing, and that Tommy turned his nose up at it for some reason. There may be some kind of grudge at work; Shane may have insulted Tommy at some point; god knows he's insulted enough people.

I have to say I have walked out of gigs when Shane was too drunk to be of any use on stage, so I understand people's bitterness, but some of the songs are indelibly part of Irish music, covered by the likes of Christy Moore. What more do you need to be accorded a "contribution" to Irish music?

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: mousethief
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 02:29 PM

Who?

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 02:17 PM

The seriously ugly, once front guy for The Pogues... Couldn't sing his way out of a paper bag...

The perfect voice for celtic-punk music, the perfect face for radio...

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Maryrrf
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 02:13 PM

I never heard of him. Now I'm curious, who is he?

Subject: RE: BS: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 02:04 PM

They say that apathy/indifference is the worst possible of emotions... and that's how I feel about Shane... Couldn't possibly care any less about or for him...

Subject: Shane MacGowan: saint or sinner?
From: Big Tim
Date: 12 Jul 01 - 01:54 PM

I'm a big Shane fan, joined the German fan club years ago, now Friends of Shane. However I know that many people, especially Irish, don't think much of him at all including my brother and a guy called Tommy Makem who said that "he has contibuted nothing to Irish music". I would be interested to hear what other Catters think, especially Irish, especially Tipperary, Shane's native County (tho he was born in England).