Blue Heaven

**Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:16 pm**

Phil Chevron describes the origins of "Blue Heaven":

From the Friends O' Shane chat:"Blue Heaven" sounded really wonderful at a soundcheck in Birmingham, Alabama when Darryl, Andrew and I first played it. It was all downhill after that - we could never get the original vibe back!! In the studio we kept throwing instrumentation on top in an attempt to rescue it. But it was a lost cause.

It's a much darker song than it first appears. Darryl and I, as Nottingham Forest fans, were both at the Liverpool v Forest semi-final at Hillsborough in 1989, when we watched helplessly as 96 people lost their lives.

"Blue Heaven" is an attempt to describe/exorcise the weird survivor-guilt that follows such a trauma. We set it in New Orleans because I think that was the first time we were happy again after Hillsborough.

Lyrics are here if you'd like to refresh your memories.

The Hillsborough disaster that Phil is referring to is described here.

**Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:44 pm**

I love "Blue Heaven." Couldn't imagine it (or at least, me liking it) as a darker song.

**Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:37 am**

Okay, so it sounds a bit like a disco track, but it contains some beautiful imagery and is very catchy indeed - I was humming it all day after I got the remastered version of Peace and Love...

**Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:44 am**

i cant actually beleive that you just asked that!! :wink:

no, really, i dont know, but i dont like it though!

**Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:19 pm**

Perhaps part of this aversion is due to the fact that neither the Pogues themselves seem to be satisfied with the song. From an interview with Philip Chevron: "Believe it or not, Blue Heaven was a really great idea that went horribly wrong in the studio. I agree with Shane when he says it was rubbish."

Who knows, maybe the song could have turned out better than it did – but I like it nonetheless. It’s just a matter of taste...

**Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:06 pm**

Some things should just not be released... parts of Peace and Love and most of Waiting for Herb, for instance.

**Fri Jan 07, 2005 1:33 pm**

Zuzana - thanks for posting that interview, it was brilliant and one of the best I have seen from one of the band. Thousands are Sailing is one of my all time favourite Pogues songs so to read how he wrote it was fantastic.

I like Blue Heaven. I think this is why I am able to say the Pogues are my ultimate favourite band - there is not a single song they have done that I would skip forward on when listening to one of their CDs. I can't say that for any other band no matter how much I like them. People criticise Blue Heaven and Tuesday Morning but they remind me of the "popular" Buzzcocks or Ramones tracks that mainstream music fans like. I think this is good as it gets those that sit on the fence to listen to alternative music.

Nat

**Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:34 pm**

I haven't listened to it all the way through for ages, as I had been slightly put off by some of the things I heard about it. Today I listened to it all the way through and its a pretty decent song actually.

**Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:37 pm**

I disagree. It's a really cheesy, 80's sounding pop song, and about the only Pogues song I'm embarrassed to play in front of non fans.

It can be quite fun when you're drunk and in a party mood, I suppose, but in the cold, sober light of day, it's fairly awful.

**Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:40 pm**

I see what you're saying but, I don't really have a problem with that song. Beats the pants off anything I could write.

**Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:55 pm**

It's not one of my favorite songs, but I don't think it's "rubbish". It's catchy as hell and I think the imagery and the vocals are very nice as well. When I first got Peace and Love it was probably the track - along with "Down all the Days" - that stood out most to me.

**Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:10 am**

I still think that it's one of Steve Martin's better movies.
Gong.

**Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:36 am**

"Blue heaven" is one of only three songs from the 1982 - 1991 area that don´t reach me. I think it mostly comes down to the arrangement, but I never could make much out of the lyrics, too. Having heard from Mr Chevron what the inspiration was behind that song, it still doesn´t get me.

(Just for the record, the other two songs that don´t work for me personally are "Down all the days" and, my least favourite track, "The ghost of a smile".)

**Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:51 am**

The Duke of Ingmar wrote:(Just for the record, the other two songs that don´t work for me personally are "Down all the days" and, my least favourite track, "The ghost of a smile".)

Oh, and there we have to part ways! I'm with you on Blue Heaven, but I love those two songs, especially Ghost. I reckon they're two of the best songs from the bands late-MacGowan period.

**Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:13 pm**

idlebagger wrote:
The Duke of Ingmar wrote:(Just for the record, the other two songs that don´t work for me personally are "Down all the days" and, my least favourite track, "The ghost of a smile".)

Oh, and there we have to part ways! I'm with you on Blue Heaven, but I love those two songs, especially Ghost. I reckon they're two of the best songs from the bands late-MacGowan period.

I'm with you on this one, idlebagger. Ghost of a Smile is a great tune. I sure do wish I knew what the brilliant origin of Blue Heaven was (I mean musically... I know it was motivated by a horrible experience). I mean if it went horribly wrong in studio, then what was it before? That's rhetorical, by the way -- I don't want to drag on the "this song sucks" thread. I'm trying to imagine the potential of that song to be something different, and better, than what it turned out to be. Peace.

Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven - why do so many people hate this song?

You know what, Blue Heaven doesn't actually suck.

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