The making of a Pogues song

[Monreith2]

I'm curious as to how the Pogues composed songs. I know Shane MacGowan wrote all (or most of)the songs,(besides trads.) does this mean he wrote all the different parts as well, or did each member compose his own part for his own instrument and consult with Shane ? What was the process ? anyone have any idea ? Maybe Mr. Chevron would be the best person to answer this one

What do you guys think ?

[goodbar]

shane only wrote about half of the original material.


my theory:
band member writes song. writes it down and plays it for the gang. gang put their heads together. song.

[philipchevron]

my theory:
band member writes song. writes it down and plays it for the gang. gang put their heads together. song.

That's close enough. The Pogues have the capacity to tame each other's wilder excesses. The instrumental section of Thousands Of Sailors was vastly improved by James and Terry grabbing hold of my tune and changing the time signature. Equally, Terry helped make the chord changes in the songs less defined, though that does mean that, to this day, there is no definitively correct sequence of chords in the verse and chorus.

[Pogues Whistle Player]

I don't know why but this question really irritates me. I suppose it is the assumption that everything was either written by or had to be cleared by Shane. Why would you think that? While there were no hard and fast rules,what usually happened was that Shane would have the lyrics, and the melody which would then have to be squeezed out of him. It was always a very laborious process, as Shane's guitar playing was not always up to the task of expressing what he was hearing in his head. I would generally go to the pub for this bit.
Then the rest of us would come in with ideas, ie adding another tune to main body of the song, and we would rehearse and rehearse,until it assumed something like it's proper form. Obviously, this wasn't true of every song. Streams of Whiskey took about 10 minutes to work out, Boys from the County Hell about 5... I found a tape recently which follows the creation of Brown Eyes. It starts as a barely recognisable chaotic mess then progresses step by step until it begins to resemble something approaching the finished article.Really the best person to answer this question is James Fearnley, who was there at the coalface with his pick and his Davy lamp.

[celticjunk]

There you have another Box set
"The making of the Pogues songs"

The Hardcore Pogues fans out there would buy that Box, I'm sure I would

[Eric V]

I'm sure I would

You would buy a recording of Pogues farts if they would record them, celticjunk.

[Mick Molloy]

I'm sure I would

You would buy a recording of Pogues farts if they would record them, celticjunk.

I would as well. Let's see who can 'produce':

the loudest fart
the wettest fart
the longest fart

[Eyeball_Kid]

The tragic thing is that I do have a recording of Keith Richards farting. multiple times

[philipchevron]

The tragic thing is that I do have a recording of Keith Richards farting. multiple times

I'll bet that sold more copies than Mick's solo albums.

[Celtic.Dave]

The tragic thing is that I do have a recording of Keith Richards farting. multiple times

I'll bet that sold more copies than Mick's solo albums.

ouch,bitchy Mr C

[welsh rover]

That's close enough. The Pogues have the capacity to tame each other's wilder excesses. The instrumental section of Thousands Of Sailors was vastly improved by James and Terry grabbing hold of my tune and changing the time signature. Equally, Terry helped make the chord changes in the songs less defined, though that does mean that, to this day, there is no definitively correct sequence of chords in the verse and chorus.

I don't know why but this question really irritates me. I suppose it is the assumption that everything was either written by or had to be cleared by Shane. Why would you think that? While there were no hard and fast rules,what usually happened was that Shane would have the lyrics, and the melody which would then have to be squeezed out of him. It was always a very laborious process, as Shane's guitar playing was not always up to the task of expressing what he was hearing in his head. I would generally go to the pub for this bit.
Then the rest of us would come in with ideas, ie adding another tune to main body of the song, and we would rehearse and rehearse,until it assumed something like it's proper form. Obviously, this wasn't true of every song. Streams of Whiskey took about 10 minutes to work out, Boys from the County Hell about 5... I found a tape recently which follows the creation of Brown Eyes. It starts as a barely recognisable chaotic mess then progresses step by step until it begins to resemble something approaching the finished article.Really the best person to answer this question is James Fearnley, who was there at the coalface with his pick and his Davy lamp.

Cheers Gents - great to have an insight into how these great songs evolved. As one of the world's least creative people (I'm a lawyer...) I won't pretend that I really understand but I can try!

[DzM]

As one of the world's least creative people (I'm a lawyer...) I won't pretend that I really understand but I can try!

<blockquote><blockquote type=cite>Party the first produces intellectually unique materials for presentation to the larger comity. The comity then rationally processes the materials as established by precedent, and the aforementioned individual party is often times subject to deposition for additional information and detail. The comity of the first party then makes modifications and additions to the presented (and on occasion amended by deposition of the first party) material. It has been previously established that some members of the comity excuse themselves during the deposition process for intoxicants.

Once the working comity and the individual party have reached a consensus on ammendments and revisions (via the process previosuly described in the preceeding paragraph) to the intellectually unique property, the amendments and revisions are integrated into the originally presented materials to produce the final intellectually unique property.</blockquote></blockquote>Or, you know, something like that.

[philipchevron]

The Sanity Clause??

[soulfinger]

I would generally go to the pub for this bit.

Brilliant.

And what about when Shane had gone? Did the same technique apply for Tuesday Morning, Drunken Boat, Pachinko and all the other songs I love?

[JamesFearnley]

Spider said: "Really the best person to answer this question is James Fearnley, who was there at the coalface with his pick and his Davy lamp."

It's true, I spent long and grimy hours at the seam, but accompanied pretty much all of the time by Jem. It was he and I that swung the sledge often enough. But, well, after all, there wasn't a shortage of guys who could put their shoulders up against a loaded trolley and we never groped our way down a lightless chamber without that the canary went first.