Thousands Are Sailing

[philipchevron]

Shane did not like singing the final chorus "Wherever we go we celebrate/the Land that makes us refugees/From fear of priests with empty plates/From guilt/And weeping effigies" as I think it ran counter-intuitive to his own brand of Nationalism. . . .

As it happens, I never sing the final chorus myself with The Pogues because I know that audiences like singing the "thousands are sailing" bits. I sing instead the version I rewrote for Shane to sing. However, I ALWAYS include it when I sing it solo or when I'm working with Terry Woods, Ronnie Drew etc.

I was surprised and delighted to hear you sing this final chorus last Wednesday in Glasgow. I didn't catch the chorus before it, and didn't recognize it, and am wondering if there wasn't a new one written for this year's shows?

The short answer is no, I now sing the song as I originally wrote it. I think.

[Irish Rover]

The short answer is no, I now sing the song as I originally wrote it. I think.

Yeah i thought i noticed you singing the last verse in manchester Philip.

"Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e'er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of Priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
And we dance"

[philipchevron]

The short answer is no, I now sing the song as I originally wrote it. I think.

Yeah i thought i noticed you singing the last verse in manchester Philip.

"Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e'er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of Priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
And we dance"

Um...ok, what I think I sang is

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
To a land of opportunity
that some of them will never see
Wherever we go
We celebrate the land
that makes us refugees
From fear of priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies

That was certainly what I intended to sing

[Irish Rover]

Yeah thats the verse i meant

[Mr.Awesome]

Yes. A wonderful song. My favorite lyric is the following

"Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides"

It always makes me think my grandparent's apartment in NYC. Hanging on the wall behind the front door was a picture of JFK and slightly below that was a picture of Jesus.

I think that the song does a good job of capturing part of the Irish immigrant experience in New York. Hopes, dreams, and sadness.

[Sausage]

Around 1990, I recorded a solo version of the song (produced by Donal Lunny) for BBC Records' "Bringing It All Back Home"

I stumbled upon the "Bringing it all Back Home"-Album while working in France in 2000, so I am fortunate to own that version. The album cost an incredible 220 Francs ( about 36 Euro ), but nonetheless I'm glad to have that version.

hmm where can i find this in MP3 form? its one of my favorite Pogues songs and i like Phillips vocals on it much more

[Eric V]

Yes. A wonderful song. My favorite lyric is the following

"Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides"

It always makes me think my grandparent's apartment in NYC. Hanging on the wall behind the front door was a picture of JFK and slightly below that was a picture of Jesus.

I sent my very good Glaswegian friend home with a religious medal of JFK for his Mum a few months ago. He was going to pass it on, and apparently the woman just about worships JFK. Go Celtics!!!!!!! How far the Irish came in this country, considering the old signs saying dogs, etc..., and Irish not welcome. And by the way, Irish ranked lower than Blacks in the South, as slaves were property. You could work an Irishman to death and hire another for a few cents, but if you lost a slave you lost property. No shit.

EV

[Paddy Rolling Clone]

Thousands Are Sailing was absolutely beautiful last night, and probably the highlight of the night for me. Such an incredible song, I'd take Phil on vocals over the studio version any day.

A night I will never forget as long as I live, thank you one and all.

[orrok61]

You know,Philip,changing the key,the way you sing it,makes alot of Pogues fans really sound like shite while we sing along!!

[philipchevron]

You know,Philip,changing the key,the way you sing it,makes alot of Pogues fans really sound like shite while we sing along!!

Yiz sound pretty lusty to me.

[orrok61]

Ahhh,God bless ya!!!!

[pogues22]

What a brilliant song and one of the first songsthat made clear that MacGowan's was not the only talented songwriter in the band. Even though Shane has said he did't like the verse

"And in Brendan Behan footsteps, I danced up and down the street."

Even this little hindsight can't diminish the overall beauty of this masterful song, way to go Philip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mick Molloy]

You know,Philip,changing the key,the way you sing it,makes alot of Pogues fans really sound like shite while we sing along!!

Maybe it suits me better but the Philips'key suits me better.

We were watching the Town and Country dvd at home on my birthday a couple of days ago and everyone liked this song best by the way. Even the grandma (but she's a bit deaf )

[Gurrier]

Phil, could you give us a little background on the catylyst and process involved in you writing this song? How long did it take to pen? I'm extremely fascinated by the motivation and approach involved in good songs when I hear them being a songwriter myself but rarely get an insight into the backstory of their creation. The other day was the first time I really had a good listen to that number, man that hook that hits in after "and they'll dance..." just knocked me over. I've been humming that bastard all day haha

[philipchevron]

Phil, could you give us a little background on the catylyst and process involved in you writing this song? How long did it take to pen? I'm extremely fascinated by the motivation and approach involved in good songs when I hear them being a songwriter myself but rarely get an insight into the backstory of their creation. The other day was the first time I really had a good listen to that number, man that hook that hits in after "and they'll dance..." just knocked me over. I've been humming that bastard all day haha

A song takes a moment (anything from a second to an hour or more) to conceive and weeks, months, maybe years to write. It's like a sculpture - you begin with a slab of, say, granite, and in your mind's eye, before you start chiselling, you have an idea of the finished result. However, a few mis-hits of the chisel later, a few unforced errors that lead you somewhere else, you may end up with a different, but no less interesting, structure than the one you thought you were making.

Thousands was intended to be a modern version of a turn-of-the-century Irish-American vaudeville song, the sort of thing De Danaan used to do so well in their Star Spangled Molly phase. I also knew it would be an emigration song, but I had a dilemma: 80s Irish migration to the USA, in an era of cheapish airfares and relative prosperity, could not be said to be as permanent, as life-altering as the post-Famine migrations, so I needed to find new metaphors for the migrant's sense of alienation and loneliness.

I have discussed the writing of the song at great length and, I hope, greater clarity, with Carol Clerk, who is writing the Kiss My Arse book. With any luck, she has made some sense of my meanderings and will precis them in the book when it is published later this year.

Thanks for your generous praise.