Down all the days

[Billie]

Ok, yesterday I was listening to Down All The Days and, apart from falling in love with the song (I had already heard), I was struck by inspiration and wrote a short story.

Now I would like to know something more about the song...basically what is it about.

[Shaz]

Ok, yesterday I was listening to Down All The Days and, apart from falling in love with the song (I had already heard), I was struck by inspiration and wrote a short story.

Now I would like to know something more about the song...basically what is it about.

I've always assumed it's about Christy Brown, the Irish writer who has cerebral palsy. Daniel Day Lewis played him in the film My Left Foot. There's a Wikipedia entry about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Brown

[Beisty]

It is about Christy Brown. The lyrics kinda give it away (Christy Brown, a clown around town...).

Although I like the song, I have never really loved it. It just sounds a bit too obvious. It was like during that album the band were writing Pogues songs by numbers.

[AllBusiness37]

I'm not a huge fan of this song either. Of all the songs Shane wrote with the Pogues, I get the feeling that this one fell far shorter of its mark than any other. It could have been great, but instead it's like "The Broad Majestic Shannon" if that were a second-rate song. Unrealized potential.

[pogues24]

I'm not a huge fan of this song either. Of all the songs Shane wrote with the Pogues, I get the feeling that this one fell far shorter of its mark than any other. It could have been great, but instead it's like "The Broad Majestic Shannon" if that were a second-rate song. Unrealized potential

Have to disagree with you that statement, I've always found Down All the Days to be one of stand out tracks that Shane wrote for Peace and Love. I love the lyrics and the music as a whole. Of all the six songs that Shane wrote for Peace and Love, I would rank Down All the Days third, right behind London You're a Lady and White City.

Iain

[Michaelo]

I like Down All The Days. I don't think it's up there with Shane's best work, but it's still a good song. Having said that, why oh why did it end up with that stupid typewriter sound on it?

[philipchevron]

I like Down All The Days. I don't think it's up there with Shane's best work, but it's still a good song. Having said that, why oh why did it end up with that stupid typewriter sound on it?

Christy Brown was not capable of many sounds on which his sheer exhuberant celebration of the life force was possible. Of these, the noisy slurps as the porter went down his neck or the clatter of those once uncontrollable keys as he sought to express himself in words, must be counted in the Top 3. The typewriter is Christy's "music". While the Pogues have never been the kind of band to add a drum roll to an orchestration simply because the lyrics mention a drum roll, there did seem to be a case here for the portable. It added links - the sound reminds CB of the horses' drays at the brewery - an especially accurate invocation, I always thought, as a coinneiuseur of Old Dublin Sounds - and to that "carnivalesque" quality it appears to have become germane to distinguish as a vital component of Poguetry in recent scholarship.

That said, the album probably WAS better off without the Irish dance steps I painstakingly overdubbed onto "The Gartloney Rats" but which never got past T Woods's approval (as composer) for the final master. Let's just say the Liverpants people may not have ended up with quite so much of the credit for The International Heavy Monster Sound of Those Rappity-Tappity Irish Dancin' Feet as they subsequently did!

[Beisty]

....the album probably WAS better off without the Irish dance steps I painstakingly overdubbed onto "The Gartloney Rats" but which never got past T Woods's approval....

Agreed!

[Rich]

I like the typewriter sound cos it reminds me of "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton.

[fluke]

There something about the song here: http://www.poguetry.com/pnl.htm

[Mae]

I'm not a huge fan of this song either. Of all the songs Shane wrote with the Pogues, I get the feeling that this one fell far shorter of its mark than any other. It could have been great, but instead it's like "The Broad Majestic Shannon" if that were a second-rate song. Unrealized potential.

I don't understand this line. Broad Majestic Shannon is one of my favorites, I think it IS great. Seems that it's fulfilled it's potential to me.

Regarding Down all the Days, must admit I usually fast forward it to Lorelei and Gartloney Rats, or back to Misty Morning Albert Bridge...

[AllBusiness37]

I'm just saying that when I listen to "Down All the Days," I get the feeling that it once had the makings of a great song, such as "The Broad Majestic Shannon," for instance. However, I don't feel that "Down All the Days" was executed to its fullest potential and, consequently, comes off as a second rate song.

[robertc]

What is the meaning of that verse about the Glasgow Rangers? Is it just saying that Christy Brown doesn't care about mundane stuff like football?

[firehazard]

What is the meaning of that verse about the Glasgow Rangers? Is it just saying that Christy Brown doesn't care about mundane stuff like football?

It's more likely to be about the fact that Glasgow Rangers, of the big two Glasgow football clubs, has always been traditionally supported by Protestants, whereas Glasgow Celtic is traditionally the Catholic football club.

Which could mean that it's obvious where Christy's allegiances would lie. Or alternatively, that people don't bother with asking him the question for other reasons...

[Frame]

Steel Pole Bath Tub covered this on the "Miracle of Sound in Motion" Album. I realize SPBT is apretty acquired taste, but it is actually a pretty descent cover.