Wow, nothing like a controversial topic to get everyone up in arms...
I have seen the Pogues together with Shane and then Shane without the rest of the Pogues. One thing is for sure, as any working artist will tell you, having a band like the Pogues or for example the Grateful Dead, or an artist such as Johnny Cash etc... is a special thing, a rare thing, you can be a great and gifted musician, singer, writer and your work never see the light of day. There is also the difference between box office and great work, just because you have one does not mean you have or can have the other. U2 is a good example of this, good musicians, can play well, great box office and some memorable work, but ultimately thin, good as a beer once you drink it, just an empty glass, a real business. Or the Dropkick Murphy’s, they have good songs, lots of fun, but not gems by any means. To have it all come together, the training, the talent, being gifted, in the right place at the right time and to have been in a position and to grab the opportunity and have it give birth to something special is simply rare.
Analysis wise... I.E. my 2 cents...
Live Performance - is focused more on the music than the words, while I never saw a Shane-less Pogues play live I did see Shane perform without the rest of the Pogues and with the music as the focus it was lacking - but Shane has the it factor and so it was still riveting. See (hearing) Shane play Spancil Hill with Christy Moore was near as good as anything the he did with the rest of the Pogues although it is not an apples to apples comparison. The Pogues as a group are special one of a kind but still with Christy Moore and this song the rendition was special in its own right and Shane was really great -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iUEwB4ME3I - see for yourself
The Album - is more focused on the words as I sit and listen along, again, with the Pogues, not quite a fair comparison because Shane and the band were all at the peak of their creativity, all in all then the albums with them all together are great works, the ones Shane did solo (Crock of Gold etc...) were, from a lyric POV still quite amazing vs. the rest of the Pogues without Shane, well the albums were as lacking as Shane’s live Performance without them. And Shane's albums without the music of the rest of the Pogues were not a complete experience.
Two things I find incredible, first, this group together and the albums they produced are gems, and the band is as great and gifted with the playing as Shane is with the writing and the singing. Second, I saw the group in 1987 for the first time at the Vic in Chicago and they were really great, the next time I saw them was 2007 at the Congress in Chicago, and could not believe it but they were better, perhaps although in 87 at their creative peak but in 07 more seasoned, perhaps I don't remember so well, in 07 it was pure magic in part because I never thought I would ever see them together again, let alone 20 years later. In those 20 years I was married, had 4 children, went broke, on Welfare, and staring at the abyss climbed out of my fall from grace with God with the help of a simple twist of fate, I am not entirely sure I deserved and became (if money is the mark) very successful. I am grateful for this band, as a kid my Father and I saw the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem at the Civic Opera house in Chicago (our Carnegie Hall) in 1971 - the last time the boys played together. Things went bad with my Family in the years later, several key deaths, car accidents etc. after that and the next thing I know I am at the Vic in 1987 and they start playing Dirty Old Town. It tore me apart; near brought me to my knees and in a way brought something back that I forgot about actually, something long ago assumed dead and never to return.
The Pogues to me together are like Water, what is Water, It is about rebirth, and new beginning, and it always reinvents itself. For the part the Pogues played in my life supporting and affirming that rebirth that shot of pure life I am sincerely grateful.
“I woke up one morning feeling awful, I was young then”
Dante and The Lobster
Beckett as read by Barry McGovern
“You must go on, that's all I know - …I can't go on - You must go on… I'll go on”.
Beckett – The Unnamable
I now I would like nothing more than to be just a regular Joe, not sure it's in the cards though...
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:42 am