The Medusa Fora

Kmurray - many thanks for the lovely account, and congratulations on the incipient Pogues fan!

Reading your story reminds me how well Straight to Hell prepares you for The Pogues coming on stage. I hope they never change that as their intro, gives you an instant rush and fits perfectly. Does anyone know if in the olden days they used to play another song that served as sort of a signature?

Also I was wondering if there is a story behind Straight to Hell. Besides being vaguely about Vietnam and the poor sods going there from their crumbling industrialised towns in the West - do the references to US places and immigration mean anything specific?
I love that song, it is so evocative. I am sure Joe smiles down every time it is played and forgives me for eternally associating his song with the Pogues.

Christine wrote:Kmurray - many thanks for the lovely account, and congratulations on the incipient Pogues fan!

Reading your story reminds me how well Straight to Hell prepares you for The Pogues coming on stage. I hope they never change that as their intro, gives you an instant rush and fits perfectly. Does anyone know if in the olden days they used to play another song that served as sort of a signature?

Also I was wondering if there is a story behind Straight to Hell. Besides being vaguely about Vietnam and the poor sods going there from their crumbling industrialised towns in the West - do the references to US places and immigration mean anything specific?
I love that song, it is so evocative. I am sure Joe smiles down every time it is played and forgives me for eternally associating his song with the Pogues.

The lyrics of Straight To Hell contain some of the strangest apparent non-sequiturs ever recorded. I listen to them from the wings every time and am still none the wiser, but I love them. We used to do this song with Joe when he was our lead singer and it was always a highlight of the show as far as I was concerned.

Previous intros included The Battle March Medley (we took it up "live" half way through), A Pistol For Paddy Garcia and the Alfred Hitchcock Theme, and there were a couple more, I think.

philipchevron wrote:

Previous intros included The Battle March Medley (we took it up "live" half way through), A Pistol For Paddy Garcia and the Alfred Hitchcock Theme, and there were a couple more, I think.

I remember the Hitchcock theme. I always wondered if there is an explanation for using that. Is there a story?

Eckhard wrote:

philipchevron wrote:

Previous intros included The Battle March Medley (we took it up "live" half way through), A Pistol For Paddy Garcia and the Alfred Hitchcock Theme, and there were a couple more, I think.

I remember the Hitchcock theme. I always wondered if there is an explanation for using that. Is there a story?

Not that I can remember. I suppose it just seemed sort of........appropriate. I think it was Paul Scully's idea, as was the playing of "The Deadwood Stage" by Doris Day after the final encore. "Straight To Hell" was Shane's idea, surprisingly enough (because he wasn't part of that phase of our lives - maybe he was giving it a sort of retrospective imprimatur), We have had various attempts to replace it, with input from DJ Scratchy and Paul Scully, but we've never found anything we like better.

philipchevron wrote:we've never found anything we like better.

Thanks for the response, and intriguing as the other options sound (esp taking it up live half-way) I do hope you stay with it! It's a very beguiling piece, both musically and respecting the, as you say, non-sequitur lyrics, not in-your-face agit-prop but quite mystefying and atmospheric. Wonderful.

"King Solomon he never lived around here."

philipchevron wrote:

Christine wrote:Kmurray - many thanks for the lovely account, and congratulations on the incipient Pogues fan!

Reading your story reminds me how well Straight to Hell prepares you for The Pogues coming on stage. I hope they never change that as their intro, gives you an instant rush and fits perfectly. Does anyone know if in the olden days they used to play another song that served as sort of a signature?

Also I was wondering if there is a story behind Straight to Hell. Besides being vaguely about Vietnam and the poor sods going there from their crumbling industrialised towns in the West - do the references to US places and immigration mean anything specific?
I love that song, it is so evocative. I am sure Joe smiles down every time it is played and forgives me for eternally associating his song with the Pogues.

The lyrics of Straight To Hell contain some of the strangest apparent non-sequiturs ever recorded. I listen to them from the wings every time and am still none the wiser, but I love them. We used to do this song with Joe when he was our lead singer and it was always a highlight of the show as far as I was concerned.

Previous intros included The Battle March Medley (we took it up "live" half way through), A Pistol For Paddy Garcia and the Alfred Hitchcock Theme, and there were a couple more, I think.

Well it seems to me like it´s about whole world resp. about its people -san is Japanese, bamboo people are probably Chinese, there are things about American people, about British and so on...



And to the phrase "Straight to hell" -I have no idea why but it seems to me adressed to US soldiers. But it is probably just only my personal distaste for US foreign politics.

When I thought of it a little more it could be about being so tiny compared to the world that no one really cares. +many other things

I think that Joe Strummer was genius enough not to write stupid verses: I am all alone, the world is bitch, no one listens to me and so on...or at least not in so primitive way as certain others did.