Nate wrote:I was in Dublin last week and finally got a copy of Ghostown and have been enjoying it a lot but I've a couple questions:
*What's the story behind the name the "Radiators from Space"? why not from some other place? Maybe I'm overthinking it but seeing how much of the lyrical content concerns the state of Ireland are we supposed to connect Ireland in the 70s with outer space? And, if so, compared to what?
*People here seem to get hung up (perhaps rightly) about how Pogues lyrics change over time and in different versions of songs so, with that in mind, are the lyrics to Song of the Faithful Departed
"poetry in paralysis too cheap to recite"
or
"poetry in paralysis too deep to recite"?
The lyrics page on the Rads site states the first, but it sure sounds like the second.
*Lastly, why was the "from Space" dropped on this album? Too clunky?
Anyway, I really like the album and I think my favorite moment is the enlivened scream on "And then I'll bury you upright so the sun doesn't blind you..." Makes me want to put my fist through a window.
I always thought it was too
sweet to recite, but that's what happens when you refuse to finish a song, offering it up instead in several versions. It has its perils. On the lyrics I sent to Christy Moore, the "Sacred Heart's picture, compassion in his eyes,
drummed out the river's sighs". When I realised the error, or typo or whatever it was, I called Christy and reminded him the correct word was
drowned, but by then it was too late, he preferred
drummed , and it has prejudiced me against Christy's numerous versions ever since. I had also rewritten the last line of the song so that Christy would sing "..and no more regrets in your world without end" rather than the original "..and no more
tristesse in your world without end", but on this occasion, he wanted to stick stubbornly to the original lyric.
One of the small pleasures of singing "Faithful Departed" with the Radiators is that I never know myself which lyric options I'm going to choose, from performance to performance, until the moment has passed.
The saga of the Radiators' name is long and complicated but perhaps best explained, if you have the patience, throughout the following essay:
http://pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7207