NW3

[Frame]

Does anyone know the lyrics to NW3 as I know they differ quite from Mother Mo Chroi.

Thanks

[Hellbeard]

Does anyone know the lyrics to NW3 as I know they differ quite from Mother Mo Chroi.

Thanks

Sorry for taking so long..

It was 1962
I was two years out of school
When I got on board
A boat that was bound for Liverpool
The day I went away
I remember it so well
Said goodbye to the North Wall
And bid a fond farewell

By the time I hit the smoke
It was 1963
I got a job doing meals on wheels
Round NW3
I was scring poor old grannies
For a half a quid a week
I was drunk and stoned and
Smashed and blocked in NW3

In the filth and piss they lived in
They would sometimes hum an air
Or talk in tongues of madness
Keeping time upon the chair
And for their wrists a numbered tab
In Westminister morgue
On a cold hard slab
When I was still a young man
In NW3

At the top of the Pentonville Road
I watched the sun setting
The town spread out before me
Looked beautiful to me
Away from all the crying
The suffering and the dying
I dreamed of the future
Of the young and the free

But the years they slip by quickly
Now I know I won't return here
Where each day just brings me closer
To that final misery
My kids will never
Scrape shit round here
And I won't die
Crying in a pint of beer
Or eat their
Stinking meals on wheels
In NW3

I copied this from the great Poguetry book. Enjoy.

[Frame]

Many thanks

[Guest]

Great lyrics, far from the banality of Mother Mó Chrói.

Too bad it was never recorded properly.

[Hellbeard]

Have to agree on that.
Allthough there's plenty of good lyrics on Crock of gold.

[Guest]

NW3 has always intrigued me. Even in the unfinished versions available on various live recordings and on the Falconer demo tapes, it stands out as (IMO) one of the best songs ever written by Shane MacGowan. Does anyone have any insight as to why the song never was recorded properly and released?

Presumably it was written in early '88 as it, along with Boat Train, was introduced in the live show in the spring of that same year. I would think that it should have been a candidate for inclusion on Peace & Love (as was the case with Boat Train) but for whatever reason it was passed up. The song was then demoed for Hell's Ditch but failed to appear on that record as well, eventually ending up (in a very inferior version) as Mother Mo Chroí on Shane's second solo album.

Now, how come that a song that was superior to most of the material on both Peace & Love and Hell's Ditch wasn't included. Maybe one of the band members would care to comment? And what does everyone think of the song? Some of Shane's finest lyrics, no? (Available here if you don't know the song: http://www.shanemacgowan.com/lyrics/nw3.shtml )

[Joey]

I have never heard NW3, but i noticed that verse's 1, 4 & 5. are the same as Mother Mo Chroí from Shane's Crock of Gold Album.

[Joey]

...And if i read the whole page I would have noticed:

Mother Mo Chroí
By Shane MacGowan
(Based on the song NW3)


Sorry!

[Guest]

NW3 was another Shane MacGowan London/Ireland track that would have slotted comfortably onto any record up to and including IISFGWG and to a lesser extent P+L. I'd guess it was dropped from P+L because MacGowan failed to lay down a solid vocal and by this point the other members of the band had cottoned onto the fact that Shane was the one getting rich on royalties and not them, so as MacGowan weakened they pushed their songs onto the records allotting him less space. Between 1989 and 1991 Shane's hand came off the rudder of the band ... and other stars came to shine.

I'd guess it was passed up for HD because it didn't fit the outward looking Round-The-World theme of the album. At the time, releasing another grimy London song in 1990 could have been a backward step. Those themes (and the trad Irish covers) had mostly been left behind as their success took off and they morphed into a festival headling world folk rock band. Plus they had barely set foot in London since 1987. On world tour for 3 years, grimy London was a dsitant memory. With hindsight in 2005 it's the London-Irish MacGowan songs of the '80s that have become the immortal classics but as the band went into the 90s most of these tracks were forgotten from the set list. And new London / Irish tracks like Donegal Express, Aisling, NW3 were left off HD despite being, arguably, superior. Tired of being sterotyped as drunken London Paddies (which most of them weren't!), the Pogues were changing.

[Frame]

NW3 is beyond all doubt my favorite Pogues song as its theme of being displaced (if I guessed it correctly) hits home to me.

I was born in Brazil to Canadian parents, raised in Houston Texas, spent 8 months in Copenhagen Denmark and now find myself living in Ciudad del Carmen Mexico. So not only do I wonder if I will ever get home, I wonder where home is for me exactly.

When ever I go to London (which is probably less now that I am back in the western hemisphere), I take a trip up to Pentonville Road just to check it out although I have never seen the sun set.

Does anyone have any guess regarding the fourth verse of the song?

[Fitzgerald]

What exactly is NW3?

[Guest]

NW3 is the code for a postal district in London. NW presumably indicates that it is in the northwestern part but I don't know exactly where it is.

[MacRua]

London map (postcode areas)

map of district

[philipchevron]

If Shane had ever finished a lead vocal for NW3 it would have made it past anyone else's songwriting contribution, no contest. The fact is, he didn't, for reasons known only to himself. There is a good vocal on the Falconer Demo but the overall sound on those demos was not in the same class as the Hell'S Ditch material - for which the backing track of NW3 WAS in fact recorded. If the demo had passed muster with the overall feel of Hell's Ditch, I feel sure we would have included it.

Shane has always had some revisionist pleasure out of demonising the rest of us for any number of perceived evils and slights. In fact, the majority of apparently egregious mysteries were of his own making, as was the case with NW3, which we all thought was one of his best ever songs.

[pyro]

Well I would say I like the Fishermen, Hot Asphalt + Girl from Wadi Hammamat from WfH demos far more. And the demo for wake of medusa is quite an interesting one, although I like the official version a bit more (it is one of my most favourite songs).
By the way, don´t you know, why so many people dislike Hell´s ditch? Imho it is far better than Rum sodomy or Red roses and almost as good as others.