Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:55 pm
continued...
[Plays tin whistle]
About 12 years ago, me and my wife were in Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and this song came over the PA.
It was about dec 16th and it was just perfect - it made me realise why it is actually such a good song.
It's got real power and grandeur to it, definitely. It had a very long and complicated genesis;
it was about two years in the making almost, because it went through various permutations.
If memory serves me correctly, Marcia Finer, Jem's wife, suggested that he should write a tune
about a warring couple. He did, and I think Marcia said "well actually, that's not that good"
so he turned the idea over to Shane, and over the course of 2 years came up with different things lyrically.
Him and Jem were working on the music too. I think Shane gave it the New York setting, we were watching
Once upon a time in America all the time, on a loop in the bus. Parts of the music were kind of a steal of
Ennio Morricone's score. It was going to be a duet with Shane and Cait [ex bass player] but
Cait left to marry Elvis Costello. We were stuck for a singer, and Steve Lillywhite, the producer
took it home and got his wife Kirsty[Maccoll] to sing on it. It was perfect: Kirsty could sing on anything
and improve it by 100 percent. I am so proud of this song.
Spider Stacy, The Pogues
The filth and the fury, the fear and the pain
It's all disappearing now
Faster than the smoke from this old train