The Body Of An American

[James Murphy]

Just tweeted a bunch about this song, so I'll storify them here, where someone who cares might see them.

Body of an American by the Pogues is my favourite song. I've been listening to it for years and I'm still finding new stuff in its words.

The Cadillacs, American cars, in Ireland, with gypsy locals trying to steal them, undercutting Irish-America's blarney romanticisation.

It's an honourable boxer's wake, Jim Dwyer, a tough man, who's brown hatted immigrant mate or lover, the narrator, has travelled back with his coffin to his family.

He gets drunk with the relations and his mind wanders back over Dwyer's life, how shitty the nativists were to him, how he had to reaffirm that he was just as much an American as the rest of them "I'm a free born man of the USA" before hitting them out with a well earned clout.

Jim Dwyer became heavyweight champ in Pittsburgh but in a fight with a little Italian guy "Tiny Tartanella" in a bar who beat fuck outta him.

Dwyer tried to avoid conscription, being champ and all, but the corruption meant he went away to fight the fascists.

Remember drinking Spanish wine, and the rosary, the drink and religion that defined the lives of many. But Spanish wine is also an Irish code for military intervention, which gives it a double meaning for when he was in the service.

The Skatalites Guns of Navarone tune lift in the bridge, I've just realised, is about Dwyer's service in the war.

He thinks of Dwyer, happy to be champion in America. "I'm a freeborn man of the USA" wasn't an angry proclamation to racists then, but pride.

"This morning on the harbour/When I said goodbye to you" he's leaving, he's on the boat, sentimental, the wake's over, the family are pissed

"Fare thee well gone away/There's nothing left to say/'cept to say adieu/To your eyes as blue/As the water in the bay" I misunderstood.

It's not to the narrator's Love waiting in the US, but rather to the departed that he's leaving buried in the shores where his fathers lay.

"I'm a freeborn man of the USA" isn't said in anger or pride now but as a eulogy, the words of the dead echoing as narrator boats back home.

And, despite what bigots might have said, no matter how defensive Dwyer was forced to become in his Americanness, it's there in the title of the song.

What lies on the ancient land of Ireland, with a history Uncles gave lectures on earlier, is the Body of an American. It's fucking clever.

https://twitter.com/James_Murphy_1

[James Murphy]

My read on it is, Big Jim Dwyer had no problem at all beating the champ in Pittsburgh, but then he got into a fight with a little Italian guy outside the ring at some point and got the shit kicked out of him.

He fought the champ in Pittsburgh
And he slashed him to the ground
He took on Tiny Tartanella
And it only went one round
He never had no time for reds
For drink or dice or whores
And he never threw a fight
Unless the fight was right
So they sent him to the war

This seems pretty self explanatory to me. He (Jim Dwyer) fought the champ in Pittsburgh and won. He (Jim Dwyer) fought Tiny Tartanella and the fight went for one round (and Jim Dwyer won). Jim Dwyer was a badass boxer.

These years later, I still don't share that interpretation. Firstly, I feel the delivery suggests a dramatic irony, the way Shane sings it as though there's been a reversal of expectations. Secondly, there's not a line wasted in the song, and we've already affirmed that Dwyer was a badass boxer when he bested the champ; it's an unnecesary repetition of the point, it would add nothing to the narrative if we were still talking about boxing now we've learnt he was at the top of his game. We'd learn more about Big Jim if this couplet was about his life outside the ring and poetically uses the language of the sport to describe a barroom brawl. Of course, this is based on my feelings and has zero in the way of evidence within the text.

[moksa]

Hi all. This has been bothering me a lot lately: What does he mean by "The man of wire"? Surely it's not a referece to Dwyer's physique, but what then?

[DzM]

Hi all. This has been bothering me a lot lately: What does he mean by "The man of wire"? Surely it's not a referece to Dwyer's physique, but what then?

Welp - I suspect that it's not actually "the man of wire." I think that was a transcription error on my part twenty years ago, and it's remarkable to see how far and wide that lyric has got.

I THINK the correct lyric is:

"And to Big Jim Dwyer, the Man of War
Who was often heard to say..."

That makes a bit more sense in context of the larger lyric.

[Low D]

Hi all. This has been bothering me a lot lately: What does he mean by "The man of wire"? Surely it's not a referece to Dwyer's physique, but what then?

Welp - I suspect that it's not actually "the man of wire." I think that was a transcription error on my part twenty years ago, and it's remarkable to see how far and wide that lyric has got.

I THINK the correct lyric is:

"And to Big Jim Dwyer, the Man of War
Who was often heard to say..."

That makes a bit more sense in context of the larger lyric.

Although, given the importance of this song to the TV show "The Wire", it's something to consider...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVznnoptsmM

[firehazard]

Hi all. This has been bothering me a lot lately: What does he mean by "The man of wire"? Surely it's not a referece to Dwyer's physique, but what then?

Welp - I suspect that it's not actually "the man of wire." I think that was a transcription error on my part twenty years ago, and it's remarkable to see how far and wide that lyric has got.

I THINK the correct lyric is:

"And to Big Jim Dwyer, the Man of War
Who was often heard to say..."

That makes a bit more sense in context of the larger lyric.

Not sure about that, DzM. It always sounds far more like "wire" than "war". And Shane's lyrics are normally pretty much on-the-spot with the internal rhymes within lines - "Dwyer" and "wire" works a lot better from that point of view.

[DzM]

Welp - I suspect that it's not actually "the man of wire." I think that was a transcription error on my part twenty years ago, and it's remarkable to see how far and wide that lyric has got.

I THINK the correct lyric is:

"And to Big Jim Dwyer, the Man of War
Who was often heard to say..."

That makes a bit more sense in context of the larger lyric.

Not sure about that, DzM. It always sounds far more like "wire" than "war". And Shane's lyrics are normally pretty much on-the-spot with the internal rhymes within lines - "Dwyer" and "wire" works a lot better from that point of view.

I can't recall where I sourced the lyric from, but I do recall transcribing an awful lot of them by playing one second, jumping back, playing it again.

On the studio recording Shane's pronunciation sounds (at 2:53-2:54), to my ear, to be somewhat like "woir". In some of the boots from the last several years I think he more clearly sounds like he's singing "the man of War" (which, again, makes sense in the context of the verses a few stanzas earlier).

I believe I transcribed the lyric incorrectly twenty years ago, but it seems to have passed into the public realm as the source of truth. Who am I to argue? "Man of The Wire" it shall be. McNulty was a natural po-lice.

[firehazard]

Welp - I suspect that it's not actually "the man of wire." I think that was a transcription error on my part twenty years ago, and it's remarkable to see how far and wide that lyric has got.

I THINK the correct lyric is:

"And to Big Jim Dwyer, the Man of War
Who was often heard to say..."

That makes a bit more sense in context of the larger lyric.

Not sure about that, DzM. It always sounds far more like "wire" than "war". And Shane's lyrics are normally pretty much on-the-spot with the internal rhymes within lines - "Dwyer" and "wire" works a lot better from that point of view.

I can't recall where I sourced the lyric from, but I do recall transcribing an awful lot of them by playing one second, jumping back, playing it again.

On the studio recording Shane's pronunciation sounds (at 2:53-2:54), to my ear, to be somewhat like "woir". In some of the boots from the last several years I think he more clearly sounds like he's singing "the man of War" (which, again, makes sense in the context of the verses a few stanzas earlier).

I believe I transcribed the lyric incorrectly twenty years ago, but it seems to have passed into the public realm as the source of truth. Who am I to argue? "Man of The Wire" it shall be. McNulty was a natural po-lice.

The rhyming's always been the thing that clinched it for me. But I'd also thought of the "man of wire" meaning that if you knocked him down he'd spring back into place again. Does that make sense? Does wire actually do that?

And I remember doing a lot of that tricky listening and rewinding when I was trying to transcribe the unreleased stuff on the Just Look 'Em Straight in the Eye... box set. There's a project that needs returning to one day...

[kmurray105]

Perhaps he was referring to the ropes surrounding the ring.

[Fr. McGreer]

Wow, just been reading back through this entire thread. I really miss the days when having been a fan of The Pogues (for 20 years at that stage) to then be part of an online community of like minded souls to share these theories.

Reading Phro37's post again, he really put his passion for Body Of An American into his brilliantly vivid interpretation. It doesn't matter if he's right or wrong. It's only important to him. Likewise James Murphy, Eric V and all the other missing raft mates.

[Kilmichael]

Wow, just been reading back through this entire thread. I really miss the days when having been a fan of The Pogues (for 20 years at that stage) to then be part of an online community of like minded souls to share these theories.

Reading Phro37's post again, he really put his passion for Body Of An American into his brilliantly vivid interpretation. It doesn't matter if he's right or wrong. It's only important to him. Likewise James Murphy, Eric V and all the other missing raft mates.

Amen. I guess the inactivity of the band has lead to the inactivity on the board. Sad.