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style is. There are strings of references both to his Irish heritage and his London surroundings and on CD you get to appreciate that in full.

One of the highlights of the album, for me, follows. "Boys From The County Hell" is another tale of drinking, fighting and general mayhem. A fast paced folk white knuckle ride with some haunting whistle playing soloing throughout the song from Spider Stacey and the most memorable chorus of;

"Lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink
And mother wake me early in the morning"

It has been said that this song was arranged in ten minutes and it does sound like it. That is not a derogatory remark, I mean that there is nothing here that can be regarded as superfluous, and everything is simple, considered and necessary to the song. No flash musical egos at work just musicians that know the art of writing a good song. The Pogues always had something to say politically and here reference fall out of every line, be it about the famous Irish Blueshirts, the My Lai massacre in Vietnam or the Spanish Civil War, these may appear simple drinking songs but under the surface hi-jinks is a keen observer of the modern world and some very intricate and interesting reference points. Poguetry in motion? Well maybe not. "Dark Streets of London" is a deeply personal tale and one of the first original songs to work its way into the bands set at a time when they mainly did covers. A mid tempo jig that sits as a nice balance to the other extremes the album has to offer. Another early song is "Streams of Whiskey" a story that alludes to Flann O' Briens farcical tale of a mountain with a stream of whiskey flowing from it and also saying something about alcoholism in general and its close association with so many Irish writers. In fact with so many literary references being littered about from Joyce to Beckett and a host of others, the mental picture of McGowan as a drunken paddy is shattered for a more noble and flawed romantic, at least in the eyes of those that take time out to see what he is singing about.

Other highlights are the chaotic free for all "Down in the Ground Where the Dead men go" and the traditional "Greenland Whale Fisheries" .If you manage to get your hands on the re-mastered version however you are treated to a number of excellent bonus tracks. There is a raw version of Eric Bogle's "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" a chilling account of a young Australian soldier caught up in the horrors of Gallipoli. The band was to revisit it on the album "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, (your next purchase incidentally) and it has been covered buy numerous folk luminaries not least of which is June Tabor. A simple tune and a steady rhythm add to the intensity of the vocals but by the second album for this song alone for a masterly and powerful rendition, not that the one here is too bad.

Nineteen songs appear on the re-released version and treat you to a time when the Pogues were a breath of fresh air in the increasingly fashion conscious post punk era of the mid eighties. Buy it, play it load and dance like there is no tomorrow. It may be folk music essentially but its folk music that goes for the jugular.

Learn more about this author, Dave Franklin.
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