HEROES: Shane MacGowan

Here is what Shane MacGowan used to look like:



Here is what he looks like now:



I'm not sure if the illustration from point A to B is made clear from these two images, but the general consensus about Shane MacGowan's aging is a few things a) Jesus b) Well at least he's alive c) No teeth at 50 better than the set he had before?

That's not the point though.

The first time I ever really cared about the Pogues was last year when I saw them on St. Patrick's day. This is some of the most fun I have ever had at a show, and one of the best crowds I've ever been with (this was after I was really disappointed by the Cribs, who I still love, but inherited some really shitty 18 yr old fans the last time I saw them). And while this was a great tra la dancing time, it is amazing that the same voice, almost completely unchanged from how he sounded on the records, is this fuckin' guy who looks like Darth Vader with his helmet off (Shaun Ryder from the Mondays has got the same deal going on). I saw him totter onto the stage completely glazed over with a very ill advised mad hatter top hat like a wreck of a human being. Shane's done a few recent tours with the Pogues and the Popes from a wheelchair, not cos he hurt his legs, but because he is generally too drunk to stand. They'd wheel him out, plop him in front of a mic, and then he'd go.

So I saw him shuffle forward and was amazed that he was walking, and then he grabs the mic and you can close your eyes and just hear the Pogues from way back when. Same quick delivery, same yeeeeowwwl screams, and then you open your eyes and there's a wreck of a man there, either geriatric or a used to be there mental patient. He's fifty and totally gone as a person, and I couldn't help but wonder last year and last night when I saw them play again, about what kind of conversations this guy has now. How he gets through his days. Is he happy that he's standing on a stage again. How is he pushing through life?

And then we go here - why are the Pogues important? Before last year I never really gave them much of a listen. They fall into a weird category alongside of a lot of punk rock acts of the early 80s but you wouldn't ever call them contemporaries of any punk rock acts in 80s (this is a please correct me situation, obviously I wasn't alive then). Elvis Costello produced Rum, Sodomy and If I Should Fall From Grace, Shane has sung with Nick Cave, throw in Billy Bragg, obviously influenced by the Clash and fuckin' hell Joe Strummer was a post- Shane Pogue? but they don't fall into any "movement" categories, like NY punk, LA punk, DC hardcore, or anything like that BUT I would still call them punk rock - so how this? Take away the commitment to aesthetic (which gets really old) and give me the commitment to chaos. It doesn't have to be getting fucked up, or fucking other people up, or fucking the system, but an in general "things fucked up" idea. This all being said, I think I've hit my fuck quota for this one, so we'll work on some other words.***

And why this, why this punk rock? Shane MacGowan. I know the rest of the Pogues are great musicians, and I'm sure could fit in well in any other trad Irish session. The Pogues are punk rock because of Shane. After seeing so many people die in rock and roll over the past fifty years, after seeing so many people die from drugs and booze throughout the course of history, it is amazing to see modern desperate alcoholics and the tragic genius cases in general (Doherty, eyes on you). But it ain't the booze - it's the poetry. Shane MacGowan has written lyrics that do that gutter/stars straddle that Irish poets and writers have always been so incredible at. We live in absolute shit, but we are still alive. This is romanticizing vomit and digging ditches, but not glorifying it as what you should strive for. This is what IS, and this is what we do.

From the time he wrote these lyrics until now, Shane just fell down over and over again and I can't figure out what is left. So like a fucking jackass, in the middle of a near depression, having just come back from vacation, I just bought an eighty dollar ticket to see the Pogues again tonight. We'll find a way to cut back on something else. This is rock and roll. And if you have a chance, please go see the Pogues before Shane falls off the cliff for good. You will have a good time, guaranteed.




****FOOTNOTE - The Pogues fall into a weird category in general, because it's rock and roll and traditional Irish music but not in the stupid fucking way the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly are. Stupid fucking way in that there's something that has annoyed me always about the mentality of the American Irish compared to you know, the actual Irish from Ireland. Us and our identity crises and all. The bigger reason is that I assume that most Flogging/Dropkick fans are also Red Sox fans, so, so fucking there.