THE POGUES

(Part One - Early Years)

All of The Pogues’ albums were reissued a couple years back, each with six or seven bonus tracks. Fantastic. If you don’t yet own them, go buy them now. All those Celtic-punk bands out there now (Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, etc.), they got it all from The Pogues. This is essential music.

But, the remasters didn’t include everything by the band. I’m here to mind the gaps.

Here’s a few things they missed:

The Pogues - “The Boys from the County Hell” (single version). The same music as the album version, but the words are cleaned up for radio play. They didn’t bleep, or mute the many many bad words. Instead, Shane re-wrote the offending bits, so the landlord who was once “a miserable bollocks, and a bitch’s bastard’s whore” is now “a miserable skin-flint, an affliction and a sore”, and so on.
The Pogues - “Danny Boy” (Peel Session, 1984). They did several Peel Sessions in the early days, this is the only song that they never released a regular version of. Alright, that’s not exactly true. There is a version of it on the Straight To Hell soundtrack (buy), but that’s an A Capella version, led by Cait O’Riordan, this is a full band version, with Shane on lead vocals.
The Pogues - “London Girl” (rough mix). “London Girl” was released on the Poguetry In Motion EP, now on the Rum Sodomy and the Lash remaster. This is an early mix of the track.
The Pogues - “Haunted” Released on the Sid and Nancy soundtrack. Also released as a single. Cait on vocals. Later re-done by Shane and Sinead O’Connor.
The Pogues - “Hot Dogs with Everything” This was the b-side to the “Haunted” single. Never released on album. I believe it’s Spider Stacy on vocals.
The Pogues - “Junk” The second of the two tracks released on the Sid and Nancy soundtrack. (buy)

**Note: All of these tracks have been removed, due to them all being available now (in far better sound quality) on The Pogues box set, available here.

More to come later. In the meantime, pick up the remasters. Rhino issued them in the US, so they aren’t very expensive. You deserve them. Go on, treat yourself.

The Pogues Discography (Shane MacGowan years):
Red Roses For Me (1984) (buy) (brilliant)
Rum Sodomy and the Lash (1985) (buy) (even more brilliant)
Poguetry In Motion (EP) (buy)
If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1987) (buy) (one of my desert island discs)
Peace and Love (1989) (buy) (good, but not quite brilliant)
Hell’s Ditch (1990) (buy) (better than Peace, but not as good as Sodomy!?)

There’s also several Best Ofs out there, but really most of the albums don’t have any bum tracks on them, so each one is as good as a best of.