Shane MacGowan ... who was he?

[WickedPerdition]

I'm sorry to go against popular opinion, whatever that means these days, but I, for one, cannot rate Shane MacGowan as one of music's legends or icons, judging from what I have ever seen or heard of him.
He was, apparently, the lead singer of The Pogues, a group who had ONE, single chart song, 'Fairytale of New York', which wasn't even considered a worthy contender as 'the greatest Christmas song of all time' until some 20 years after it was released.
Even that can be readily disputed.
I cannot understand how or why he was given so much television coverage in view of his relatively minor role in the history of popular music.
Like all the charities reaching out at Christmas, it would appear to have hit the populist nerve opportunistically, in my esteemed opinion.

 

[Kev45]

Haters will be haters, and in no particular order.

Surviving Pogues, Jem Finer, Terry Woods, Spider Stacy, and James Fearnley, Paul Weller the Modfather, rock Gods U2, folk legend Billy Bragg, Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, Nick Cave, Tim Burgess, Glen Hansard, Bob Geldoff, the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, Lisa O’Neill, Lankum, the Mary Wallopers, and John Francis Flynn and countless other current songwriters, poets, and wordsmiths.

(via Google).

All paid tribute to Shane MacGowan's extraordinary life.

Described by the New York Times as "a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life."

"Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called MacGowan "an amazing musician and artist" whose songs "beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad".

"...He never set himself up as a poet of the working class: what he wrote about, again and again, was a kind of underclass of outcasts (“the junkies, the drunks, the pimps, the whores”, as The Boys from the County Hell put it), a subsection of society in which people from all walks of life can end up. He wrote about its inhabitants with a startling empathy and tenderness, drawing the listener into their stories: the dying rent boy of The Old Main Drag, who’s been “shat on and spat on and raped and abused”; the drunk, pitifully spilling out his story of lost love and war in A Pair of Brown Eyes; the dissipated, quarrelling couple in the deathless Fairytale of New York, surely the most improbable subject for a perennial Christmas hit in history. “I’m very, very aware that there but for the grace of God go I,” he once suggested. “I’m just lucky. Because I’m no different from them. I just get to behave like they do in front of 24,000 people, that’s all."

Shane MacGowan: the poet-musician of dereliction who became a mythic figure

The former Pogues frontman created, for a brief period, songs of incisive beauty before addiction led to his ejection from the band, although his genius shone once more with the Popes

www.theguardian.com

Father Pat Gilbert conducting the funeral ceremony paid tribute to "a poet, lyricist, singer, trailblazer" who "reflected life as lived in our time, calling out accepted norms that often times appear unacceptable".

"Kevin Sexton, from Co Fermanagh, said MacGowan opened doors for Irish people living in England.

"He made Irish people proud to be Irish at a time in London when it was a very difficult time to be Irish," he said. "The Troubles were in full tilt. A lot of terrible things happened.

"Shane MacGowan opened doors. He introduced Irish culture and his own unique writing ability and voice and style that opened up a mix of Irish music plus rock plus punk, his whole unique persona transformed into song that enlightened the world."

Shane MacGowan funeral: Pogues songs including Fairytale Of New York ring out as mourners say goodbye

Mourners in Dublin gathered in the morning as Shane MacGowan's cortege passed through the city's streets, before travelling to Nenagh, Co Tipperary, for the funeral service, attended by stars including Johnny Depp and Nick Cave in the afternoon.

news.sky.com

You either understood the much bigger picture, understood what Shane McGowan was all about, understood his songwriting, or you didn't understand.

What a life! What a send-off! RIP Shame McGowan.

 

[Raining_Roses]

I'm sorry to go against popular opinion, whatever that means these days, but I, for one, cannot rate Shane MacGowan as one of music's legends or icons, judging from what I have ever seen or heard of him.
He was, apparently, the lead singer of The Pogues, a group who had ONE, single chart song, 'Fairytale of New York', which wasn't even considered a worthy contender as 'the greatest Christmas song of all time' until some 20 years after it was released.
Even that can be readily disputed.
I cannot understand how or why he was given so much television coverage in view of his relatively minor role in the history of popular music.
Like all the charities reaching out at Christmas, it would appear to have hit the populist nerve opportunistically, in my esteemed opinion.

I’m surprised you apologised before going against popular opinion- are you feeling okay??

In the world of Irish music (and in Ireland generally), MacGowan was regarded as a musical genius for his poetic depiction of Irish working-class life and history. When I was younger, I was pummelled with The Pogues, as well as The Dubliners and a crap load of Irish rebel music, and storytelling through music is a part of the fundamental structure of Irish culture.

The Irish hate pretention; heirs and graces will grant you no favours when trying to relate to the Irish, and MacGowan gave no offer of pretence, no celebrity. He related to the man in the pub, the labourer, the drunken husband and he wrote of family, heartbreak, anger and history that every Irish family could understand. He had his demons- like every man- and he wasn’t afraid to pour them into his poetry.

He was much more than ‘Fairytale of New York’- as was Kirsty MacColl. You must be forgetting the duet with The Dubliners- The Irish Rover- which charted at number 8 in the UK and number 1 in Ireland in ‘87. They had a few numbers in Ireland, if I recall. There is also the brilliant, Dirty Old Town, which never made the charts, but is a spine tingler.

It’s his wife that started campaigning for it become number 1 in the UK, because it only reached number 2, so of course, as the public do on a celebrity death, they follow the routine of making them number one.

Pretty sure it happened the year after George Michael died too with Last Christmas.

 

[WickedPerdition]

Actually, you're quite correct; I have NO reason to apologise at all.
And, in spite of yours or anyone else's protests, I will not change my mind.

 

[WickedPerdition]

What a life! What a send-off! RIP Shame McGowan.

I suppose that you could be forgiven for what must be an embarrassing Freudian slip.

 

[Kev45]

I suppose that you could be forgiven for what must be an embarrassing Freudian slip.

I don't find it embarrassing at all, unlike you, I am not perfect. I won't edit it now because I simply don't need to nor want to.

Unlike you, who, in main chat, immediately corrects every single one of your multiple typo's, depending on how pissed you are, and all while you patiently lurk waiting to call out other chatters on their typo's.

I don't view "popular music" through the prism of "greatest Christmas hits", unlike you, and I also understand that the best art is often treated with disdain, suspicion and shunned by the mainstream.

Now off you fu/ck and go and play some Bay City Rollers to remind yourself that you once had a 30-inch waist during your heyday in the 70s.

And, in spite of yours or anyone else's protests, I will not change my mind.

No one gives a toss what your opinion is, or isn't, simply because, clearly, you are not qualified to comment.

 

[WickedPerdition]

1. I don't find it embarrassing at all, unlike you, I am not perfect. I won't edit it now because I simply don't need to nor want to.

2. Unlike you, who, in main chat, immediately corrects every single one of your multiple typo's, depending on how pissed you are, and all while you patiently lurk waiting to call out other chatters on their typo's.

3. I don't view "popular music" ....

4. No one gives a toss what your opinion is, or isn't, simply because, clearly, you are not qualified to comment.

1. You just dare not admit it but I know, deep down inside, you are seething.

2. For God's sake, when are you people going to learn how to use correct plurals! Not to mention correctly use apostrophes.

3. It's called popular music, whether you like it or not. Otherwise, it would quite probably be called unpopular music. A bit like The Pogues, uh?

4. For some extraordinary reason, you continue to reply to all my postings even if they don't personally concern you. The irony is quite risible.

Remember Bad_Influence? He must have badly influenced you.

I rest my case, m'lud.

 

[Kev45]

1. You just dare not admit it but I know, deep down inside, you are seething.

Pfftt, I am a grown up, elderly men who strut about like hormonal teenagers, really don't/can't make me seethe.

2. For God's sake, when are you people going to learn how to use correct plurals! Not to mention correctly use apostrophes.

Rightio, Mr Beige, now so deeply ingrained/entrenched in your online persona, so much time invested, that unfortunately it has become your reality.

It's called popular music, whether you like it or not. Otherwise, it would quite probably be called unpopular music. A bit like The Pogues, uh?

You won't have heard of him, but William Shakespeare was once considered "unpopular" and also at various other points during his life, and actually became more "popular" after his death.

See what I did there?

I have never been a mainstream top 40 drone, unlike you, so please, you Stick to S Club 7, and I'll stick with the Pogues.

For some extraordinary reason, you continue to reply to all my postings even if they don't personally concern you. The irony is quite risible.

Says an elderly man who has been trying to give me (and failing) a wedgie for years. The actual irony, another concept that you just don't understand, is that you are not in control here, and you are far too arrogant to understand this.

Remember Bad_Influence? He must have badly influenced you.

Christopher isn't all that far away, but of course your head is so far up your own arse that you are incapable of observing your own surroundings.

 

[WickedPerdition]

I'm sorry to go against popular opinion, whatever that means these days, but I, for one, cannot rate Shane MacGowan as one of music's legends or icons, judging from what I have ever seen or heard of him.
He was, apparently, the lead singer of The Pogues, a group who had ONE, single chart song, 'Fairytale of New York', which wasn't even considered a worthy contender as 'the greatest Christmas song of all time' until some 20 years after it was released.
Even that can be readily disputed.
I cannot understand how or why he was given so much television coverage in view of his relatively minor role in the history of popular music.
Like all the charities reaching out at Christmas, it would appear to have hit the populist nerve opportunistically, in my esteemed opinion.

I am surprised, and might I also say, at this point in time, extremely disappointed with the lack of response to what I anticipated complete outrage at my summary of the recently departed 'pop legend', Shane MacGowan.
Perhaps the silent majority either agree with me or they don't care enough to retaliate with their hollow valedictions?
It's just as well I only cited Shane MacGowan.
There are just far too many 'legends' dying recently.

 

[Raining_Roses]

Actually, you're quite correct; I have NO reason to apologise at all.
And, in spite of yours or anyone else's protests, I will not change my mind.

Why do you think I wanted to change your mind? I was simply correcting your assumption that he was little more than 'Fairy Tale of New York' and giving a rationale as to why there was a push for it to be number 1 in the UK.

Musical preference is personal. I'm sure one day, someone will try to convince me that Status Quo were real musicians, but I won't see it and I won't change my mind that they should have stuck to working men's clubs.

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

Have to admit I only know Shane McGowan from singing Fairytale of New York. And if that song does get to number 1, it will be a welcome
change from Ladbaby bastardising yet another good song at Christmas.

 

[Kev45]

Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill perform Fairytale of New York at Shane MacGowan’s funeral in Nenagh​

 

[Kev45]

No one, no one at all, celebrates the life of the dead like the Irish.

 

[WickedPerdition]