Upcoming Lyrics. The Pogues' 1985 sophomore album, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, helped turn "Dirty Old Town" into an anthem known across Europe and beyond, but the ballad's roots stretch back to the budding folk movement of the 1950s. “I’d really like to get him to sing a song with us,” lead singer Shane MacGowan had told a British magazine. There are references to Jack Dempsey, the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. Last year at a gig in Los Angeles, he met actress Danielle Von Zerneck, who played Donna in the film La Bamba. Like the tunes on this list dedicated to Irish moonshine, the song "Jug of Punch" sings the praises of a specific kind of alcoholic beverage. I had my first bottle of Guinness when I was six, my first bottle of whiskey when I was seven. The band, these wags said, seemed to be testing life without Shane. There are over 600 here. Actually, according to the band’s biography, MacGowan gave up whiskey long ago to slow damage to his liver. The next day you will feel terrible. Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. And Carolin.” Carolin, it seems, was an 18th-century Irish harp player who went blind in his twenties and wrote many traditional melodies that MacGowan has adapted for songs such as “London, You’re a Lady” and “The Broad, Majestic Shannon.”, “He’s like the Irish Mozart,” says MacGowan, “but he’s never been recognized.” As MacGowan tells it, Carolin lived to the ripe old age–for those days–of 58. The playing, which encompasses such diverse instruments as the hurdy-gurdy, the cittern and the mandola, is faultless and stirring. Receive news and offers from our other brands? Notable versions: The Dubliners, 1968; The Pogues, 1985; Mountain Goats, 2002. Anyone fancy a pint? This is a joke.

Indeed, it's no wonder that more than 60 years after an Englishman wrote the tune, it remains a definitive Irish ballad for many. Slipknot are coming for you, Enslaved: “‘Sacred’ is a word people have a problem with. There’s too much riding on it to go fiddling with stuff like that for me and for most of the people onstage as well.”, “The only reason we’re still together after all these years,” says Hunt, popping a clove, “is garlic.”, Backstage at Boston’s cavernous, ghostly opera house, the Pogues look ready for the wedding, their lapels boasting red roses that a fan has given them. Leave feedback, The Pogues is a Celtic punk band from London, formed in 1982 and fronted by. When asked what he feels about this, he replies, “Nothing.”, “I have no ambitions,” he says. When crack hits London, that’s it.

I was glad, really proud. Andrew Ranken is whipping his hands around in the air, loosening up his wrists for the two hours of heavy walloping ahead. Sign up for our newsletter. “A band is like anything else,” he says. On its surface, this ballad set in the southern mountains of Ireland is a simple tale of a robbery gone wrong.

“I tend to remain solitary,” he says.

After the ship bounds the seas for years, a case of the measles breaks out, and the crew is reduced to two: the narrator and the captain's dog. Everyone from Bob Dylan to Elliott Smith has offered modern versions of the tune. Simply brilliant. With albums titles like Sonic Brew, Hangover Music Vol VI, and Alcohol Fueled Brewtality Live!! One of two tributes to Irish moonshine on this list, "The Moonshiner" has a muddy history, with different factions claiming it both as an American and an Irish folk song. Looking on, MacGowan laughs his gravelly ch-ch-ch-ch. The main narrative aside, the popular drinking song ends with a stirring character study. From AC/DC to Dead Kennedys, these are the very best songs about getting getting those drinks in. Both Irish outfits put their definitive stamps on MacColl's tune, investing the imagery of factory walls and old canals with a degree of lyricism and meaning. Like the lead character in "Whiskey In the Jar," the narrator is an unrepentant lover of alcohol. Drunk. Drinking makes me see things clearly.”, He drinks more these days, he says, “because I’m rich–and I haven’t got enough money to buy a racehorse.” The band’s efforts to dry him out haven’t gone unnoticed. Despite its title, one is unlikely to raise a great deal of hell whilst listening to this ZZ Top classic of 1973, particularly if you happen to be listening to it on the Tres Hombres album from whence it came. Presented below is the Big Rock Candy Mountain/Barstool Mountain Top 100 Drinking Songs list in all it's full, uninterrupted glory. I’ve been on the road a long time, and it fucking ages ya. In 1981, MacGowan, who had fronted a punk band called the Nipple Erectors (“the Nips”), Peter “Spider” Stacy, a car salesman on the dole, and Finer, who was teaching computers to adults, found themselves onstage in a London bar called Cabaret Futura, playing Sex Pistols-inspired versions of traditional folk songs. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Tales were circulated that MacGowan had been spending nights in London’s acid-house clubs–that he’d tried to get the band to record a new 20-minute acid-style composition he called “You’ve Got to Connect Yourself” and that his difficulties had delayed the album by a month. Notable versions: Wolfe Tones, 1991, The Larkin Brothers and Terry Moran, 2001. In one hand he clasps a rose; in the other, a bottle of chardonnay. In the most popular versions of the 17th century tune, the robber falls asleep and wakes to find the Captain waiting outside his chamber, tipped off by a treacherous woman, a wife or girlfriend alternatively named Molly, Jenny or Ginny. In the decades since it first appeared in songbooks in the 1850s, however, the song has become an anthem for alcohol. But I think human beings should be allowed to do what they want as long as they don’t harm another human being.”, MacGowan says he has no life outside the band to speak of. All rights reserved. A biography, The Pogues: The Lost Decade, is rife with tales of brawling, passing out, throwing up and falling down stairs.

Generic "Best of Ireland" compilations abound in outlet stores, on iTunes and even on racks in gas stations, collections that feature anonymous artists playing generic versions of traditional Celtic tunes. Originally penned in 1916 by Edward Harrigan and Dave Braham to accompany the drama "The Blackbird," the song developed into a loving tribute to Irish moonshine, aka poitín. “I am going, I am going, any which way the wind may be blowing,” MacGowan sings, tossing the roses into the crowd.

"And if I'm drunk then my money is me own and them don't like me can leave me alone.".