Latest / DISGRACELAND / Shane MacGowan: Outsiders, Underdogs, and Christmas Eve in the Drunk Tank

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Shane MacGowan: Outsiders, Underdogs, and Christmas Eve in the Drunk Tank · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: story of an underdog and it's the story of a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: drug dealing juvenile, an acid eating Irish drunk and a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: rivalry with Elvis. It's the story of Shane McGowan, but
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it's also the story of one of maybe the greatest
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Christmas songs ever written. Great music, unlike that music I
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: played for you at the top of the show. That
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: melotron called no Teeth All Soul MK one. I played
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you that loop because I can't afford the rights to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Mony Money by Billy Idel. And why would I play
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you that specific slice fist clenching, fist pumping, finger pointing cheese.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: song in America on November twenty third, nineteen eighty seven,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And that was the day the Pogues released their single
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: fairy Tale of New York, an unorthodox Christmas song co
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: written by a man born on Christmas Day and a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: song that served as a turning point both good and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: bad for Sheen McGowan on this episode. An Underdog's Tale,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Acid eating drunk, Madness, Arrivalry with Elvis and Sheen McGowan.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this this Disgraceland.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Do you hear what I hear? Sleigh bells ringing, Yule
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Tide carolers singing. It's that time again, the Christmas season,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: which means it's Christmas song season. Songs that are everywhere,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: songs that have been everywhere for weeks already. And listen,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I love Christmas songs as much as the next guy.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But for some of you psychopaths, you've been decking the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: hall since the annual thawing of Mariah Carey began way
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: back before Halloween. Now, if you think we are obsessed
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with Christmas music here in the United States, across the Pond,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: they have an entire singles chart dedicated to it. It's
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: called the Christmas Number One, a chart that measures the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: most popular single in the UK during the week of Christmas.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: In the past, the Christmas Number one has gone to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody and Do They Know It's Christmas
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: by the charity supergroup Band Aid. I should mention that
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the song doesn't have to be Christmas seemed, but often
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: they are. In nineteen fifty seven. The Christmas Number one
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was Mary's Boy Child by Harry Belafonte. It was crowned
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: so on December twenty fifth of that year, the very
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: same day that Shane McGowan was born in Kent, England,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: just as Queen Elizabeth was making her first televised Christmas
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: broadcast to her royal subjects. Not among them were Shane's
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Irish parents, who had emigrated to England not to serve
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: her majesty, but to seek out opportunities lacking back home.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Back home for Shane's mother specifically, was an idyllic slice
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of Irish countryside County Tipperary called the Commons, where they
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: sang traditional Irish songs about the good life and the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: good Word, about drinking, and about rebellion, God and the devil,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the sacred and the profane, all mixed into one. For
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: young Shane McGowan, the Commons was the most sacred thing
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: on this planet. Going back there on holiday and running
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: around the fields, the big Elm Tree, the old barn,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: It was the greatest thing ever. Leaving England, returning to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the place of his ancestors, connecting with his heritage. To Shane,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: a kid born on Christmas, going to the Commons was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: better than Christmas. Back in England, first in Kent and
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: later when his family moved to London. Young Shane McGowan
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: was a mischievous little boy at Westminster School. As in
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Westminster Abbey, the place where no less than six of
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: England's prime ministers were educated, Shane was part of a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: complex web of drug dealers, procuring heroin, cocaine, acid and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: mescaline for other school kids. The goods were sourced from
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: London's West End, specifically from known associates of Charlie Cray,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: older brother to Ronnie and Reggie Cray aka the Cray Twins,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: infamous gangsters, racketeers, degenerate gamblers who'd recently been convicted of
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: murder along with their big brother Charlie. Though Charlie, Ronnie
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and Reggie were behind bars, their legacy was being carried
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: on by even the tiniest cogs in the criminal wheel,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: like Shane McGowan, who couldn't help but live his law
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: breaking life in the shadow of the brothers Cray. Shane
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: lived that life as an outsider, as an underdog. He
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: was self conscious of his big years and of his
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: fucked up teeth. He was a proud Irishman in England
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: at a time when being so and voicing your support
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: for the IRA during the so called troubles have back
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in the homeland, which Shane did do was extremely dangerous.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: He got his face pounded more than once for how
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: he looked, for what he said and for what he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: believed in. He found solace first in grass and then
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: in LSD, and later in the music of other outsiders
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: and underdogs like the MC five, the Stooges and Johnny Thunders.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: That raw, authentic rock and roll was Shane's soundtrack to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: not one, but at least two expulsions from different schools,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and then to an expulsion from reality itself, a non
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: stop binge of pills and acids, suddenly manifesting disturbing hallucinations,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: walking nightmares, faces and figures on the wall of his
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: bedroom there to feast on every one of his insecurities.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Shane feasted two on more drugs that he refused to sleep.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: At the tender age of seventeen, he was to a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: psychiatric hospital. When he got out, he was clean for
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the moment. One of the first things he did was
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: go to a concert so he could bask in the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: healing properties of the music that he loved. It was
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five and the band performing that night was
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the One O one Ers, fronted by the great Joe Strummer,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: who would soon go on to form The Clash. Shane
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: was blown away, but not by Joe's band, by the Opener,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: a band of outsider misfits calling themselves the Sex Pistols.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: The pistols confrontational sound, how they took the piss and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: gave zero fox. It all spoke so clearly to young
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Shane McGowan. Punk rock didn't care about his ears. Punk
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: rock didn't care about his teeth. Punk rock didn't care
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: about his nationality or his political beliefs either. It was
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the commons back in Ireland, but being a punk was
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: as close as Shane McGowan could get to that Christmas feeling.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Punk rock inspired Shane to form the band They initially
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: called the New Republicans, and they soon changed their name
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: to Pogue Mahone, which is Gaelic for kiss my Arse,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and then finally to simply the Pogues. The band was
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: rooted in traditional Irish music, but just as the Pistols
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: had done to rock and roll, gave it a swift
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: kick in the ass. Led by Shane's poetic gutter speak.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: The Pogues played songs of rebellion and redemption, drinking songs
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and ballads alike, and the sacred and the profane so
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: close to Shane's heart, but they did it all with
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the energy and attitude of punk. While they were well
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: received by critics and peers when their debut album Read
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Roses for Me it was released on Stiff Records in
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, they remained outsiders and underdogs, and this
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: was a time, remember when the musical landscape was dominated
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: by big guitarists, big synthcisors, and even bigger hair. Into
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: this landscape, the Pogues dared to play banjos, accordions and
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: tin whistles. But Shane McGown could handle it being the underdog,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: just like he had handled getting his ass kicked, or
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: rubbing elbows with associates of the Cray Brothers, or are
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: getting expelled from school, suffering hallucinations, hospitalized only to be
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: reborn by the sound and fury of Johnny Rotten. Shane
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: knew firsthand that life was not like one of those
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: sentimental Christmas songs that took over the airways every year
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: during the month of his birth. He knew that life
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: was more like the best of Christmas songs, the ones
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that at their core are sad laments, songs full of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: heartache and regret, of longing for something that was gone forever,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: or maybe was never there in the first place. These
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: songs elicited the same feeling Shane gout when he was
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: lonesome for the comments back in Ireland. I'm talking about
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: songs like I'll be home for Christmas, you know if
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: only in my dreams, or Darlene loves Christmas. And this
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: is the important part of the title, Baby Please Come Home.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Shane was reminded that life was like the best of
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: those gloomy Christmas songs. Every time he was reminded of
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: a status as the underdog, and he was reminded of
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: this again in nineteen eighty four, just as the Pogues
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: were taking off, when a fellow musician previously thought to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: be the Pogue's champion turned into an unwitting rival, and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: through that rivalry inspired Shane McGown to write the biggest
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: song of his life. October twelfth, nineteen eighty four, Brighton, England,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It was after midnight when English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and her husband Dennis returned to the Napoleon Suite at
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the Brighton Grand Hotel. Though she had spent all day
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: at the Conservative Party Congress, Thatcher had no intention of
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: going to bed. She planned to work well into the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: wee hours of the morning, while blearyad members of her
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: staff tried their best to keep up. Thatcher had served
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: as Prime Minister since nineteen seventy nine. She was a
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: divisive leader. To put it mildly. Especially critical of her
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: policies were the Irish, who for years had been caught
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: up in their own violence struggle for identity and independence. Many,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: like Jerry Adams of shinfein the political arm of the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Irish Republican Army, found Thatcher to be an abusive tyrant
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: who regularly sanctioned discrimination, political censorship, even murder. Many artists
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: in the UK's thriving new wave and ska scenes were
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: dissenting as well, with songs like The Specials ghost Town
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and The Beats Stand Down Margaret taking direct aim tonight. However,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a song aimed at Margaret Thatcher Tonight. Something
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: far more deadly than a catchy melody was waiting to attack.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: It was nearly three am. Thatcher had just emerged from
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the hotel suite's bathroom when suddenly there was an enormous
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: explosion from above. Thatcher felt her knees go weak as
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the entire building seemed to sway. The explosion gave way
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: to a loud, ominous rumble. It was coming from many
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: floors above her room, but it seemed to be getting closer.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Then it was moving fast. Plaster from the ceiling shook
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: loose and fell to the floor. Thatcher's team was scrambling.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Thatcher too, her husband Dennis, rudely awakened and stumbling around
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: in a daze. The noise was getting louder, growing close
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: right above them now, the walls shaking, people screaming, And
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: then one of the hotel's old Victorian rooftop chimneys came
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: through the ceiling above them at an angle, slicing directly
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: into the bathroom where only moments before Margaret Thatcher had
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: been standing. Twenty four days earlier, a member of the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: IRA had planted one hundred pound bomb under a bathtub
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: on the sixth floor of the hotel, a spot strategically
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: chosen as it was close to an old chimney stack.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: The timer was set to go off during Thatcher's stay,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and the explosion would compromise the chimney and cause it
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to fall, collapsing through all five floors below until it
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: reached the Napoleon Suite with maximum momentum and kill Margaret
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Thatcher as she slept inside. The ploy would have worked
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: perfectly if only the chimney hadn't veered off to an angle,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: or if Thatcher had still been inside that bathroom. As
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: it happened, Thatcher survived with hardly a scratch. Not so
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: lucky were the more than thirty people inside the hotel
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: who were injured and five more who lost their lives,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: including a fifty five year old woman who was decapitated.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: A manhunt for the IRA bomb maker began immediately, but
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: first the cops made a stop in London at the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: offices of Stiff Records, the Pogues's record label, to arrest
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Shane McGown, because only nine days before the hotel bombing
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and the attempt on Thatcher's life, Shane and the Pogues
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: had performed a show in that very same city, brighton
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: a fact that the police were not willing to chalk
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: up to a coincidence. And I'll tell you why. Shane
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: McGown sang rebel songs, songs it sympathized with Ireland's republican forces,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Or so the thinking went on the part of the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: British authorities, those stiff upperloop types who equated the Pogue's
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: punk addle brand of traditional Irish music with criminal activity.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: It had to look no further than the first track
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: on the Pogue's debut album, a song called trans Metropolitan,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a song in which, during the very first verse, Shane
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: sings about getting drunk in the rosy parks of England
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and then going to where the spirits take us to
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: heaven or to hell and kick up bloody murder in
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the town we loved so well. And if that wasn't enough,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: And again this is some prim and proper random English
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: police officer talking here. Just look at the quote unquote
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: vile lyrics in this same song, piss, shite, puffs, horrors,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: queer as bastards. This is the world of Shane McGowan,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a drunken, politically motivated rabble rouser with rotting teeth and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: an attitude to match, he should be silenced by any
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: means necessary or so want to thinking. Shane meanwhile, couldn't
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: care less about what the cops in London wanted to
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: do to him. He'd dealt with worse. He'd already been
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: censored by the BBC for repeatedly saying fuck live on air,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and he had the piss beaten out of him so
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: badly by some thugs in the basement of a London
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: club that he suffered a concussion. It was on a
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: to perform the following evening. If the cops wanted him,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: they could come and find him, because right now, Shane
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: McGowan and the Pogues were on tour, and Shane had
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: more urgent problems than the cops. One problem, in particular
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: was riding on the tour bus with him a horn
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: room glasses wearing motherfucker who thought he was better than Shane.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: That guy, Elvis Costello didn't actually think he was better
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: than Shane McGown, but Shane thought Elvis thought he was
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: better than Shane McGowan because everyone around them, including Shane's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: own band, put Elvis on a pedestal, reminding Shane once
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: again of his underdog status. Elvis Costello was the star
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: assigned to a major label, not Shane. Elvis Costello was
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the angry young man bridging the gap between the punks
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and the new wave, not Shane. The only reason the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Pogues were playing bigger venues, playing sessions for the influential
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: BBC disc chockey John Peel, playing Channel four, hiring a
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: real manager and so on, was because Elvis Costello hand
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: picked them to open his tour with his band The Attractions,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: in support of their latest album, Goodbye Cruel World. But
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Shane knew that Elvis had an ulterior motive. Sure, Elvis
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: liked the Pogues, but Elvis liked the Pogue's bass player,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: cat O Reardon with their spiky hair and sid Vicia
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: sneer even better. Never mind that Elvis was thirty and
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Caught was just nineteen. It just rubbed Shane the wrong way,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: watching the bespectacled star the Pogues's meal ticket, as it were,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: get all handsy with his friend and ban me. So
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Shane reacted in his own mischievous way. He and the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: guys in the band painted Ira slogans on Elvis's coats
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and tour bus, and they drank all Elvis's booze, and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: they even poured sand into the keyboards belonging to the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: attraction Steve Naive. Still, Elvis refused to kick them off
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the tour. That's how bad he had it for Cot.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: He had it so bad that he signed on to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: produce the Pogues his next record, their excellent sophomore album
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: with the equally excellent title Rum Sodomy in the Lash.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But despite that great record and the increased exposure it
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: brought to the band, Shane couldn't shake the feeling that
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: he was being looked down upon by big shot Elvis Costello.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: The tension between the two artists continued to build until
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Shane lost it while recording the song of Rainy Knight
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and Soho for the Pogetry and Motion Repee, which Elvis
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: also produced. Elvis wanted to use an obo in the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: instrumental break, perhaps inspired by the Beatles's Penny Lane, but
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Shane insisted it should be a cornet, and Shane wouldn't
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: back down. He was the artist, this was his song.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: The only job Elvis had in Shane's mind was to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: put that artistry in that song on tape, and if
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: he couldn't handle that. Then big shot Elvis Costello could
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: just fuck write the hell off. So that's what Elvis did,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: and he took Shane mcgown's he heard, sid vicious sneering
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: bass player with him, but not before he got inside
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Shane's head by questioning his ability to pen a song
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: so timeless that it would live on long after both
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of them were gone. Sure, Shane fancied himself an artist,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and he was certainly that he worked his side of
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the street quite well, but it was a small, dimlylit
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: street in a dirty old town where not everyone was
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: willing to walk. What about the world stage, What about
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: writing the most universal kind of song, a Christmas song,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: even better, a Christmas duet. Elvis Costello bet Shane McGowan
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: that he couldn't do it. What Elvis wasn't betting on
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: was how all Shane had to do was think about
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the comments back in Ireland, his own private Christmas which
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: lived rent free in his heart, and suddenly he was
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: filled with an intense longing, the kind of longing found
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: in the very best of Christmas songs. Shane McGowan then
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: took all of that longing and put it into the
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: greatest Christmas song ever written. We'll be right back after
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: this word were were. I should clarify here that Elvis
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Costello does not remember making a bet with Shane McGowan
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: about whether or not he could write a proper Christmas song. Shane,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, swore as if it were yesterday
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: that had happened, and he did so for the rest
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of his life. It really doesn't matter either way whether
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the challenge was indeed thrown down or whether Shane simply
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: made it up as a way to amplify his talent
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: over Elvis's for the history books. In the end, the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: writing and recording of the pogues a song Fairytale of
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: New York serves to underscore Shane's long held status as
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: an underdog. In nineteen eighty seven, music was having a moment.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: The compilation album A Very Special Christmas, produced by music
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: industry mogul Jimmy Ivey, was released in October of that
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: year to great acclaim. It featured modern covers of classic
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Christmas songs and Christmas carols by some of the biggest
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: names and music at the time, Whitney Houston singing do
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you hear what I Hear? In John Cougar Mellencamp singing
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I Saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus and whatnot. And this
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: is also the album where we were blessed with run
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: DMC's Incredible Christmas and Hollis. But without one exception, it
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: may be also U two's version of Darlene Love's Christmas Baby,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Please Come Home. The entire compilation is pretty much what
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: you'd expect in terms of sentimentality and substance, and by
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the time Christmas had come and gone that year, a
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: very Special Christmas was certified quadruple platinum. Now imagine this.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Just a month after that compilation was released, around Thanksgiving
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven, the Pogues dropped a new single
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: from their forthcoming album, The Third Fairytale of New York
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: was their Christmas song, and in every way it was
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the exact antithesis of the songs on Jimmy Ivian's compilation.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: The song begins as a piano ballad, with Seane McGowan's
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: battered voice slurring one of the greatest opening lines of
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: all time. It was Christmas Eve Babe in the drunk
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: tank from the jump. This is a Christmas song with
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a wholy unique perspective that of a drunk, a gambler,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a guy who's down on his luck, more often than not,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: trying to convince the love of his life that the
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: days will get better, despite the fact that they are
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: behind bars together on Christmas Eve, and when the band
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: comes galloping in with their hypercharged Irish folk music, so
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: does The Drunk's Lover, sung by the englishwoman Kirsty McCall,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Shane's dewebb partner. She's tired of hanging on to her
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: man's broken promises and isn't afraid to tell him so.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: First he's handsome and she's pretty, and then all of
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: a sudden, he's a bomb and a punk and she's
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: an old slut on junk. The song, co written by
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Shane and the Pogues banjo player Jem Finer, is funny
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and it's sad. Ultimately, it's cautiously optimistic without losing its
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: sense of melancholy. Just like the best Christmas songs, it's
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: also one of the most controversial, evidenced by one particular lyric,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a slur that rhymes with maggot uttered by Kirsty McCall's character,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a word so offensive that the BBC eventually started bleeping
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: it out every time it was played on air. Shane's
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: defense of the use of the word was quote, not
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: all characters and songs and stories are angels, are even
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: decent and respectable unquote. These are real, fleshed out characters here,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: characters you'd be more likely to find in a novel
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: than in a Christmas song. And I think it's what
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: makes Fairytale of New York so great. Listening to it
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: really does feel like the dialogue between Shane and Christy
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: was ripped directly from a drunk in a New York
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: City police station. In the face of much more popular
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: artists offering up safe, sanitized covers of classic Christmas cheese, Shane,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Jem Christi and the Pogues delivered a masterclass in how
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to create something new and exciting and provocative. The song
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: was a top ten hit in the UK upon its
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: original release. In Ireland, it went to number one and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: stayed there for five weeks, and when it came to
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty seven Christmas number one chart, the odds
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: were on Fairytale of New York to win that by
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: a landslide. This would be no minor achievement for Shane McGowan.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: In fact, it was quite the opposite. The song was
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: featured on The Pogues's third album, If I Should Fall
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: from Grace with God, produced not by Elvis, who had
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: successfully stolen Caught O Reared In permanently from the band,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: but by Steve Lillywhite, known for his work with Peter
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Gabriel and You Two. It was the Pogues's biggest record
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to date, but that record, the creative act of making it,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and of making Fairytale of New Us Or under the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: pressure of proving his worth to a rival singer songwriter,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: whether it was imagined or not, had an immediate and
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: adverse effect on Shane McGowan. It was the middle of
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the evening when Victoria Mary Clark's phone began to ring.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: The Irish journalist wasn't expecting the voice on the other end.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: It was her boyfriend's landlady calling about her boyfriend Shane McGowan.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Something was wrong with him, something so wrong that his
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: landlady felt compelled to wring up his girlfriend in the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: dead of night. Shane's love of and sometimes over love
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of alcohol is well documented. He was rarely seen on
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: stage or off without a pint a bottle or a
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: glass of wine in his hand, but it wasn't the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: drink that his landlady was concerned about. No, Lately, he'd
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: been taking loads of LSD. One day, she found him
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: in his room, tripping his balls off, clutching a Samurai
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: sword and staring at a chair that he just slashed
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: to pieces. Another time, he chased her to the stairway
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and threw his favorite guitar at her. Victoria quickly put
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: on some clothes and made a beeline for Shane's flat,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and when she arrived, she found him in his kitchen,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: his eyes bouncing around in his head. He told her
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he dropped fifteen, maybe twenty tabs of acid. He'd lost count.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: He was holding a copy of The Beach Boy's Greatest Hits,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Volume three, but he wasn't listening to it. He was
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: trying to eat it. Blood was running down his face,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: just oozing from his mouth, and there was blood and
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: bite marks all over the LP jacket. Shane was rambling.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: World War three was imminent. He knew it, which is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: why he was holding an emergency meeting in his kitchen
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: with the heads of the world's superpowers, and he Shane McGowan,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: as leader of the Irish Republic, was demonstrating the cultural
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: inferiority of America by eating a Beach Boys record. From there,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: things got even worse, if you can imagine. Shane kept
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: taking loads of ellist and ecstasy. He started using heroin too,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: and he was hit by a car more than once.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: He jumped from a moving taxi. He started fires. He
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: was committed to a psychiatric hospital. He was released, relapsed,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: randomly attacked a guy and was sent back to the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: psych ward again. He was released again. He relapsed again.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: He was knocking back ten twenty acid tabs at a time.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: He missed shows, including dates opening for Bob Dylan, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: when he did make it to the stage, he forgot
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the lyrics. He was drunk and high twenty four to seven. Finally,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one, during a tour of Japan, the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: band convened a meeting in a hotel room. It was
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: there that the Pogues informed Shane McGown that they were
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: firing him from the Pogues, to which Shane replied, what
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: took you so long? This was a four year period
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: of free fall that can be traced all the way
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: back to the start December of nineteen eighty seven, the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: week of Christmas, and to the crowning of that year's
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Christmas number one song in the UK, because that year's
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Christmas number one was not the Pogues's fairy Tale of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: New York as had been predicted. Instead, it was the
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Pet Shop Boys who were the ones to reach number
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: one with Always on My Mind. The Pogues only made
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: it to number two. Just like not all characters and
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: songs and stories our angels are even decent and respectable.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Not all artists and songwriters get the chart topping recognition
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: they deserve. Some of them are destined to be underdogs
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: for life. Hey guys, real quick, there was this crazy
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: story that we unearthed in the research for this Shame
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of Gown episode that involves the Pogues, Tom Wade's and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Elvis Costello drunkenly re creating the killing of gangster John
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Dillinger in a Chicago alleyway back in the nineteen eighties.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: That sounds like fun. I mean, this is so on
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: brand for us because it's got the legendary true crime
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: figure John Dillinger, it's got icons the music history, the Pogues,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Tom Waits Elvis Costello, and it also features one of
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: the wildest impromptu pickup band performances that nobody ever saw.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing, we just didn't have enough time
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: or space in our full episode to talk about this fully.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: But we do have time in this week's brand new
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: mini episode of Disgraceland, which is part of the exclusive
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: content for All Access members. If you're not a member
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of All Access and you want to hear why in
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: the hell Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and the Pogues made
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: a pub crawl that ended with a visit to a
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: notorious Ali. Just go to disgrace lampod dot com to
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: sign up and listen to that today. All right, now,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: let's get back to our story here all about Shane McGowan.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Autumn two thousand and one. Jem Finer the Poges is
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: banjo player and co songwriter knocked hard on the wooden
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: door of a small and assuming cottage to his back.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: The Commons splayed out in all of its natural, breathtaking
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: wonder County Tipperary was far from Dublin. Compared to a
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: place like London, it was a whole other world here.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Life was slow and quiet at least on the outside.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: On the inside, behind the front door of that cottage,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: jem could hear singing, yelling, and bottles emptying and glasses clinking.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: He knocked again, Still nothing. He pulled a cell phone
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: from his jacket and dialed a number. It rang, and
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: then someone picked up. It was Shane. Many many sheets
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: to the wind for folks sake, Jemmy yelled into the phone,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: come open the fucking door. Seconds later, the wooden door
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: swung open and there was Shane Agown, the guy whom
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: jem and the others had fired from the Pogue some
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: ten years prior, the same guy who had started a
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: new band, Sane McGowan and the Popes, but it continued
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: to be plagued by junk cocaine and fetamines and by
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a bottomless bottle. He looked haggard, perhaps worse than ever.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: He'd watched not one but two friends overdose in his
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: flat back in the city. He'd been arrested after fellow
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Irish singer Snead O'Connor squealed on his drug use to
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the cops, and he was pissed at Shanaid when she
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: did that, although he later came around and he actually
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: thanked her. Shanade's squealing and led Shane to kick heroin.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: He kept his other vices. Though we'd lost Victoria, his
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: longtime girlfriend, at least for the time being. Sometimes it
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: seemed like all Shane had was this place. The Commons. Jem,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, had something else to offer. He
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: was there to ask Shane if he wanted to reunite
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: with the Pogues for a handful of Christmas shows that year.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Shane was all in. They booked dates for one week
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: only that December Glasgow, Birmingham, Dublin, Manchester and three nights
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: at the Brixton Academy in London. Demand was high, as
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: were spirits, and for any fan of the Pogues it
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: was the best Christmas present they could ask for. More
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Christmases came and went, one in which Shane received twenty
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: eight implants on a titanium frame to fix his bad teeth,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: an occasion so momentous that a documentary was made about it.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: And there was also the Christmas in which Shane reconciled
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: with Victoria, not to mention the one where the two
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: finally tied the knot after an eleven year engagement. Christmas
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two was nearly spent in the hospital
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: where Shane was laid up with viral encephalitis and inflammation
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of the brain. Doctors cleared him right before the holiday,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: but six months later he was back hospitalized, this time
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: with pneumonia. He was there from June to November, but
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: just one day after his release he went into septic shock,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: and six days later, on November thirtieth, twenty twenty three,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Shane McGowan was dead. He was sixty five years old.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Immediately after Shane's death, Fairytale of New York went straight
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to number one in Ireland. The band then reissued the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: single on seven inch final in hopes that a combination
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: of sales and mourning for Shane would finally cement the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: song as that year's Christmas number one once again. However,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the Pogues were denied the Christmas number one in the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: UK on December twenty fifth, twenty twenty three was not
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Fairytale of New York as many would have expected. Instead,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: that honor went to Wham's Last Christmas, which earned its
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: first Christmas number one thirty nine years after its original release.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Some thought that it was Shane McGowan's final wish to
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: get a Christmas number one. In reality, he only cared
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: if the song went to number one in Ireland, County Tipperary,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the Commons, the people, the colure. That's where his heart
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: remained even in death. Besides, everyone knew what his final
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: wish was. It was right there in his will. Seane
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: McGowan left behind ten thousand dollars for an open bar
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: tab at his favorite pub and Tipperary, where locals who
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: packed the place after a funeral procession in the streets
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: of Dublin saw crowds erupt into a spontaneous rendition of
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Fairytale of New York. It's a song that remains a
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: standard of the holiday season, even if it never hit
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the top of the holiday chart. As its producer Steve
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Lillywhite said, I love the fact that it's never been
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: number one. It's for the underdog. In fact, it's for everyone,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: for those who find salvation, for those who fall from grace.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. All right, guys,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, and thanks for listening to this episode of Disgraceland.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: This week's question of the Week is an obvious one.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: What's your number one Christmas song? Let me know which
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Christmas song is your favorite and why? Six one seven
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: nine oh six six six three eight. Leave me a voicemail,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: send me a text to hit me up on the
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: socials at disgraceslampod dot com. All right, here comes some credits.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: going to disgracelampod dot com slash. Membership members can listen
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: to every episode of Disgraceland ad free, rate and review
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Facebook at disgracelandpod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: slash at disgracelamdpod Rock a Roller
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: He's a bad don man.