St. Paddy’s Day records: The Very Best of the Pogues

Today we nod to a compilation of the Shane McGowan era Pogues, because where would the Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, or even O’Death have come from without the Pogues before them? And where else will you find lyrics like this:

You remember that foul evening when you heard the banshees howl?
There was lousy drunken bastards singing "Billy In The Bowl."
They took you up to midnight mass and left you in the lurch,
so you dropped a button in the plate and spewed up in the church.

Now you'll sing a song of liberty for blacks and paks and jocks,
and they'll take you from this dump you're in and stick you in a box,
then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground
but you'll stick your head back out and shout "We'll have another round."

At the graveside of Cuchulainn we'll kneel around and pray,
and God is in His heaven, and Billy's down by the bay.

- Shane MacGowan, "The Sickbed of Cuchulainn"

Download:
The Pogues – "If I Should Fall From the Grace of God" (Mediafire link)