My last review for Little Feat happened
coincidentally when we were doing something social with the friend that
introduced them to me. This time, my friends Anthony and Laura were over from Vancouver
with their family right at the same time as I rolled a band that Anthony inspired me
to delve into years ago. As the Police would say – synchronicity!
Disc 798 is….Hell’s Ditch
Artist: The
Pogues
Year of Release: 1990
What’s up with the Cover? It’s the song titles put into
‘old pirate treasure map’ format. Modern maps may be more efficient but they
are way less fun. I’d like to be able to set a car’s GPS to “old pirate
treasure map’ mode. “Ar…at the sign of sea monster bring ‘er hard about, then
proceed 24 cable lengths to your port of call!”
How I Came To Know It: I always liked the Pogues, but it
was my friend Anthony who inspired me to dig into their collection. I think I
bought this album back in the mid-nineties at the same time as “Peace and Love”
(reviewed way back at Disc 121).
How It Stacks Up: I have five Pogues albums, which is all the
ones featuring Shane MacGowan. Of the five, I’ll put “Hell’s Ditch” a solid
third.
Ratings: 4 stars
“Hell’s Ditch” is the last Pogues album to feature
Shane MacGowan, and not coincidentally the last Pogues album I bought. Say what
you will about how drunk MacGowan was getting at the time, he went out on top with
“Hell’s Ditch.”
Here MacGowan’s voice still has all the raw and
visceral energy that gives the Pogues their punk edge. His slurring style goes
a bit overboard on “Hell’s Ditch” and at times interferes with my ability to
understand what he’s singing about. This is the one small criticism I have for
this album. Without this small fault it could easily rival 1988’s “If I Should Fall From the Grace of God” for second best Pogues album – the songs are
that good.
The album initially feels lighter than earlier
Pogues efforts musically, and has a trilling quality in the penny whistle and
mandolin that made me think of fair seas and following winds. If not overtly
nautical, most of the songs have a quality of travel, and you can tell the
Pogues have now seen the world and been inspired to expand their sound
accordingly.
The album opens with “Sunnyside of the Street” which is an upbeat tune that nevertheless
finds time to mention children without shoes and bodies in the street. This is
a song about finding the positives in life after escaping the horror of past
experience, but there is also a twinge of unhealthy denial wrapped through the
lyrics. “Sayonara” quickly follows on
the same theme, and as I write this on Remembrance Day I have the impression of
an old war vet trying to forget the past by sailing away somewhere warm. You
quickly realize that all those fair winds and following seas aren’t so fair
after all under the surface. Staying positive can be a test for those that have
witnessed the worst of what our species is capable of.
The nautical theme returns on the second half of the
album, with “The Wake of the Medusa.”
This is simultaneously a thrilling tale of the famous wreck, an admiration of
the painting that inspired the song (Theodore Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa”), and a moving indictment of the rich and
powerful cutting the poor and dispossessed adrift in society. I’m fortunate
enough to have seen the original painting at the Louvre and it is both
beautiful and haunting (check it out here). It takes those fair winds and
following seas I felt early in the record and whips them into a tempest.
“House of the
Gods” immediately follows “Wake of
the Medusa” and lightens the mood with a song about relaxing with a beer on
Pataya Beach in Thailand. On an album full of vacation songs, it feels like the
first one that doesn’t have a dark underbelly.
Here’s a funny and embarrassing moment: for years I
thought MacGowan was singing “Singha beer
don’t ask no questions/Singha beer don’t tell no lies” but somewhere along
the way I convinced myself (or Sheila convinced me) that I had been wrong all
those years, and that it was just MacGowan slurring “sea of green don’t ask no questions,” etc.
So last Sunday while out drinking some Singha beer
with my aforementioned friend Anthony I related how the song had nothing to do
with Singha beer. He was surprised, but not as surprised as me when I got home
and checked the CD jacket sleeve to find…it had been “Singha beer” all along!
Oops. It would seem the ‘wally’ MacGowan sings about
in the song is me.
The album feels packed with traditional folk songs,
but that is only because they are so well written you assume they are old
classics. The only traditional folk song comes near the end of the album, with
the instrumental “Maidrin Rua.” It is
a pretty little song, but the sea shanty “Six
To Go” which follows it to end the record is better, and a Pogues original.
“Hell’s Ditch” is only 13 songs and 41 minutes long,
and many of the songs are well short of three minutes. Despite this, they never
feel rushed. The band has an innate feel of how to advance a musical theme at a
good clip without ever jumping ahead too quickly.
The effect left me wanting more. So much so that a
few years back I bought the remastered version of this record which had seven
extra tracks. The tracks were OK, but the remastering made no noticeable
improvement to Joe Strummer’s excellent 1990 production and the album now felt
too long with the bonus material. I sold it and went back to the original
recording. You just don’t mess with perfection.
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