Track Listing

1. If I Should Fall From Grace With God
2. Turkish Song Of The Damned
3. Bottle Of Smoke
4. Fairytale Of New York
5. Metropolis
6. Thousands Are Sailing
7. Fiesta
8. Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road To Dublin/The Galway Races
9. Streets Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six
10. Lullaby Of London
11. Sit Down By The Fire
12. Broad Majestic Shannon
13. Worms

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27920 in Music
• Released on: 1994-03-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks

Amazon.co.uk Review
Though chiefly--and rightly--remembered for spawning the best Christmas song ever ("Fairytale Of New York"), If I Should Fall From Grace With God captures one of the greatest songwriters of his time and one of the most inventive and potent bands of recent memory at the peaks of their formidable powers. Though the idea that Shane MacGowan and his fellow Pogues were no more than cider-addled hooligans with banjos had already been put to flight by 1985's magnificent Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, If I Should Fall From Grace... was the triumph they deserved. It remains The Pogues' finest hour. The title track opens, a self-destructive statement of intent with the momentum of a runaway train, and though this isn't the last great tankard-clanking drinking song here (see also "Bottle Of Smoke", "Turkish Song Of The Damned", "Fiesta"), the album possesses real depth: guitarist Phil Chevron contributes an exquisite lament to the Irish diaspora ("Thousands Are Sailing") and MacGowan provides further evidence of his facility for balladry ("The Broad Majestic Shannon") and a talent for political invective ("Birmingham Six", which earned a ban from the BBC). James Joyce, superimposed on the band portrait on the sleeve, is flattered by the company. A masterpiece. --Andrew Mueller

CD Description
IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD marked an apex for thePogues--with producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, their neo-traditional Irish songcraft was given a particularly timeless touch without compromising any of the band's trademark intensity. Adding yet another wrinkle of the Irish experience to his profound, intense lyrical oeuvre, Shane MacGowan touches on the Irish in New York, occasionally conjuring up reminders of George M. Cohan (who even gets name-checked here,on "Thousands Are Sailing"). "Metropolis" is a jazzy, brass-fueled instrumental, while the over-the-top sentimentality and swirling strings of "Fairy Tale of New York" made it an instant Christmas classic.
From the irreverent bravado ofthe opening title track straight through to the jokey, fatalistic closer, "Worms", IF I SHOULD FALL is a rollicking, sometimes brutally honest document, driven hard by the band's inspiringly tight, masterful playing and propelled by the raspy vocal and compelling lyrical attack of MacGowan. "BottleOf Smoke" is a breakneck thrill ride about a celebratory victory at the horse races, while "Streets Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six" finds Shane in a rare moment of political rant.

Customer Reviews

A real Gem of the emerald Isle!
I've just re-discovered this album after seeing the video "fairytale of New York" on the telly. I'd forgotten how good the music is! uplifting, fun and politically powerful, a farcical observation of life.

The Pogues music has been categorized in the past as Punk/Folk, which I think is a bit harsh, they're not Punk! they have just brought folk music in line with the modern world and have made the music appealing to all generations.

This album displays the excellent writing skills of Shane MacGowan & Jem Finer and the musical talents of the band and is in my opinion the best collection of the Pogues music on one album.

The lyrics of most of the tracks are printed in the booklet, read along as you listen, it's a real eye opener, and a lot of fun!

Classic Irish devilry from the not-yet-late Shane MacGowan
The Pogues third album grabs you by the scruff of the neck and forces you down the pub the second you put it on. MacGowan takes us on a journey from London to Ireland to New York to God knows where, stopping at every boozer on the way.

The Pogues really found their feet on this record without losing a drop of the alcohol-induced rawness that made them one of the few real live bands of the eighties. The opening (title)track has Shane singing of God and death in a way that makes you want to waste all your money and shout 'fuck you', with a tune that gets in your head and stays there. The 'Turkish Song of the Damned' is full of spectral imagery, a tale of dead sailors and a wailing old woman. The Pogues give it a taste of the East but end with a rousing, punk-injected Irish jig, All this, apparently inspired by a German fan mispronouncing 'The Turkey Song' by The Damned.

'Bottle of smoke' flies along with all the pace of a Cheltenham gold cup winner. A day at the races pissed up and pissed off until it romps home at twenty-fucking-five to one. Marvellous.

Next comes 'Fairy Tale of New York'; drugs, booze and broken hearts in an Irish-American Christmas card, guaranteed to make you laugh and cry at the same time, possibly the best Christmas song ever written.

Beautifully written by Phil Chevron, 'Thousands Are sailing' tells of the Irish leaving for America full of hope and fear. It's about leaving the place you love and the loneliness of a man far away from home. MacGowan's emotive rendition makes this the highlight of the album.

'Fiesta' is a shambolic extravaganza of a tune: MacGowan, 90mph in pidgin Spanish. To quote the man himself, "It's just about a bunch of wankers going to Spain in the Summer".

'Medley' starts with Terry Woods dueting with MacGowan on 'The Recruiting Sergeant', making yet another traditional song their own. Throwing themselves head-first into the instrumental 'Rocky Road To Dublin' and rounding it all off with Shane not stopping for breath on 'Galway Races'.

On 'Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six'. Woods's lament builds into MacGowan's ballad of justice and brutality, 2 songs that manage to capture a fearful (close to home)reality.

'Lullaby of London' is a song that gives you butterfly guts whenever you hear it. Yet another MacGowan original, poetic and beautiful. 'Sit Down By The Fire' is a rampant jig about the telling of ghost stories to your kids, with the vintage refrain 'Goodnight and God bless, now fuck off to bed'.

'The Broad Majestic Shannon' is a song of Shane's lost Tipperary childhood and happy times now gone forever, and virtually rounds off an album of beautifully written songs, some played to touch your heart, others to kick you squarely in the bollocks, but none are forgettable. The final track 'Worms' has Andrew Rankine sounding like he's singing from the bottom of a well. It sums up the dark yet comic side of the album and, indeed, the band.

Much more than just the fairytale
It's quite possible that my life might have turned out very differently if it hadn't been for the Pogues. This album did two very important things for me at one of the most formative stages of my adolescent life. First of all, it made the hitherto missing connection between the Irish folk-ballads that I'd been brought up with as a child, sung by various friends and relations, and the world in which I was growing up, with all its confusions of sights, sounds, feelings and beliefs. And secondly, most of its songs got banned, on the strength of MacGowan's (entirely justified) rant about the Birmingham Six, which forced me to open my eyes that little bit wider to the way society was going in the mid-1980s, and what really was important. Now, as a confirmed folk-rock-loving, Celtic mythology-addicted, possibly slightly drink-addled left-winger, this album still has all its magic from those far distant days, and has lost none of its punch. I shall be forever indebted to Shane MacGowan, the original "ugly bloke with a talent", to Philip Chevron for producing the entrancing "Thousands are Sailing", and of course to the late great Kirsty MacColl for doing her bit to prove that there is still more to Christmas than Sir Cliff Richard. Here's mud in your eye!