Track Listing

1. Paddy Rolling Stone
2. Rock 'N' Roll Paddy
3. Paddy Public Enemy No. 1
4. Back In The County Hell
5. Lonesome Highway
6. Come To The Bower
7. Ceilidh Cowboy
8. More Pricks Than Kicks
9. Truck Drivin' Man
10. Joey's In America
11. B&I Ferry
12. Mother Mo Chroi
13. Spanish Lady
14. St. John Of Gods
15. Skipping Rhymes
16. Maclennan
17. Wanderin' Star

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51755 in Music
• Released on: 1997-10-27
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Back in the County Hell
The greatest difficulty in making a great comeback album like `The Snake' is how do you follow it? Shane MacGowan's answer was to rely on his strength's and produce `The Crock of Gold' one of his most consistent albums.

Although a fantastic collection of songs `The Snake' was possibly not a consistent album with the production ragging from the machine gun etiquette of `The Church of the Holy Spook' to the deft lightness of `Aisling', with the tone of the songs ranging from the beautiful `The Snake with Eyes of Garnet' to the banal `I'll Be Your handbag'.

No such criticism could be made of `The Crock of Gold' and although no single song stands out like say `Donegal Express' on it's predecessor, not even the single `Lonesome Highway', the writing is very even making for a much more coherent collection which hangs together as a wonderful and fully realised album. If a gun was put against my head to pick a favourite I would go for `Back in the County Hell' which takes us full circle to The Pogues debut and `The Boys From the County Hell'.

If I was to make a criticism it would be that with the first three song titles contain the name `Paddy' and I would have broken them up through out the album. Even the cod-reggae of `B & I Ferry' and the Charlie MacLennan vocal on `Wand'rin Star' add to the charm of this album, Grand so.

Very good and severely underrated
I haven't been a Macgowan fan for very long. Only since a year or two have I discovered the unprecedented pleasures of the Pogues and from there I've become interested in the Macgowan phenomenon. I own all Pogues records and his previous effort woth the Popes being the Snake. Now granted, it doesn't matter which records I personally own, nor should you care, but I want to make clear that I can compare this album to previous efforts, be it with the Pogues (where he only wrote about half the songs himself) or the Popes.
I've read a buch of reviews on this album that are far from glowing, saying it's drab or uninteresting, but I honestly don't think they were listening to the same album.
Agreed, this isn't Macgowan and the Popes' best album, Macgowan himself seems to be a bit on autopilot and there aren't a whole lot of standouts on the album and it doesn't help that some songs are just plain rehashes of older songs (not counting the covers).

BUT (and this is an important "but") there aren't ANY bad songs either.

How many albums that you own don't have any bad songs on them, or at least lesser songs that you have the tendency to skip? I own 150+ albums ranging from Punk to Irish folk/rock from Radiohead to the Chemical Brothers and I can honestly say that almost no album has ONLY good tracks on it (OK Computer and Against the Grain by Bad Religion are the rare exceptions)
The Crock of Gold one of those albums that I can keep listening to and it doesn't get old. I also like the fact that it is diverse. It seems to have a slight country feel to it which gives the album a unique feel.

So in closing, this is not a favorite album of mine and it does indeed have some negative points that stick out, but when an album can survive these faults and be constantly entertaining like the Crock of Gold has proven to be I can't help but be happy with the results.

But c'mon Shane, don't you think it's about time for some new material? It's 2004 for heavens' sake

Not dead (quite) yet
Shane MacGowan, as lead singer of The Pogues, was one of the most literate and original songwriters of the 80s. Since his mid-80s peak, it can't be denied that his legendary drinking has sapped his vigour to some extent but, as he reveals on this 1998 album, he still has something to slur. The music is basic rockabilly Irish punk, not particularly inventive but tuneful and visceral enough. Shane's concerns are, as ever, with drunkards, down-and-outs, the detritus of society - the song 'St John of Gods' is one of his best in this vein, its protagonist a 'crushed up man' who has only 'F'yez all' to say. There's also an uncompromising commitment to Irish republicanism (a worrying hero-worship for terrorists is occasionally evident) and frequent references to violence. Songs like 'Rock and Roll Paddy' and 'Back in the County Hell' vividly depict an urban Irish mileiu that could hardly remind one less of Enya, while the narrator of 'Truck Driving Man' is a drug-addicted racist redneck murderer. In contrast, two simple but lovely ballads, 'Lonesome Highway' and 'More Pricks than Kicks' reveal Shane's more tender side. Added to this are a couple of traditional Irish ditties given his distinctive punk thrashing ('Come to the Bower' and 'Spanish Lady'), a surreal venture into Dub reggae ('B and I Ferry') and a none-more-gravelly version of 'Wanderin' Star' sung by Charlie MacLennan, his late roadie and friend. Perhaps not the genius he once was, his once-fierce vocal delivery blunted by years of brain-cell destruction, MacGowan continues to pursue his distinctive vision and this album provides a varied but cohesive picture of where it's taken him.