Elvis in Pogues box set , May 2008

[johnfoyle]

http://www.pogues.com/Releases/Disco/BoxSetPage.html

Just Look Them In The Eye And Say ... POGUEMAHONE!!
The Pogues Box Set
5 CD set.


Compiled by The Pogues with track by track annotations from Phil Chevron, there are a bountiful 111 tracks from 1983 demos (pre-dating their first recordings for Stiff Records) through to live recordings from 2001 when The Pogues re-convened for a series of memorable live shows for the first time since they disbanded in 1996.

Just Look Them Straight In The Eye is an absolute treasure trove of unreleased recordings for all Pogues fans, spanning their entire career and featuring rehearsal recordings, b-sides, out-takes, rare mixes, BBC sessions plus recordings with Steve Earle, Joe Strummer and, of course, Kirsty MacColl.

Alongside these are unreleased soundtrack recordings from Sid and Nancy, Garbo and Straight To Hell, alternate versions of Pogues' classics like "Fairy Tale Of New York" and "Rainy Night In Soho" and a generous selection of live recordings. These include full-throttle live recordings from Barrowlands, Glasgow in 1987, The Pogues with The Chieftains from Brixton Academy in 1991 and The Pogues featuring Joe Strummer from the Forum in London, December 1991 where they perform Clash favourites "London Calling" and "I Fought The Law". The box set rounds off with live tracks from The Pogues' triumphant reunion shows at Brixton running up to Christmas 2001.

Including original songs never before released and covers such as the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe In Magic", Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction", The Faces' "Maggie May" plus more traditional fare like Ewan MacColl's "Hot Ashphalt" and "North Sea Holes", this collection presents a true alternative picture of The Pogues' irrepressible career, an extraordinarily rich addendum to their already available recorded works.


(extract)

Disc One

Do You Believe In Magic?
(1985, outtake from Poguetry In Motion
EP sessions, rough mix, previously unreleased) (c)
[Sebastian / Yanovsky]
Produced by Elvis Costello

Disc Two

Rainy Night In Soho
("Oboe version", released on the North American editions of the Poguetry In Motion EP, MCA Records, February 1986) (c)
[S. MacGowan]
Produced by Elvis Costello, Mixed by Elvis Costello, Philip Chevron and Nick Robbins

Fairytale Of New York
(extract from 2nd Demo, c. 1986, previously unreleased) (c)
[S. MacGowan / J. Finer]
Produced by Elvis Costello and The Pogues, Engineered by Nick Robbins

[johnfoyle]

Uncut, June '08

Hilariously erratic five-disc trove of rarities.

At the very least, The Pogues are to be commended for unusual candour: more than a few of the 111 assorted out-takes, live recordiogs, radio sessions, floor-sweepings and barrel scrapings contained on these five discs are less than altogether flattering to their creators. Or, as guitarist Philip Chevron rhetorically admits at the outset of his sleevenotes, “So what’s all this then? A bunch of dodgy Pogues tracks...”

However, it’s just as inevitably true that much of the stuff collected here is utterly magnificent - so much so, indeed, that the moments which might really have been better left in the cupboard radiate, in context, an endearingly fallibility. And even the most unrealised, hastily recorded stuff pokes holes in the unhelpful (if somewhat self-created) myth of The Pogues as a bunch of incapably sloshed, ragamuffin chancers. The attitude the band brought to their take on Irish folk was certainly pure punk, but that didn’t alter the fact that Irish folk is a genre unforgiving of ham-fisted players— and there’s much here to prove The Pogues were nobody’s inferiors (two 1991 live recordings of The Pogues sharing a stage with The Chieftains are highlights). The three included demos of “Fairytale Of New York”, with then-producer Elvis Costello providing piano on one and bass on another, reveal how a good idea was honed to imperishable greatness.

The only major disappointment of the enterprise is the iffy sound of some of the live tracks, which may not have been recorded with a view to posterity. The excerpts from a rousing 1987 show at Glasgow’s Barrowlands capture something of the glorious swagger of The Pogues at their best — at least when the band can be heard — but the early ‘90s incarnation of the group featuring Joe Strummer on lead vocals deserves a better memorial than the muddy cuts dredged up here. Mostly, though, this is a fabulous trove of feral joys.
ANDREW MUELLER

UNCUT: What was the thlnking behind including those sketches towards “Fairytale Of New York”?
CHEVRON: There is always a danger that shedding daylight on something will take away the magic, but I think “Fairytale...” has been around long enough to take care of itself. Elvis Costello’s contribution especially I thought was worth drawing attention to.

There are a few radio sessions where you’ve had to tidy the language...
It started Out even with the band’s name. The first single was released as Pogue Mahone, and producer at BBC Scotland who was hip to the gaelic said they couldn’t play it, and Dave Robinson at Stiff said we’d have to change it. And everyone called us The Pogues anyway.

How important was it to get the collaborations with Steve Earle and Kirsty MacColl on there?
Despite the appearance of being falling down Irish guys, we were good enough to be Kirsty or Steve’s backing band, and that’s worth celebrating...

INTERVIEW:ANDREW MUELLER

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Straight-S ... 036&sr=8-1

Just Look Them Straight In The Eye And Say... Pogue Mahone!!
~ Pogues
26 May 2008

[And No Coffee Table]

Philip Chevron mentions an intriguing track which didn't make the cut for the box set:

However, none of you knows how close you came to hearing "The Pogues' Party Pieces", a one-off thing recorded in one take [without rehearsal] for an emergency b side in 1985 but never used. It contains things like short bursts of Jem singing "From A Jack To A King", Andrew singing his German folk song "Lochen, Lochen" (sp?), Cait reciting a limerick ("there was a young maid from Kilkenny....."), Spider declaiming "The Bold Fenian Men" as an impersonation of Laurence Olivier giving his Richard The Third, my own attempt on Dietrich's "Falling In Love Again", Shane singing Elvis Costello's "Lipstick Vogue" a la Costello and Costello himself doing "Boys From The County Hell" in his best Bob Dylan impersonation.

Possibly, myself and Nick Robbins spent more time on this track than on any other on the box set! We edited, re-edited, chopped down and re-positioned for months on and off before, a few days before final deadline, we just figured there was nothing we could do with it that would not sound self-indulgent or not-in-a-good-way silly. We toyed with the idea of isolating the best parts - Spider, Shane, Andrew and Elvis, essentially, and dotting them around the box set uncredited, but at this point, having finally secured the agreement of the whole band on the content and running order of the box set, I was not, at a time when one or two members were already starting to get flaky about the inclusion of one or other of their lesser vignettes, about to risk going back to the band for further content approval.

"The Pogues Party Pieces" finishes with Stiff Records supremo Dave Robinson reciting the lyrics of "The Rocky Road To Dublin" [this was the first thing we edited out!] before the entire ensemble joins in a rousing acapella chorus of "We are the Pogue Mahones/Fuck The Clash and the Rolling Stones", repeated into fade out.....................

[verbal gymnastics]

Please make it available as a free download!

[blooch]

Shane Macgown? A total legend. Im gonna try and get drunk endlessly for a whole week and see if i can write songs as good as him.

Conclusion. Im on my last legs and i cannot do it.

I sallute you Shane Macgowan you are an idol!

At the next jam night at my local i will sing my version of " Church Of the Holy Spook" just for you as a tribute to your greatness.

The best songwriter that ever lived and is nearly dead.

And i mean that with the utmost respect!

[martinfoyle]

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?my3wtihnxnk

[And No Coffee Table]

Awesome! Thanks!

[The imposter]

Did I once hear about (the existence of) a version of Viva las Vegas featuring Elvis, Shane and possibly Tom Waits?

Reckon there must be quite a few Elvis/Pogues outtakes on some cutting room floor...

[FAVEHOUR]

Thanks very much, Martin!

[Top balcony]

This is wonderful - thanks very much

Colin Top Balcony

[johnfoyle]

Listen again for a week - no mention of Elvis in the 29 minutes I've listened too so far, though.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011msk8

Broadcast

Sat 4 Jun 2011
10:30
BBC Radio 4



Lenny Henry never quite got The Pogues. From the fist time he saw the band on the TV in the 80's, with the singer banging a tray on his head during a drunken reverie, they have mystified this Luther Vandross fan. He goes on a journey of enlightenment through Poguedom speaking to musicians, the former manager, music critics and die hard fans to gain a better appreciation of this unmissable London Irish band. He explores the romantic and brutally realistic poetry of Shane McGowan and summons up the raw energy of their live performances as he asks - what's so great about The Pogues?

Producer Neil McCarthy.