Customer Reviews

Red Roses for Me

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Red Roses for Me was the first Pogues album I bought. It was a used import CD and the quality was horrible. The songs were great, but the sound on the album left much to be desired, probably due to sourcing from a poor master. So for years, I was waiting for a remastered version of this excellent album. Here, Rhino delivers.


This album can now be heard in all its glory. It's still amazing to here Shane Macgowan's tracks sit beautifully among traditional Irish fare. Yet MacGowan has punk sensibilities peaking into his tracks, notably on Boys From the County Hell. It's here that we get to see how good a songwriter Shane can be on the Dark Streets of London, where's he shows some of the emotional depth he's capable of. Others might be surprised to find the lovely original Streams of Whiskey, which makes a great pub song.

But the band comes together to create a great welcoming sound that both pays tribute to Irish music while breathing new life into traditional classics. Waxie's Dargle shows how much fun the band can have, which sounds like two Irish lads having a few pints, as they describe in the song. It's a lot of fun.

The bonus on this reissues is of course the quality. There are also a handful of extra tracks. The Pogues shine on a few more traditional songs while instroducing us to their rendition of Eric Bogle's And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. This version is good, but pales in comparrison to the powerful version on Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash.

There are no misses on this album. A lot of people feel the Pogues magic wasn't fully realized until their followup album, but this album has the band sounding fresh and raw. Hearing this for the first time was a lot of magic for me as this is where I disocvered the Pogues, so I maybe a little biased, but this is close to their best.

I moved from one double wide to another one across the street and never got to opening all of my literature boxes, until late at night a wee leprachaun, no wait, it was the voice of Shane MacGowan or whatever croaking about the Leaving of Liverpool and forcing me to open up all these boxes and put everything away and find me once again to hold you in your lonesome exile.

Not only do you get two great old tunes made big by Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers, here done rowdy like they ought, but you get That Auld Triangle, about back when the British Empire controlled their surplus Irish colonial population under the blessing of that devil Malthus by stealing all of their food and claiming famine (there was plenty of food in Ireland at that time all going to London), or transporting everyone to Australia and the penal colonies, or jailing all the men for ridiculous charges like wearing green or refusing to get evicted from their own lands and homes as if they were Palestinians.

But do not get me started. Listen over and over to the Auld Triangle.
And cheer up with the Leaving of Liverpool, especially that wild shout after One More Time is called. This is music, man. Hear it now.

And of course Down underground deserves to be heard a few times, although the creepy sound effects grow wearisome.

And then play the Clancy Brother songs and remember the tears of your old dad. I just wish A Parting Glass was on this collection so I didn't have to pull out the other disk! I guess that's what some folks use their iPod for, but hey . . .

A great comfort in exile or any time. What else has been recorded this late; what else is there to listen to? Def Leperd? Dear god!

That Auld Triangle is calling me even now.

I met Spider while filming ALex Cox's Walker in NIcaragua twenty years ago, and did not realize then who he was. Otherwise I'd have begged him to play that Triangle on the tin whistle he ever carried with him, and one which he shines so clearly and truly on this album.

By the way, the title comes from Dublin playwright Sean O'Casey. Check him out, too.

Here is one very good reason for the re-issue program that is inundating music fans. Every now and then, an album reappears that you missed the first time around, and might otherwise have been unlikely to purchase. I'm a Pogues fan, but I incorrectly assumed that I already owned their best stuff. Call it ignorance, but I didn't even know that "Red Roses for Me" existed. This re-issue from Rhino Records has solved that problem and I'm thankful for it, but I sure do wish I heard this album when it was released. What a breath of fresh air this must have been! Imagine Irish punks readdressing the traditional folk music of their country by writing a new batch of their own, at a time when processed keyboards and canned rhythms ruled the airwaves. Musically, the year 1984 lived up to its apocalyptic implications, but the Pogues provided an escape from the "Safety Dance" of that awful time.
Dig through your `active' collection and find something that you bought in 1984.....I'll wait right here.........still waiting..........I bet you can't find anything, can you? So much music from the mid-`80s has grown old and outdated. Echo-laced production and noise-gated drums poison so much music from that era, but "Red Roses for Me" could have been released yesterday. It captures the Pogues as a fresh-faced bunch of drunkards, with a swagger to match their energetic performances. You can take a punk out of Ireland but you can't Ireland out of the punk, so these songs figuratively reek like an Irish pub on Saturday night. Shane MacGowan spits out his words with the flourish of a drunken uncle at a wedding, even when his compositions stand on wobbly legs. "Streams of Whiskey," "Poor Paddy" and "Transmetropolitan" are meant for a sing-along bash, with pints spilling because you can't stand still. It may be a waste of ale, but "Red Roses for Me" is definitely not a waste of cash. The six bonus tracks are like getting a free round, too. A- Tom Ryan

Grab yourself a pint of four roses --don't walk-- run for the roses--the Pogues best discs are back in print with this great remastered re-release--and raise a frosty mug with me to this delightful brew.

Oft overshadowed by the glories of Rum, Sodomy & Fall From Grace, the Pogues' debut captures the band at their most gritty and raucous. With originals like "Streams Of Whiskey" & "Dark Steets of London", frontman Shane MacGowan not only established himself as a formidable songwriter but a man with a mission: to bring Irish Music kicking & screaming into the 20th Century. As for traditionals, they didn't tip their hat & pay their respects so much as assault--whipping any sense of nostalgia into a pulp to get to the heart of the song.

I'd say their version of "The Auld Triangle" remains definitive, leaving the Clancy Brothers choking in the dust. The same goes for "Kitty". Its beauty offset even more by the reckless abandon that surrounds it.

Lyrically & musically, MacGowan was on the top of his game. And would remain so for 2 more albums. "Boys From Country Hell" remains one of my all time favorites. The same goes for "Down In The Ground". Instrumentals like "Repeal" go to show that the rest of the band were no joke.

To put it into perspective, this just about blew away everything else I was listening to in the 80's. It made my Smiths records cower in fear. They bee-yatch slapped REM. Justly gave the finger to Goth acts like Bauhaus & The Cure while being more death obsessed than either. If they had a showdown with post London Calling Clash, The Pogues would have outdrew them at the time of this release. It was a breath of fresh, foul air.

Far from a novelty act, they had a knack for making old songs sound new & new ones old. Listening to it again some 19 years later, Red Roses still doesn't sound dated. Truely the sound of a bunch of drunken pirates setting their ship on fire. Their pistol blarin' best next to RUM SODOMY & THE LASH. After that, they FELL FROM GRACE & PEACE & LOVE dumped them off into HELL'S DITCH. From which they never recovered.

Between this , If I Should Fall From Grace, and Rum Sodomy and The Lash the Pogues produced a spectacular body of work. All 3 CDs are great in their own way. On Red Roses For Me the band combines traditional Irish tunes with their own unique sound and Shane MacGowen never sounded any better than he does here. Great lyrics and fabulous music. You can't miss here.

This first Pogues album is not their best, but MacGowan's take on "Kitty," (the obscure Irish Republican lament he learned from his mother)alone is worth the price. "Streams of Whiskey," MacGowan's homage to Brendan Behan, was the first hint of the songwriter Macgowan would become. MacGowan's vocal on Behan's "Auld Triangle" is outstanding as well. The remaining cuts, both the MacGowan originals and the covers, are all barnburners that made up the Pogues' early live sets. Rake at the Gates of Hell: Shane MacGowan in Context

The Pogues were typecast as Irish, but it should be remembered they were in fact Anglo-Irish, and this debut album actually evokes London more than Ireland. 'Transmetropolitan' is a love/hate paean to that very city, and my personal favourite track 'Dark Streets of London' is a catchy but deeply beautiful song which stands alongside 'Lullaby of London' from their third album.

Other tunes range from drunken cavorts ('Streams of Whiskey', 'Waxie's Dargle') to the plaintive 'Kitty', a sad ballad of love and loss. 'Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go' is a furious McGowan-penned piece of folkloric necro-horror, while 'Greenland Whale Fisheries' is a traditional whaling ballad which animal welfare advocates should like, because the whale wins!

This is a raw and kick-stomping debut, from a band who went on to even better things.

This was the first album of theirs that I bought back in 1988, and it's still one of my favorites! Whenever I'm feeling down I play this lively music & it picks me up. I was introduced to this group by an old boyfriend & for that I will forever be grateful to him...well, at least for that anyway! They've been my favorite group ever since!
I love the way they incorporate traditional Irish music into they're punk rock sound (by 'punk rock' I don't mean Sex Pistols style) it's what makes their music so unique. You know it's the Pogues the moment the music begins, they have a sound that is theirs alone with their rough way of singing, the hard pronunciation of the words. They make me feel proud to be Irish-American!
Their ballads such as "Kitty" are so bittersweet, filled with such heartfelt sadness that is typical of a true Irish ballad...it actually makes me cry, as do most of their ballads. I don't know, maybe it helps if you know some Irish history...after all, theirs is one of the saddest.
You get a taste of Irish humor in the song "Boys From the County Hell" in the line, "lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you drink." Most of their lively music makes you want to get up & dance...& of course, have a few pints. This music goes well with a pint of Guinness!
Just a wee bit of trivia...their original band name was Pogue Mohone, which is the anglicized spelling version of the Irish Gaelic phrase "pog mo thoin" which means "kiss my arse." Is that great or what? It gives you an idea of their feisty Irish nature, for which they are so loved.
Well, that's all...enjoy! You might also enjoy their album/cd "If I Should Fall From Grace With God." The title song has an Irish nationalist, anti-British feel to it as is evident in the lines, "This land was always ours, was the proud land of our fathers. It belongs to us and them. Not to any of the others." I suppose the popularity of the Pogues amongst the Irish is in part due to their defiant lyrics...the conflict between the IRA & Britain was in full swing back then in Belfast. This album also has one of the songs they're most known for "Fairytale of New York." It also has one of the saddest ballads I've ever heard, "Streets of Sorrow."
Another must-have of theirs is "Peace and Love" with more sad ballads & lively tunes that make you want to grunt out the lyrics along with them!
Shane MacGowan wrote most of their songs, a truly talented storyteller...and sadly, also a severe alcoholic. He was also the lead singer until the rest of the band got tired of him showing up drunk and late or not at all. He now has another band, but he still drinks. It's incredibly sad to watch a good person slowly killing themselves, especially someone who is so talented.
The Pogues music conveys stories that draw you in and affect you deeply, in a profound way, whether it be sadness or joy...it's because their music is so full of passion.
There isn't one single Pogues song that I don't like, and you can't say that about too many bands...at least none come to mind anyway.

I really like the way The Pogues combine a classic Irish sound with their own style. These are great songs for partying and gambling, and in general just being festive.