Jam of the Day: Tuesday Morning

My dad’s family is very proud of their Irish heritage (it’s an excuse to be a booze bag) and there is no more famous and revered Irish booze bag than the legendary Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.

I somehow managed to avoid exposure to the fantastic Celtic Punk group until I’d reached my thirties and have been making up for lost time by jamming to the perky, upbeat, and profoundly lyrical tunes to the point that my lovely bride’s teeth grind at first ring of an Irish mandolin intro.

So as a late to the game Pogues superfan, it’s no surprise if took me so long to catch on to the reason their highest charting single, Tuesday Morning, has such a unique, poppy ring to it. Do you know why?

It’s because Shane had been kicked out of the band, and they decided to give it a shot with original co-singer turned tinwhistle player Spider Stacy as the new frontman.

My dad has told me the story several times (probably every Christmas when Fairytale of New York comes on my Christmas playlist for the past ten years) of how his brother in law brought him to a Pogues show in the late ‘80s and Shane was so drunk when he got on stage that he started singing as though the crowd was stage left and security had to come out and reposition him to face the crowd. They then had to come out and readjust him between songs to give him a little distance from the edge of the stage he’d nearly fallen off several times. Swears it was one of the best shows he’s ever been to regardless, the band was amazing, the house was rocking, and not a single lyric was understood because Shane was half dead on the stage.

So I guess it makes sense the band took a slightly new direction without their drunken poet at the helm, it felt dirty to me when I found out it wasn’t Shane singing on this banger, but after a little reading on the history of the band and learning Spider was originally co frontman before he recognized the greatness of Shane MacGowan and stepped aside to toot a tin whistle, I like the song that much more. Jam on, Spider.

Song fucks hard

-Irish Pug

Edit: the letterman performance is more refined. Idk what it is about letterman but acts just always seemed to show up when they played the late show