Project 1001: Rum Sodomy & the Lash by The Pogues
The Pogues are an amazing band and this album is incredible. The energy and passion draws you in, slams you around from pillar to post, and never let’s you go. On top of that their version of “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” will absolutely break your heart. I love Irish music. It’s in my DNA. Sprinkle in some elements of punk and new wave and something really special happens. This album makes me think of drinking pints of Guinness in a dark wood-adorned bar - check that, pub - full of jolly patrons singing the songs together in one big sloppy chorus into the wee hours. In other words, some of the best times you’ll ever have on Planet Earth.
My Rating:
The Pogues are often credited with popularizing if not downright inventing Celtic Punk. But they were not operating in isolation as many bands in London, like Dexys Midnight Runners for example, were exploring similar styles of music. What made traditional Irish music, i.e. Celtic, punk music was the inherit DIY spirit of punk. Artists like the Pogues picking up banjos, whistles, accordions and various other instruments associated with traditional or folk music is what made the punk music Celtic.1 And the Pogues made Irish roots music cool.2
Punk wunderkind Elvis Costello produced this record and offered up an oft-quoted hindsight quip about the experience, “I saw my task was to capture them in their dilapidated glory before some more professional producer fucked them up.”3
Spin magazine praised Rum Sodomy & the Lash: “It’s got the best version of the greatest antiwar lament ever (“And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”), the greatest funeral toast ever lofted (“The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn”), and some of the purest toothless lyricism in punk-rock history.”4
Robert Christgau was brought around on Irish music by this album proclaiming, “…none of it would mean much without the songs--some borrowed, some traditional, and some proof that (lead singer and chief lyricist Shane) MacGowan can roll out bitter blarney with the best of his role models.”5
The Pogues bona fides may be why they are so beloved. “Of all the artists that crossed folk and punk in different ways in the 1980s, the Pogues were the most “Celtic” among them, and so remain the modes for the genre all the way up until the late 1990s, when the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly came along.”6
A couple of interesting tidbits about The Pogues:
• prior to being recognized as a lyric poet yet already legendary for his copious capabilities of consumption, lead singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan was known in London as Shane O’Hooligan.
• in the beginning stages they were known as Pogue Malone (translation: “kiss my arse”).7
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Robert Dimery wrote:
Rum, Sodomy, And The Lash is a work of raw and raucous beauty. While the band’s debut Red Roses For Me was overproduced and overreliant (sic) on boozy imagery, their second album bled passion, poetry, and energy.
Released the same year as the multimillion-selling Brothers in Arms by Dire Stratis, Rum, Sodomy, And The Lash sounded wonderfully out of synch with the mid-1980s scene. The album’s ragged majesty helped it crawl into the UK Top 20, and made a fan out of hobo king Tom Waits, who loved the group’s “Treasure Island kind of decadence.”8
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 208. Rum Sodomy & The Lash by The Pogues
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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: n/a
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: n/a
Released on August 5, 1985. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Shout” by Tears for Fears9
• Number one album: Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears10
• Number one movie: Back to the Future by Robert Zemeckis11
• Most watched TV programs: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Murder, She Wrote, 60 Minutes, Cheers, Dallas, Dynasty, The Golden Girls, Miami Vice, Who’s the Boss?12
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King13
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos14
Some other albums released that month
• Midnite Dynamite by Kix
• Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
• Sacred Heart by Dio
• Play Deep by The Outfield
• Old Ways by Neil Young
• Freaky Styley by Red Hot Chili Peppers
• I Am the Night by Pantera
• Marching Out by Yngwie Malmsteen
• Scarecrow by John Cougar Mellencamp
• Romance 1600 by Sheila E.
• The Head on the Door by The Cure
• Primitive Love by Miami Sound Machine
• Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti by Squeeze
• Lovin' Every Minute of It by Loverboy
• No Lookin' Back by Michael McDonald
• The Rose of England by Nick Lowe15
Sport
• Aug 1 St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Vince Coleman steals 2 bases in 1st inning of 9-8 loss v Cubs to set a NL rookie record 74.
• Aug 4 Future Hall of Fame infielder Rod Carew of the California Angels singles off Minnesota's Frank Viola to collect his MLB 3,000th career hit.
• Aug 4 Scott Verplank beats Jim Thorpe in Western Open playoff, first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Gene Littler 1954.
• Aug 4 Tom Seaver of Chicago White Sox becomes 17th pitcher to win 300 MLB career games.
• Aug 10 Oakland A's Dave Kingman is 21st to hit 400 HRs (off Matt Young at Seattle).16
Notable Births
• Aug 2 Davey Boy Smith Jr. [Harry Smith], Canadian professional wrestler (multiple tag team champion), born in Calgary, Alberta.
• Aug 9 Anna Kendrick, American actress and singer (Pitch Perfect), born in Portland, Maine.
• Aug 9 Vivek Ramaswamy, American businessman (Roivant Sciences) and political candidate, born in Cincinnati, Ohio.17
Historical Events
• Aug 1 Russian KGB officer Vitaly Yurchenko defects to the US in Rome, naming Americans Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard as KGB agents (later defects back).
• Aug 2 Delta Air Lines Flight 191 operated by a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes on approach to Dallas Fort Worth Airport during a thunderstorm, killing 137 and injuring 25.
• Aug 5 Establishment of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is announced.18
Notable Deaths
• Aug 1 Sam Wooding, American jazz pianist, and bandleader, one of the 1st to tour Europe (Chocolate Kiddies), dies at 90.
• Aug 2 Don Estridge, American computer engineer and father of the IBM PC, dies at 48 in the crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191 at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
• Aug 2 Frank Faylen, American actor (It's a Wonderful Life, Funny Girl), dies of pneumonia at 79.19
King, Ian, Appetite for Definition: An A-Z Guide to Rock Genres, Harper Perennial, 2018, p. 68.
Ibid.
King, p. 69.
King, p. 68.
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p. 536.
Ibid.
My brother is quite a bit older than me so I was exposed to a lot of different music as a kid. "Rum Sodomy And The Lash" is a favourite album of his. Their version of "Dirty Old Town" is definitely one of those tracks I never get sick of.