The Irish Rover

Friday 8th December, was the day of Shane MacGowan’s funeral. My Blog is mainly concerned with ‘classical’ singers but, as I said when discussing my 1st XI in my previous post, great singing is a lot more than a pretty sound, and Shane MacGowan was a great singer. Certainly nothing about him was remotely pretty: his face and body were a continually decaying landscape and his voice a contorted howl, sonically reeking of caries, tequila and Texas Tea. But that great poetic soul wrenched that tormented voice out of his tormented brain and rancid carcass, and we listened entranced and stirred. Just play MacGowan singing ‘Dirty Old Town’ – against all the odds he turns it into a sacred city.