The Pogues

... "Oh, it's just that one line," or it's, or it's like an out-of-date...

You know, I think, sometimes I think about what's the song The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl sing-

Yeah, yeah.

It's singing, um-

Yeah.

And The Pogues.

The Pogues, y- you can put The Pogues in there with Van Morrison, absolutely.

Yeah.

Maybe Sinead O'Connor.

And a friend of mine is their producer, Will Yip, who has a studio in South Philly, the nicest studio in the world, supposedly.

But Tom May from the Menzingers plays in a Pogues cover band called Bardust with one of the guys in Modern Baseball, actually.

And so I usually sit in with them for a few songs.

Menzingers are great.

Yeah, that was weird.

It's about one of my favorite songwriters, Shane McGowan of the Pogues.

Oh, okay.

And he was an Irish guy that grew up in London in the punk scene, but then made this punk Celtic, punk Irish kind of band, the Pogues.

And I...

I name dropped him in a song because he was a famous alcoholic and drug addict.

And I would just download and put that on and to hear these great artists like doing my songs like songs I wrote that I thought like these songs aren't that good I must be fooling people in the clubs they must be drunk like shaking their head like suddenly you know acts that sell millions of records are singing these songs and making it their own and that that was more than the money was ever gonna be just that feeling hearing you know the County Crows do Oh Sheena and I was like sitting there on my little like trying to hold it up away from everybody in the clinic you know and I was like Have Bruce Springsteen sing one of my songs is wild.

And some people really went in deep with the song Shane.

Don't judge me for how much I miss that.

Hell's Ditch by The Pogues was released in 1990, the same year as Depeche Mode's Violator, Fugazi's Repeater, Sonic Youth's Goo, and classic albums by Megadeth, Public Enemy, Primus, John Zorn, and the KLF, not to mention blockbuster releases from Whitney Houston, New Kids on the Block, and Garth Brooks.

Moviegoers were treated to Edward Scissorhands, Dances with Wolves, Kindergarten Cop, and Back to the Future Part III, which, again, I wanna remind you, listener, gets the science all wrong.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison, the Hubble Telescope was launched, Margaret Thatcher resigned, and Archie, the first internet search engine, was created.

Germany and Yemen were unified, the first episode of The Simpsons aired, and Jim Henson died.

A critic in the Los Angeles Times called the album a retreat and a disappointment.

The review begins, "The songs are sketchy, the mix is a mess, and Shane MacGowan mumbles and stumbles through every song so you can barely understand a word." The nerds at rateyourmusic.com have given this album a 3.44 out of 5, and this was Shane MacGowan's final album with The Pogues.

Today's guest is Keith Lowell Jensen.