#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE--------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the#
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research.#
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Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 13:53:50 -0600
From: davies@ils.nwu.edu (Brian Davies)
Subject: CRD/TAB: Selections from Pogues' "The Best Of The Rest"
Hi folks!
I just recently discovered the Pogues, and have been listening to little
else for the past couple weeks. (This is after a long struggle to find
the Best Of The Pogues, v. I & II, which are out of print in the states.)
After picking through several of the songs, I checked out OLGA and
discovered that, of all the great tracks on v.II (personally, I think it's
a better album than The Best Of The Pogues) only Young Ned Of The Hill and
Summer In Siam had been transcribed.
So here, to fill that gap, are 8 songs from that collection. My
commentary is in {braces}.
THE POGUES: THE BEST OF THE REST
Transcribed by Brian Davies
Send comments and corrections to davies@ils.nwu.edu
For more of my tablature, check out:
http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~davies/
IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD by Shane MacGowan
If I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me.
If I'm buried 'neath the sod
But the angels won't receive me.
Let me go, boys,
Let me go, boys.
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry.
This land was always ours,
Was the proud land of our fathers.
It belongs to us and them,
Not to any of the others.
Let them go, boys,
Let them go, boys.
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry.
Bury me at sea
Where no murdered ghost can haunt me.
If I rock upon the waves
Then no corpse can lie upon me.
It's coming up threes, boys,
Coming up threes, boys.
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry.
If I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me.
If I'm buried 'neath the sod
So the angels won't receive me.
Let me go, boys,
Let me go, boys.
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry.
THE SICK BED OF CUCHULAINN by Shane MacGowan
McCormack and Richard Tauber are singing by the bed.
There's a glass of punch below your feet and an angel at your
head.
There's devils on each side of you with bottles in their
hands.
You need one more drop of poison and you'll dream of foreign
lands.
When you pissed yourself in Frankfurt and got syph down in
Cologne
And you heard the rattling death trains as you lay there all
alone,
Frank Ryan brought you whiskey in a brothel in Madrid
And you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all
the Yids.
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in
the chair.
And in the Euston Tavern you screamed it was your shout
But they wouldn't give you service so you kicked the windows
out.
They took you out into the street and kicked you in the brains,
So you walked back in through a bolted door and did it all
again.
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in
the chair.
You remember that foul evening when you heard the banshees
howl,
There was lazy drunken bastards singing 'Billy is in the bowl.'
They took you up to midnight mass and left you in the lurch
So you dropped a button in the plate and spewed up in the
church.
Now you'll sing a song of liberty for blacks and paks and jocks
And they'll take you from this dump you're in and stick you
in a box.
Then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground
But you'll stick your head back out and shout, "We'll have
another round."
At the graveside of Cuchulainn we'll kneel around and pray
And God is in His heaven, and Billy's down by the bay.
THE OLD MAIN DRAG by Shane MacGowan
{This song keeps a drone going underneath. To get the same feel on a
guitar, finger the chords so that you get a constant D on the B string --
D=xx0232, G=320033, A=x02230.}
Introduction on Verse Chords
When I first came to London I was only sixteen
With a fiver in my pocket and my ole dancing bag.
I went down to the dilly to check out the scene
But I soon ended up upon the old main drag.
There the he-males and the she-males paraded in style
And the old man with the money would flash you a smile.
In the dark of an alley you would work for a five
For a swift one off the wrist down on the old main drag.
In the cold winter nights the old town it was chill,
But there were boys in the cafes who'd give you cheap pills.
If you didn't have the money you'd cajole and you'd beg.
There was always lots of Tuinol on the old main drag.
One evening as I was lying down in Leicester Square,
I was picked up by the coppers and kicked in the balls.
Between the metal doors at Vine Street I was beaten and mauled
And they ruined my good looks for the old main drag.
In the tube station the old ones who were on the way out
Would dribble and vomit and grovel and shout,
And the coppers would come along and push them about,
And I wished I could escape from the old main drag.
And now I am lying here I have had too much booze.
I've been spat on and shat on and raped and abused.
I know that I am dying and I wish I could beg
For some money to take me from the old main drag.
DARK STREETS OF LONDON by Shane MacGowan
I like to walk in the summer breeze
Down Dalling Road by the dead old trees
And drink with my friends
In the Hammersmith Broadway
Dear dirty delightful old drunken old days
Then the winter came down and I loved it so dearly
The pubs and the bookies where you'd spend all your time
And the old men that were singing
When the roses bloom again
And turn like the leaves
To a new summertime
And now the winter comes down
I can't stand the chill
That comes to the streets around Christmas time
And I'm buggered to damnation
And I haven't got a penny
To wander the dark streets of London
And every time that I look on the first day of summer
Takes me back to the place where they gave ECT
And the drugged up psychos with death in their eyes
And how all of this really means nothing to me
Chorus
Third Verse
Chorus
To wander the dark streets of London
To wander the dark streets of London
REPEAL OF THE LICENSING LAWS by Spider Stacy
{There are two pieces to this song. I've labelled them arbitrarily...}
= Verse
= Chorus
{The sequence is:
Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse (quiet), Chorus, Chorus, Chorus}
TURKISH SONG OF THE DAMNED by Shane MacGowan and Jem Finer
{The tab is a little short on space for all the fast notes -- suffice it
to say that 23232 means a trill with hammer-ons and pull-offs, not a note
played at the 23,232th fret.}
(e) |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
(B) |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
(G) |-----------------|-----0-----------|-----------------|-----0---2-------|
(D) |-----0---23232-0-|-2323--232-------|-----0---23232-0-|-2323--2---------|
(A) |-0-1---0---------|---------------1-|-0-1---0---------|---------------0-|
(E) |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
(e) |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
(B) |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
(G) |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----0---2-------|
(D) |-----------0-----|---0-------------|-----0---23232-0-|-2323--2---------|
(A) |-01010-0-1---0-0-|-1---0-1---------|-0-1---0---------|-----------------|
(E) |-----------------|---------3-----3-|-----------------|-----------------|
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
I come old friend from hell tonight across the rotting sea.
Nor the nails of the cross nor the blood of Christ
Can bring you help this eve.
The dead have come to claim a debt from thee.
They stand outside your door four score and three.
Did you keep a watch for the dead man's wind,
Did you see the woman with the comb in her hand,
Wailing away on the wall on the strand
As you danced to the Turkish song of the damned.
You remember when the ship went down, you left me on the deck.
The captain's corpse jumped up and threw his arms around my neck.
For all these years I've had him on my back.
This debt cannot be paid with all your jack.
Chorus Twice
Repeat Intro Riff
And as I sit and talk to you I see your face go white.
This shadow hanging over me is no trick of the light.
The spectre on my back will soon be free.
The dead have come to claim a debt from thee.
Chorus Thrice
Whistle Solo Over Chorus Twice
Final Riff Seven Times
|-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-----|
(e) |-------------------------|-------------0-------------|
(B) |-------------------------|---------1-3---3-1---------|
(G) |-0---0-0---0-2---2-2-0-2-|-0---0-0-----------0-2-0---|
(D) |---------2---------------|---------------------------|
(A) |-------------------------|---------------------------|
(E) |-------------------------|---------------------------|
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
|-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-----|
(e) |-------------------------|---------------------------|
(B) |-------------------------|---------------------------|
(G) |-0---0-0---0-2---2-2-0-2-|-0-----------0-------------|
(D) |---------2---------------|---2-0---0-2---2-0---0-2---|
(A) |-------------------------|-------3-----------3-------|
(E) |-------------------------|---------------------------|
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
LULLABY OF LONDON by Shane MacGowan
{I fingerpick this, with my thumb on the bass string (either E or A),
index finger on the D string, and ring finger on the G string. I play it
straight quarter notes: thumb, index, ring, index, etc.}
As I walked down by the riverside
One evening in the spring,
Heard a long gone song from days gone by
Blown in on the great North wind.
Though there is no lonesome corncrake's cry
Of sorrow and delight,
You can hear the cars and the shouts from bars
And the laughter and the fights.
May the ghosts that howled round the house at night
Never keep you from your sleep.
May they all sleep tight down in hell tonight
Or wherever they may be.
As I walked on with a heavy heart
Then a stone danced on the tide,
And the song went on though the lights were gone
And the North wind gently sighed,
And an evening breeze coming from the East
That kissed the riverside.
So I pray now child that you sleep tonight
When you hear this lullaby.
May the wind that blows from haunted graves
Never bring you misery.
May the angels bright watch you tonight
And keep you while you sleep.
SUNNYSIDE OF THE STREET by Shane MacGowan and Jem Finer
Seen the carnival at Rome,
Had the women I had the booze.
All I can remember now
Is little kids without no shoes.
So I saw that train and I got on it
With a heartful of hate and a lust for vomit.
Now I'm walking on the sunnyside of the street.
Stepped over bodies in Bombay
Tried to make it to the U. S. A.
Ended up in Nepal
Up on a roof with nothing at all
And I knew that day
I was going to stay
Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street.
Solo On Verse Chords
Been in a palace, and I've been in a jail;
I just don't want to be reborn a snail.
Just want to spend
Eternity
Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street.
As my mother wept it was then I swore
To take my life as I would a whore.
I know I'm better than before.
I will not be reconstructed.
So I stay right here on the sunnyside of the street.
The sunnyside of the street.
The sunnyside of the street.
The sunnyside of the street.
----------------------------------- END -----------------------------------
For those of you that got all the way through that, here are a couple of
bonus fragments.
BOYS FROM THE COUNTY HELL
{Here's the chorus.}
And it's lend me ten pounds, I'll buy you a drink
And mother wake me early in the morning
{There are three main riffs.}
RIFF 1:
RIFF 2:
for a while
{Do the first thing again, speeding up.}
RIFF 3: for a while