Macgowan Quotes & Sayings

I've been spat on and shat on
And raped and abused. — Shane MacGowan

Here a tower shining bright
Once stood gleaming in the night
Where now
There's just the rubble in the hole
from White City — Shane MacGowan

When I'm writing a song, it gives me more actual pleasure to hear someone else sing it than do it meself. — Shane MacGowan

Without his shirt she could see just how bony he was, probably twenty or thirty pounds under his fighting weight from his years in captivity. He loomed over her, and she finally understood her ambivalence. He had protected her, killed for her, led her to safety. He was safety.
But he was also big and raw and so elementally male that it made her teeth sweat. She'd spent most of her life blissfully above the calls of the flesh and the dark, desperate couplings that subsumed others. She didn't like sex, didn't want sex. Body parts were simply that. She looked at MacGowan and thought about sex. — Anne Stuart

There were six men in Birmingham
In Guildford there's four
That were picked up and tortured
And framed by the law
And the filth got promotion
But they're still doing time
For being Irish in the wrong place
And at the wrong time

In Ireland they'll put you away in the Maze
In England they'll keep you for seven long days
God help you if ever you're caught on these shores
The coppers need someone
When they walk through that door

You'll be counting years
First five, then ten
Growing old in a lonely hell
Round the yard and a stinking cell
From wall to wall, and back again

A curse on the judges, the coppers and screws
Who tortured the innocent, wrongly accused
For the price of promotion
And justice to sell
May the judged be their judges when they rot down in hell — Shane MacGowan

I'm just following the Irish tradition of songwriting, the Irish way of life, the human way of life. Cram as much pleasure into life, and rail against the pain you have to suffer as a result. Or scream and rant with the pain, and wait for it to be taken away with beautiful pleasure ... — Shane MacGowan

A devil moon took me through the alley
Down by the Kardomah and the Centrale
To the mews running through the backstreets
Where the Blacks sell fire and sleep

The devil moon took me out of Soho
Up to Camden where the cold north winds blow
Sucked along by a winter shower
To stand beside your shining tower — Shane MacGowan

I've been here all the time; I could be putting out as many albums as Costello, y'know what I mean? — Shane MacGowan

Petitions are ridiculous. — Shane MacGowan

Wish that they could walk forever
On the earth alone and fettered
Until they pray for consolation
Until they beg for sweet damnation
Then I'll come and bring them water
Bring them hope, bring them laughter
Raise their hopes both sad and sunken
Slash them up as they lie there drunken
Push them down into the foul mud
Until they choke up on their own blood
Drag them out before their last breath
To take away the mercy of death
Mother's eyes are sparking diamonds
Still the moon shows no light
This rose is withered
May God deliver
The rake at the gates of hell tonight — Shane MacGowan

When the cold winds come and find you
Blowing down from the top of the high rise
I'll come and take you back down to Soho
Away from all those madmen's eyes — Shane MacGowan

I sat on the floor and watched TV
Thanking Christ for the BBC
A stupid fucking place to be
Down Rain Street — Shane MacGowan

Ah sweet city of my dreams
Of speed and skill and schemes
Like Atlantis you just disappeared from view
And the hare upon the wire
Has been burnt upon your pyre
Like the black dog that once raced
Out from trap two — Shane MacGowan

One, two, three, four, turn your poles
Give me a cup of sweet poitin
Madness from the mountains crawling
When I first saw you, my own Aisling — Shane MacGowan

A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking. — Shane MacGowan

Raven-haired writer Emer Martin is giving a lunchtime reading from her fabulous new novel, Baby Zero. Emer Martin is a brilliant writer, very much the real deal. She tells me that every single Irish review of her new book has made passing reference to Cecelia Ahern. Weird, given that Emer is to chick-lit what Shane MacGowan is to sobriety. — Olaf Tyaransen

How much real comfort every one might enjoy if he would be contented with the lot in which heaven has cast him, and how much trouble would be avoided if people would only "let well alone." A moderate independence, quietly and honestly procured, is certainly every way preferable even to immense possessions achieved by the wear and tear of mind and body so necessary to procure them. Yet there are very few individuals, let them be doing ever so well in the world, who are not always straining every nerve to do better; and this is one of the many causes why failures in business so frequently occur among us. — Grace MacGowan Cooke

She could feel the hot tears pouring down her face, and she pressed it against the stone. MacGowan, you stupid bastard, she thought. Why did you have to go and get yourself killed? I care about you.
Care about you. Stupid phrase. She knew the truth, and right then the least she could do for the man who'd died protecting her was to admit it. She was stupidly, idiotically in love with him. He didn't deserve it, she was smart enough to know better, but all the rationalization in the world didn't help. It simply was. — Anne Stuart

Down the dirty old street
The Angel of the East is calling
And with a trembling hand
I open up a can
I can hear a baby bawling — Shane MacGowan

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! — Shane MacGowan

With The Pogues, at least the first three albums I'll stand by completely, yeah? Because I was in artistic control then, yeah? And the last couple of albums I'll stand by anything that's got my name on it, yeah? But I'll stand by anything that is on The Popes' albums, you know? I wouldn't put stuff out that I didn't like. I don't put out bad music. And I can tell the difference. I know that. — Shane MacGowan

Thanks and praises
Thanks to Jesus
I bet on the Bottle of Smoke
I went through hell
And to the races
To bet on the Bottle of Smoke

The day being clear
The sky being bright
He came up on the left
Like a streak of light
Like a drunken fuck
On a Saturday night
Up came the Bottle of Smoke

Twenty fucking five to one
Me gambling days are done
I bet on a horse called the Bottle of Smoke
And my horse won — Shane MacGowan

I drink because I'm thirsty. — Shane MacGowan

For its stupid to laugh and its useless to bawl
About a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball
— Shane MacGowan

Dehydration
Humiliation
Degradation
Mind castration
And the sky is black
And the one next to you
Keeps thinking that they're having a heart attack.
Desolation
On medication
Nurse nurse nurse
Can't sleep easy
Nurse nurse nurse
Are you fucking with me
ECT fucking did a thing on me
ECT did a job on me
ECT did a job on me
ECT did a job on me.
Pinned Down
Pinned Down. — Shane MacGowan

I've been a babe magnet for quite a while now. — Shane MacGowan

There is drinking in lots of the songs because there is drinking in life. Drinking stimulates the imagination. — Shane MacGowan

So I walked as day was dawning
Where small birds sang and leaves were falling
Where we once watched the row boats landing
On the broad majestic Shannon — Shane MacGowan

Oh the torn up ticket stubs
From a hundred thousand mugs
Now washed away with dead dreams in the rain
And the carparks going up
And they're pulling down the pubs
And its just another bloody rainy day — Shane MacGowan

My dad has no control over who works with me. Me, me and me alone has to take responsibility for anything. — Shane MacGowan

I've been loving you a long time
Down all the years, down all the days
And I've cried for all your troubles
Smiled at your funny little ways — Shane MacGowan

People are talking about immigration, emigration and the rest of the fucking thing. It's all fucking crap. We're all human beings, we're all mammals, we're all rocks, plants, rivers. Fucking borders are just such a pain in the fucking arse. — Shane MacGowan

This town has done us dirty
This town has bled us dry
We've been here for a long time
And we'll be here 'til we die
So we'll finish off the leavings
Of blood and glue and beer
And burn this bloody city down
In the summer of the year — Shane MacGowan

You can't hate people unless you love them. — Shane MacGowan

Cram as much pleasure as you can into life, and rail against the pain that you have to suffer as a result. — Shane MacGowan

Something that's obvious to a lot of people but it's never said much on the television or anything, that the architects and planners and whatever in London are inhuman to a really disgusting extent. — Shane MacGowan

What I do is I'm a bandleader, frontman, entertainer. — Shane MacGowan

Fucked Up
Set up
Faced up
Jacked up
Sitting there in chokey
14 years old

No lock on the door
But no way out
No joking
No hoping
No nothing
Pinned Down. — Shane MacGowan

I can type with me toes
Suck stout through me nose
And where it's gonna end
God only knows — Shane MacGowan

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 — Shane MacGowan

Fuck the Yanks
And drink their wives
My mind is clear
The sky is bright
I'm happy as a horse's shite
Up came the Bottle of Smoke — Shane MacGowan

I'm not singing for the future
I'm not dreaming of the past
I'm not talking of the fist time
I never think about the last — Shane MacGowan

Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
Still there's a light I hold before me
You're the measure of my dreams — 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 rivers all run dry — Shane MacGowan

Everyone drinks ... Well, unless they don't. — Shane MacGowan

But he never threw a fight when the fight was right
So they sent him to the war — Shane MacGowan