It's been more than 30 years since rock music was still important and had great relevance. Artists were not pop bunnies who sang with computer voices, but stars with guitars, poets, explainers of the world.
We are looking back in a series. Today we have to hear to "The Snake", the first solo work of The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan who is sadly passed away November last year.
The singing dental ruin with the whiskey-souled organ returns three years after his departure from the Pogues. Supported by his new band The Popes, the beautiful Shane goes straight back to the old days of albums like "Rum, Sodomy & The Lash" on his solo debut.
In a more relaxed way than ever since the 1988 work "If I Should Fall From Grace With God", "The Snake" bridges the gap from the strange folk of pieces like the first single "Church Of The Holy Spook" to brass-assisted rhythm and blues numbers like "A Mexican Funeral In Paris" to hard rock songs like "Woman's Got Me Drinking".
Where the Pogues move in big steps towards folk pop with new singer Spider Stacey, who can be heard on the thin whistle on "The Snake", everything stays the same with MacGowan. Always oriented towards Irish folk traditions and his own punk past, quarter drunk Shane, now somewhat marked by his love of the bottle, produces ten rough gutter hits that prove all doubters wrong: He was the only true Pogue.