Wednesday, July 10, 2019

A Tale of Immigration: The Pogues and "Thousands Are Sailing"



The Pogues bring us today's tune, which is called Thousands Are Sailing. A Celtic punk band from London, The Pogues were formed in 1982 and became internationally prominent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band was originally fronted by Shane MacGowan, who left in 1991 due to drinking problems. The band has since been fronted first by Joe Strummer and then by Spider Stacy. The band broke up in 1996 after releasing their final album Pogue Mahone, but reformed in 2001 and has been playing regular gigs but has no plans to record a new album. The Pogues music is influenced by punk, but uses traditional Irish instruments such as tin whistle, cittern, mandolin and accordion. The band's name comes from "Pogue Mahone," an anglicized version of an Irish phrase meaning "kiss me arse." Thousands Are Sailing can be found on their 1988 album If I Should Fall From Grace with God, and is a tale of Irish immigration - not the 1800s immigration but the more modern immigration of Irish to America looking for better fortunes.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pogues

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