Classic Songs #21 – If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Another classic song for St Paddy’s Day, this time from the marvellous Pogues and the title track from their album If I Should Fall From Grace With God:-
If I Should Fall from Grace with God is a 1987 album by The Pogues. It reached number 3 in the UK album charts. The album was a departure from previous Pogues albums, which had focused on an Irish folk/punk hybrid, combining musical radicalism with strong commercial appeal. On If I Should Fall From Grace with God several more genres were added to this mixture, including Jazz, Spanish folk and Middle Eastern folk. The adding of Spanish and Middle Eastern sounds was a sign of things to come; on later albums such as 1990′s Hell’s Ditch these would become the defining sound. On this album, however, it was very much Irish folk to the fore, especially on songs such as the title track, “Bottle of Smoke”, “South Australia”, “Lullaby of London” and “Sit Down By The Fire”, and the rendition of the traditional jig “The Lark in the Morning” as the coda to “Turkish Song Of The Damned”. These songs were more typical of the earlier Pogues albums, mostly fast and heavily textured. The album was also the first by the band to utilize a complete drum kit.
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‘Tis a great album indeed Adam, t’be sure – my personal favourite from the Pogues. And my favourite song from the album is the rather manic Turkish Song of the Damned, which legend says was written after one of the members of the band became violently ill after a kebab meal! The YouTube clip below features the late Joe Strummer from The Clash explaining the “Irish triple-time beats” at the end of the song – fittingly, the vid was filmed at the Town and Country Club in London on St Patrick’s Day 1988 – enjoy!