The Pogues, "The Wild Rover"

10 Days to Find a Home



This is my favorite Irish drinking song, so of course if I post any version, it's got to be the Pogues'. One could pick an Irish band that belongs more to the world than Ireland (U2, Thin Lizzy), or one that can't also write their own songs (the Dubliners, the Chieftains), or the most metal version of "The Wild Rover" (Tyr, who inexcusably leave out the hand claps). But no one has ever recorded it with the gutter poet gusto of the Pogues, complete with clinking glasses, trash cans and Shane MacGowan sounding about 30 years old than he is. You still won't believe him when he vows to play the wild rover no never no more, but you can hear why he thinks it in his whiskey-ravaged larynx.