The Pogues

[fox69]

"Bottle Of Smoke"

"Bottle Of Smoke"


Thanks and praises
Thanks to Jesus
I bet on the Bottle of Smoke
I went to 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
My gambling days are done
I bet on a horse called the Bottle of Smoke
And my horse won

Stewards inquiries
Swift and fiery
I had the Bottle of Smoke
Inquisitions and suppositions
I had the Bottle of Smoke
Fuck the stewards
A trip to Lourdes
Might give the old fuckers
The power of sight
Screaming springers and stoppers
And call out coppers
But the money still gleams in my hand like a light

Bookies cursing
Cars reversing
I had the Bottle of Smoke
Glasses steaming
Vessels bursting
I had the Bottle of Smoke
Slip a fifty to the wife
And for each brat a crisp new five
To give me a break on a Saturday night
When I had the Bottle of Smoke

Priests and maidens
Drunk as pagans
They had the Bottle of Smoke
Sins forgiven and celebrations
They had the Bottle of Smoke

Fuck the Yanks
And drink their wives
The moon is clear
The sky is bright
I'm happy as the horses shite
Up came the Bottle of Smoke

 

[fox69]

"Boys From The County Hell"

"Boys From The County Hell"


On the first day of March it was raining
It was raining worse than anything that I have ever seen
I drank ten pints of beer and I cursed all the people there
And I wish that all this raining would stop falling down on me

And it's lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink
And mother wake me early in the morning

At the time I was working for a landlord
And he was the meanest bastard that you have ever seen
And to lose a single penny would grieve him awful sore
And he was a miserable bollocks and a bitch's bastard's whore

I recall we took care of him one Sunday
We got him out the back and we broke his fucking balls
And maybe that was dreaming and maybe that was real
But all I know is I left that place without a penny or fuck all

And now I've the most charming of verandas
I sit and watch the junkies, the drunks and pimps and whores
Five green bottles sitting on the floor
And I wish to Christ, I wish to Christ
That I had fifteen more

The boys and me are drunk and looking for you
We'll eat your frigging entrails and we won't give a damn
Me daddy was a blue shirt and my mother a madam
And my brother earned his medals raping gooks in Vietnam

On the first day of March it was raining
It was raining worse than anything that I have ever seen
Stay on the other side of the road
'Cause you can never tell
We've a thirst like a gang of devils
We're the boys of the county hell

 

[fox69]

"Bright Lights"

"Bright Lights"


The bright lights are calling me
The bright lights are calling me
When the world is dark and cold
And I'm heading down the road
The bright lights are calling me

As the world is round, the road is long
I've trouble on my mind
I'll just keep on moving
Until the day comes round
The wind a' blowing on my back
And my feet a' flying
Flying down the road
Where the bright lights shine

Monday's in a pigtown
Tuesday's in a truck
Wednesday's a field of mud
And Thursday's out of luck
Friday's rain clouds
Saturday flies by
Sunday comes shining
From a blue blue sky

The bright lights are calling me
The bright lights are calling me
When the world is dark and cold
And I'm heading down the road
The bright lights are calling me

Some towns are golden
Some towns are stained
Some towns are shadows
Fading in the rain
Some towns are rust
And some towns they gleam
Some towns are mad dogs
Some towns are a dream

The bright lights are calling me
The bright lights are calling me
When the world is dark and cold
And I'm heading down the road
The bright lights are calling me

Some dreams are hollow
Some dreams are cold
Some dreams are crazy
And some dreams are bold
Some dreams are bought
And other dreams are sold
Some dreams lie waiting
At the end of the road

The bright lights are calling me
The bright lights are calling me
When the world is dark and cold
And I'm heading down the road
The bright lights are calling me

 

[fox69]

"Cotton Fields"

"Cotton Fields"


Now the party's over
And the money's all gone
You remember feeling like
Jesus' son
Your girl has left your side
And now you're gonna get crucified

They're gonna crucify you
Crucify you
Crucify you
Crucify you
In those old cotton fields back home

Too late to joke or crack a smile
You gotta carry
That shit up that drunken mile
When they put the electrodes
In your brain
Even your Mother won't know you're sane
First Lord Nelson's sunken ships
Now Steve Lillywhite's drunken mix

 

[fox69]

"Curse Of Love"

"Curse Of Love"


I've seen those signs a million times
The chill that clouds your eyes
The light that shines black as a coal
Deep down in the mind
And I'm hungry, and I'm dying of thirst
Just suffering from a lover's curse
I'll turn to stone, let the rivers flow,
And wash me to the sea

The curse of love is hanging over me

I've walked the line, stood by your side,
I've kept you company
And all those times you felt like crying,
I've held you close to me
Now someone's put a spell on me,
All my worst dreams are coming true
I'll turn to stone, let the rivers flow,
And wash me to the sea

The curse of love is hanging over me
The curse of love is hanging...
Over me

Around the tent, the storm was raging,
The gypsy's eyes were wild and blazing
Should have listened when she said
You'd slip away from me

The bottle's empty, I've drunk it dry,
And still I feel the pain
Well, all we had is lost now,
Like teardrops in the rain
The night is long, I'm tired and weary,
But I don't know where this road will lead me,
I'll turn to stone, let the rivers flow,
And wash me to the sea

The curse of love is hanging over me
The curse of love is hanging...
Over me

 

[fox69]

"Dark Streets Of London"

"Dark Streets Of London"


I liked to walk in the summer breeze
Down Dalling Road by the dead old trees
And drink with my friends
In the Hammersmith Broadway
Dear dirty old drunken
Delightful old days

Then the winter came down and I loved it so dearly
The pubs and the bookies where you'd spend all your time
And the old men that were singing
When the roses bloom again
And turn once again
To a new summertime

Then the winter comes down
And I can't stand the chill
That comes to the streets around Christmas time
And I'm buggered to damnation
And I haven't got a penny
To wander the dark streets of London

Every time that I look on the first day of summer
Takes me back to the place where they gave ECT
And the drugged up psychos
With death in their eyes
And all of this really
Means nothing to me

 

[fox69]

"Dirty Old Town"

"Dirty Old Town"


I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Clouds a drifting across the moon
Cats a prowling on their beat
Spring's a girl in the street at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I'm going to make me a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
Will chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

 

[fox69]

"Down All The Days"

"Down All The Days"


Christy Brown a clown around town
Now he's a man of renown from Dingle to Down
I type with me toes
Suck stout through me nose
And where it's gonna end
God only knows

Down all the days
The tap-tap-tapping
Of the typewriter pays
The gentle rattling
Of the drays
Down all the days

I have often had to depend upon
The kindness of strangers
But I've never been asked
And I never replied
If I supported the Glasgow Rangers

Down all the days....

 

[fox69]

"Down In The Ground Where The Dead Men Go"

"Down In The Ground Where The Dead Men Go"


Hello boys I've been away
On a bit of a holiday
To the land where the rivers freely flow
And the cattle roam on the wild callagh
Walking home three parts pissed
I stumbled and fell in the morning mist
I fell and rolled in the hungry grass
That tells the tale of a terrible past
I screamed and ran and dreamt I fell
Down in the depths of a freezing hell
Four million people starved to death
Could smell the curse on their dying breath
Where no one ever wants to go
Down in the ground where the dead men go

To hell which is circular all around
Down in the belly of the big cold ground
The moving shadows were everywhere
The very trees seemed to bend and stare
I remembered the dunes on a Sligo shore
Screamed and ran till I could run no more
Over the fields and across the moor
I ran in the house and slammed the door
What the hell's that over there
A putrefying corpse sitting in that chair
Where no one ever wants to go
Down in the ground where the dead men go

Been drunk as a skunk since I've been home
From bar to bar like a ghost I roamed
I can't forget those things I saw
Been down with the devil in the Dalling Road
One place I don't want to go
Down in the ground where the dead men go

 

[fox69]

"Drunken Boat"

"Drunken Boat"


The wind was whipping shingle through the windows in the town
A hail of stones across the roof, the slates came raining down
A blade of light upon the spit came sweeping through the roar
With me head inise a barrel and me leg screwed in the floor

Mother pack me bags because I'm off to foreign parts
Don't ask me where I'm going 'cause I'm sure it's off the charts
I'll pin your likeness on the wall right buy my sleeping head
I'll send you cards and letters so you'll know that I'm not dead

By this time in a week I should be far away from home
Trailing fingers through the phospor or asleep in flowers of foam
From Macao to Acapulco from Havana to Seville
We'll see monoliths and bridges and the Christ up on the hill

An aria with the Russians at the piano in the bar
With icefloes through the window we raised glasses to the Czar
We squared off on a dockside with a coupled hundred Finns
And we dallied in the 'dilly and we stoaked ourselves in gin

Now the only deck I'd want to walk
Are the stalks of corn beneath my feet
And the only sea I want to sail
Is the darkned pond in the scented dusk
Where a kid crouced full of sadness
Lets his boat go drifting out
Into the evening sun

We sailed through constellations and were rutted by the storm
I crumpled under cudgel blows and finally came ashore
I spent the next two years or more just staring at the wall
We went to sea to see the world and what d'you think we saw?

If we turned the table upside down and sailed around the bed
Clamped knives between our teeth and tied bandannas round our heads
With the wainscot our horizon and the ceiling as the sky
You'd not expect that anyone would go and fucking die

At nights we passed the bottle round and drank to our lost friends
We lay alone upon our bunks and prayed that this would end
A wall of moving shadows with rows of swinging keys
We dreamed that whole Leviathans lay rotting in the weeds

Ther's a sound that comes from miles away if you lean your head to hear
A ship's bell rings on board a wreck where the air is still and clear
And up in heaven that means another angel's got his wings
But all below it signifies is a ship's gone in the drink