The curious way Winston Churchill “seemed to sum up” The Pogues
Shane MacGowan’s perhaps worst-kept secret, as the Irish punk icon of The Pogues, was that he was actually born in England.
It didn’t exactly do his rebellious, anti-establishment image any good to know that he began his life as a young literary prodigy, attending various posh private schools across the south-east of the country before the tantalising bug of both home and rock and roll finally managed to catch him in its tightest grip.
Yet the fact remains that MacGowan could have become the most sickeningly stereotypical Irishman to ever live, donning a leprechaun hat and breaking into a little jig every five minutes, and those roots would still never let him go. It allowed him to become the defining songwriter for a generation, of course, but all the rest? He’d gladly leave that behind.
Even still, there were a whole slew of British icons – Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, even The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – that could have had room to influence a fledgling punk mind in its infancy of growing into a storming sensation. But it was none of those who MacGowan and the rest of the band attributed to one of their most famous album titles.
Instead, it was the man who once said the words “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” that The Pogues seemingly took to heart. Naturally, this was Winston Churchill: Britain’s greatest wartime leader, but an unlikely inspiration on the Irish punk rockers who were seemingly as Celtic as you could possibly get.
However, the title of their 1985 record, Rum Sodomy and the Lash, was not-so coincidentally resonant with words that the historic prime minister himself had once said, when he claimed, “Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.” For prime and pricking ears, though, that sounded exactly like what they wanted to be.
“It seemed to sum up life in our band,” said drummer Andrew Ranken, and so the title was set. Essentially, it was the mantra of sex, drugs, and rock and roll turned into more relatable terms – and if there was one thing The Pogues were committed to being from their very first performance, it was a voice for the everyman.
Said everyman may not have been so impressed by the revelation that the original quote came from a snooty British war leader, but sometimes punk rock meant that you also had to roll with the punches. The Pogues certainly knew a thing or two about that over the years, with various break-ups and bust-ups threatening their very existence at times.
Yet through it all, the sex, drugs, and rock and roll – or, ahem, the rum, sodomy, and lash – was their cherished elixir in becoming the embodiment of the punk cause. Is that the ringing endorsement Churchill would have wanted for his lasting legacy? Probably not. But did it suit The Pogues down to the ground? Oh, you can be absolutely sure of that.
