Hell's Ditch

Infobox Album
Name = Hell's Ditch
Type = Album
Artist = The Pogues


Released = September 1990
Recorded =
Genre = Folk rock
Length = 41:24
Label = Island
Producer = Joe Strummer
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ve8ibk096akv link]
Last album = "Peace and Love"
(1989)
This album = "Hell's Ditch"
(1990)
Next album = "The Best of The Pogues
(1991)

"Hell's Ditch" is the fifth full-length album by The Pogues, and the last to feature front man Shane MacGowan as a member. Released in 1990, the album continued the group's slow departure from Irish music, giving more emphasis to rock and straight folk rock, and forsaking their earlier staples of traditional compositions almost entirely. MacGowan parted with the band after the release of the album, partly due to problems with his abuse of alcohol and drugs, which had for years been leading to deterioration of his abilities as a performer and his reliability in general. The problems are evident on the album itself, as MacGowan slurs his way through most of the tracks with little of the energy and enthusiasm that was so apparent on the earlier albums.

Several of the songs on the album have Asian themes, in sound or in content, notably "Summer in Siam", "The House of Gods", and "Sayonara", although only the latter has strong elements of a noticeably far-eastern tune. The song "Lorca's Novena" draws on MacGowan's affinity for Spain (particularly Almería, which he discovered years earlier when filming "Straight to Hell"), and one of its famous poets, Federico García Lorca. The song tells of the poet's murder by Francisco Franco's Nationalist supporters in the Spanish Civil War, and how his body, never having been recovered, was said to have walked away. "The Wake of the Medusa" is a first person narrative inspired by Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa, which appeared on the cover of the band's second album, "Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash". The title track is typically MacGowan in its vulgar description of the squalid life in a prison nicknamed "Hell's Ditch".

The album was produced by The Clash's Joe Strummer, who later served as a temporary replacement for MacGowan when the band went on tour.

Track listing

#"Sunny Side of the Street" ("MacGowan/Finer")
#"Sayonara" ("MacGowan")
#"The Ghost of a Smile" ("MacGowan")
#"Hell's Ditch" ("MacGowan/Finer")
#"Lorca's Novena" ("MacGowan")
#"Summer in Siam" ("MacGowan")
#"Rain Street" ("MacGowan")
#"Rainbow Man" ("Woods")
#"The Wake of the Medusa" ("Finer")
#"The House of Gods" ("MacGowan")
#"5 Green Queens & Jean" ("MacGowan/Finer")
#"Maidrin Rua" ("Traditional")
#"Six to Go" ("Woods")

Personnel

*Shane MacGowan - vocals
*Jem Finer - banjo, mandola, hurdy-gurdy, saxophone, guitar
*Spider Stacy - tin whistle, vocals, harmonica
*James Fearnley - accordion, piano, guitar, violin, sitar, kalimba
*Terry Woods - mandolin, guitar, cittern, vocals, concertina, auto harp
*Philip Chevron - guitar
*Darryl Hunt - bass guitar
*Andrew Ranken - drums

Hell's Ditch Demos

The "Hell's Ditch" demos (commonly known as the Falconer demos for the studio in which they were tracked) were recorded prior to "Hell's Ditch", released in 1990. "Murder Ska" and "Redemption Song" are both unreleased tracks featuring Spider Stacy on lead vocals. "Victoria" and "Lust for Vomit" are both instrumental versions of songs appearing on Shane MacGowan and the Popes' 1995 debut album "The Snake," the latter retitled "A Mexican Funeral in Paris". "NW3" is an early version of "Mother Mo Chroi," which was released on MacGowan's second solo effort, 1997's "The Crock of Gold".

"NW3" and "Murder Ska" were played live as early as 1988 but never properly recorded. A studio version of "NW3" was recorded for inclusion on "Hell's Ditch", but MacGowan was unable to deliver a satisfactory vocal performance, thus leaving the track as an unfinished instrumental.

The Falconer demos are widely available on the Internet, and pirated copies occasionally surface on the online auction site eBay. Also, the Falconer demos are likely to appear on the forthcoming Pogues box set of rare and unreleased material scheduled for release by Rhino Entertainment on March 17, 2008.

Track listing

#"Murder Ska"
#"Ghost of a Smile"
#"Bastard Landlord"
#"Summer in Siam"
#"Wake of the Medusa"
#"NW3"
#"Victoria"
#"Redemption Song"
#"Lust for Vomit"
#"Five Green Queens & Jean"