Pogues, The - The Old Main Drag Lyrics

"picked up the coppers and kicked in the balls". Best lyrics by a human ever.

To be played back-to-back with Nick Cave's "Saint Huck."

Something to slowdance to when you have no-one to slowdance with.

A COMICAL NUMBER POETIC AND INSPIRING GREAT SONGWRITING BUY ME A DRINK SHANE DON'T BE A MEAN TYPE OF CUNT!

This road will never end. It probably goes all around the world.

contessa

Joyce, Butler Yates . shane can sit on the same table

this song is for everyone who had it hard and struggled to survive growing up..

Rent boys. never been one

Patrick Clayton think your better than us Patrick

suprising to hear this at the end of my own private idaho

How? It were perfect for the film.

These old drug runners I used to "know" turned me on to these guys man years ago. Old memories.

I’ve been spat on and shat on and raped and abused

Reminds of San Francisco poke St in the 90s

For all disfunction family.My privat Idaho

I brought myself here because I've been a fan of the Pogues for over 15 years and fancied listening to some of their music.

I met Shane when I was younger and he bought me a can of beer on the train and sat with me and my friends even though Victoria(a lot of you will have to Google her) and another woman that was with then sat in different seats. He took out a bottle of gin from his bag and drank and chatted away to us until we got to where we were going.

His relationship with alcohol is a shame but he is a very down to earth man who would talk to anyone and has a great sense of humour.

Only writing this because I don't understand this new craze of "blah,blah,blah" brought me here.

What is the point of that? Noone cares to be honest

I love that story. He's always struck me as a very pained, very kind person. Generally, I don't get the "____ brought me here" thing, either. (I was just thinking today how irritated I was that most comments on Violent Femmes' "Good Feeling" are "Some awful TV show brought me here.") I mean, I really, really love My Own Private Idaho, and this song is a beautiful interjection at the end... But I'm not going to proudly announce that the only reason I'm listening to a song is I saw it in a movie.

@Liam O’Leary that is a good old contradiction

Dean, I’m not sure that admiring someone’s personality and idolising somebody is the same but I probably do idolise the fella if I’m honest

Closest I came to meeting Shane was in Hollywood at a club he was playing at in the early 90’s. He stumbled, but didn’t fall, after stepping on my heel. I thought he was going to kick my ass, but he turned back around. I was terrified. Wish I could meet him at a pub and buy him a pint.

Michael dyer, lol 👍

The only song that can start and finish a genuine Irish Wake ;-)

My Private Idaho is what introduced me to The Pogues with this song. R.I.P. River Phoenix😢

Poetry in motion

Most of the early punks were rent boys!!!

circa '76, I threw John Lydon a few quid to sing me a song as he sucked on Sid Vicious - did his best but garbled the words as he gargled Sid's seed - years later, he graduated to flogging butter of all things

"And now I'm lying here I've had too much booze
I've been shat on and spat on and raped and abused
I know that I am dying and I wish I could beg
For some money to take me from the old main drag"

The rawness of the lyrics, punched through with great poignancy. Shane McGowan, one of the great songwriters of the past 30 years.

Not just a great lyricist. Shane MacGowan is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. I am not being hyperbolic.

Bog je na strani The Pogues i naravno Chane MacGowan.

Ah such inspiration i love the pogues so much always will be my favourite band

that should never happen in oz i hope go labor party

london sucks cant beleive the wankers live in the heart of a city of poor irish people

not seen tuinal for a while...
there was also lots of Seconal, Sevredol, Palfium, Durophet, Narphen, Levo-Dromoran, Cyclimorph, Physeptone and Diconal on the old main drag.

Doesn't have the same ring

Harry brilliant comment.

0:08-0:32 What an intro; so sad, but so beautiful

this song reminds me of the rex hotel in hammer-smith in the late 80s i was18 and this ould free state geezer tried it on
while i was struggling to get started after moving over from belfast as there was no work at the time.
boy i smashed him up
but i think about kids who he might have got to before
that cunt put his head down in the dole signing on when he saw me and disappeared
i often wonder about the other young kids he tried to help!!!!!!
he will be long dead now but i can still see him looking at me in hammersmith dole with a black eye and his head patched up after i smashed everything in the room over his head
every other irish man i ever met went out of his way to help me

Yup. still there. Metro Hotel in Paddington, Birkenhead in Kings X also heavily involved with the open air frontlaines back then... not now after massive police operations and gentrification, it's a whole different ball game

What the fuck are you talking about?? talk some kind of English that someone can fuckin understand.

What's a dancing bag ?

A wee sack..you'd know about that eh?

Down the Dilly !

I always wondered what happened to his good looks!

It was a nice surprise to hear this song at the end of My own private Idaho.

is it dated? I saw it at the theaters years ago.

Yeah, it was like this song soothed your soul after going on that crazy emotional journey with River, Keanu, and Bill. 😎

Back in the 60s, my dad often had to run away from home. in the 80s, he had to see a therapist, and one of the issues he dealt with was ridding the sorrow he felt when listening to this song. I don't know the details of what happened to him, but this song paints a depressingly insightful picture.

the he-males and the she-males brought me here

GOD BLESSyou.

amazing song happy bday ol boy

Not only Irish lads but us Welsh boys that turned tricks to survive in London. Bless!

Bless, doesn't really sound good. Not like that last line of the song. "Yeah, me, I'm one as well, me!" Prick.

Reminds me of the young punks that made B town before the fa.. shit hit the town...

and the bells were ringing out,for xmas day

The Pogues, and the Smiths. The only good thing to come from the 80's.

Eh. Sure?!

@gerard max Not the biggest fan..

what about new order, red hot chili peppers, the cure, killing joke etc.

The Clash,Ramones,The Cure,etc,etc...

Carlos Trialara Actually the Ramones and The Clash were the seventies. But still a good point and two great bands.

Too much beer and wine brought me here.

And now I am lying here, I've had too much booze...

Alexis hk

One of their best!

ive loved The pogues since this album,scooter rallies in the 80s brill timesxxxxx

Anyone notice this is very, very similar to the melody and lyrical Rhythm of Bob Dylan's Ballad in Plain D

My Own Private Idaho brought me here!!
R.I.P. River Phoenix

+dnek1 same here exactly. that film though with scruffy river phoenix made me realise how u didnt used to have to be air brushed picture perfect back then to be considered a handsome star.

I just got back from a free screening of "My Own Private Idaho" at the Main Street Landing Theater in Burlington, VT. HAVE A NICE DAY.

This song was the best way to end that film, thanks Gus Van Sant and Bill Stafford and, YES, RIP River Jude Phoenix!!! 💚

Listen to Chris Connelly --The Early Nighters, elegy for River

singing about reality

I like the composition at 1'47, like a scratched vinyl...

Best lyricist...bar none..

No one can convey raw emotion and the story the way Shane does, nobody!!

A genius. An a drunk. Perfection.

Blocked from being watched in Ireland? Well that makes perfect sense...

aha! Unbroken Continuity, TAL32. And fuck censorship obsessed antisex Puritans!

+Molly Mag Uidhir How so?

What "she-male" does it mean? Is that some sort of abbrevation of a transvestite?

obviously

Yes the she-males and the he-males

RIP Phil :(

the accrordian monotone is flatlining. In the start and middle sections it represents a resusatation. the end is death.

"If you don't know in Croatia was a fricking war and i was solider 5 year's(1991-1996)..."There is a scar's on my hart and time don't meen nothing....Now i Cry!!!...sorr.4 my English" ...Punkie d'Dog

i'm not either but i do believe that sex work should be decriminalized and destigmatized. have you seen my own private idaho? it's a film about gay prostitutes in portland (among other things) this song plays at the end of the movie

why are you a prude or just a virgin?

Aye, i know it, coincidence i was actually listening to it on the train today, i've had this album for years, I find waltzing matilda more Sad and Old main more Depressing, Poverty and war 2 different subjects to me.

then try the band played waltzing matilda. it's almost impossible to actually listen to that song and not cry.

One of the few songs ever that almost made me cry.

why yes yes i do

i love to play this song for all my friends doing sex work

burnt out classic

is it just me that think the only normal looking one is our spider (who we all know is nothing near normal)

I mcr si sono ispirati a questa canzone. Non è una coincidenza. La musica è quella. :)

Hey I don't know why but every time I hear these bastards I feel like crying. They were just AWESOME

oh, my GOD !!

Infatti anche a me ricordava contessa

Yes. Regardless. I couldnae hear anyone else doing such a deep and wonderful song like this.

You do realise it's about a rent boy, don't you?

@hmisdalaw Grazie!

@SqualLyuk nel coverizzare "Contessa" di Paolo Pietrangeli i Modena hanno sostituito la melodia e le armonie dell'originale con quelle di questo brano, come dichiarato dal buon Ice Ghiacci in un'intervista anni e anni fa

only shane mcg could write this great tune ! can anyone sing this like shane mcg ?
i dont think so..

@JOJO22858 true,and a great movie it was.

@JOJO22858 One of my fav movies!

Possibile che mi ricordi "Contessa" dei MCR?

perfetc ...in the style of Dylan, Lou Reed and especially Tom Waits

One of my all-time favorite Irish dirges. It was also the end credit song for the
fantastic 1991 film "My Own Private Idaho" starring the late, great River
Phoenix.

"cajole"....brilliant usage

@MegaPaddyo - One of your favourites of how many songs about male prostitution? 10 world-wide since the dawn of mankind? LOL.

thumbs up if you first heard this song on My Private Idaho

this is an absolute tune. one of my favourite pogues songs.

@quasarsphere Shane I though he died?

Love that!

@readabook1234
You fuckin eejit, he's not dead

@readabook1234
He's not dead.

great song - who cares where who's from or why..? lift yer eyes tae the sky an let's get the fuck off the auld main drag

@Wanderlustus i said go on and suck it, and shut up, repeat?

@chicken7555 suck my spanish cheese puff

the best lyrics that anyone can beg, or drag.
I was pulled in by the coppers and beaten in..........ahhh the old main drag....

This is the best song ever that represents the Irish fellas that were on he dragggggg> Having been there i relate to it, so all others go have a bit of sympathy, please> so now i am lying here typing this defence.

@SuperDsweeney please refrain from calling me a cunt just because i've stated a fact. Their a London-Irish band and were shunned by the Irish music establishment for years for not being 'authentically Irish'. Shane was born in Kent, raised in Tipperary until his parents moved to London when he was 6, yes.

the Pogues are english, their from London.

i love the pogues but im english so not many of my friends know them and its fucking annoying

verc,
good for you, keep the head up! there is another life and u need to live it!

excellent tune shane ma man

fcuk u all, if u are not smart enough to realize what this song means to you on a personal level u have no right to post on it.
For me..i was lying in a gutter, now i am typing this.......

fuck u all...u want a flash of reality take a cup of soup....other wise beg..

you ilitarate fuck wits

pseudo shemales

it must of been shemales lol... Lets go drunken deboucheries!