Hell's Ditch

Hell's Ditch is the fifth full-length album by The Pogues, and the last to feature frontman 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 other 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.

Related Topics:
The Pogues - Shane MacGowan - 1990 - Irish music - Rock - Folk rock - Alcohol

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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 Almeria, 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".

Related Topics:
Asia - Siam - Sayonara - Spain - Almeria - Straight to Hell - Federico García Lorca - Francisco Franco - Spanish Civil War - Théodore Géricault - The Raft of the Medusa - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash

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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.

Related Topics:
The Clash - Joe Strummer

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