Music Tracks: Dirty Old Town by The Pogues

Dar: Rum, Sodomy and the Lash

Dar: Almost easy listening

Dar: Written in 1956 / 1985

Dar: 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 are drifting across the moon
Cats are prowling on their beat
Springs 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

Dar: Any band with an album called "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" gets my vote!

Dar: At the age of 17 I played  international Hockey for the Wales under 18 squad. We went on tour to Dublin to play Eire. This song reminds me what Dublin was like in the early 80's - not the slick chrome plated, gentrefied Dublin we see today.... but the real gritty Dublin that this song sort of portrays

Dar: The band were origianly called Pogue Mahone—"pogue mahone" being the Anglicisation of the Irish póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse".