Remembering Shane MacGowan, the Gorgeously Messy Soul of Irish Music

Remembering Shane MacGowan, the Gorgeously Messy Soul of Irish Music Born in England on Christmas Day, the Pogues front man distilled the Irish experience for audiences around the world—while giving Irish music a loving shove into the future.

When I was a kid, in those days before streaming services, my dad would insist on playing the oldies station every time we were in the car. At the time, it drove me nuts, but later I realized he had given me a great gift: an effortless and intimate knowledge of every foundational hit of the rock-and-roll canon.

So when I became a dad myself—belatedly, one might say, at age 45—I spent some time thinking about what kinds of music I could inflict on my daughter. They say the songs you introduce to a child as a baby stay with them for the rest of their lives, so it felt like an important choice.

Being half-crazy, I chose two prickly, angry rebel songs to include among the more customary bedtime tunes: Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and the Pogues’ “Navigator.” You already know all about the former, I assume, so I won’t say much about it except to mention that it still gives me a contrarian thrill to sing lines like “Come, mothers and fathers throughout the land / And don’t criticize what you can’t understand / Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command / Your old road is rapidly aging” to a child who will turn 25 the year I turn 70.