As great as the instrumental version on the album is, the real delight is the sung version. He doesn’t do it shouty or staccato, just assured and almost slurred. I think it was Nick Cave in the early aughts documentary who said MacGowan could be drunk and saunter up to the mic bored with his hands in his pockets and still give you great vocal performance.
This was a funny story, regardin' Rocky Road To Dublin.
David Simon, who created the TV series
The Wire, also shared an entertaining story about an encounter he had with MacGowan in
a long Twitter thread. He met MacGowan only a couple of times, and one of those was backstage at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 club, where he attempted to thank MacGowan for allowing him to use the Pogues’ “Body of an American” on the show, calling it “a perfect song.”
“He shrugged,” Simon recalled, adding that he told MacGowan, “And can I also say it’s an honor to meet one of the greatest songsmiths and storytellers of our time.” “I believe I gibbered a few more sentences of hagiography before he gave me a look of what I took to be certain disgust,” Simon wrote. ” Seriously, the man scared the hell out of me. Finally, he leaned into my face.
“‘Da Rockin’ Roll Da Dubbing.’
“Excuse me? I asked him to repeat himself.
“‘Da Roggin Roll Da Dubbing.’
“Shit,” Simon continued. “I couldn’t make that out. I thought about nodding sagely, but then imagined myself being called out on it and beaten savagely with a Powers bottle. ‘I’m sorry. One more time on that.’
“He rolled his eyes and enunciated with a certain exaggerated and forced sobriety. ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin,’ he said. I finally realized. ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin,’ I repeated proudly. ‘Oh yes.’
“‘Now that’s a fecking song,’ he said, smiling just enough so that I could breathe. ‘And nobody knows who fecking wrote it.’ And then he hissed his magnificent laugh at me, shook my hand and went to get another drink. May his memory be a blessing to everyone who knew or loved him, or admired his great art,” he concluded.”
