| Rum Sodomy & the Lash | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 5 August 1985 | |||
| Studio | Elephant Studios, Wapping, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:55 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Elvis Costello | |||
| The Pogues chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Rum Sodomy & the Lash | ||||
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Rum Sodomy & the Lash is the second studio album by the London-based, Irishfolk punk bandthe Pogues, released on 5 August 1985.[2] The album reached number 13 on the UK charts. The track "A Pair of Brown Eyes", based on an older Irish tune, reached number 72 on the UK singles chart. "The Old Main Drag" later appeared on the soundtrack to the filmMy Own Private Idaho.
The album's title is taken from a quotation attributed[3] toWinston Churchill:[4] "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing butrum,sodomy, and thelash." The title was suggested by drummerAndrew Ranken, who said "it seemed to sum up life in our band".[4]
The cover artwork is an altered version ofThe Raft of the Medusa, aRomantic-era painting byTheodore Géricault, with the band members' heads, painted byPeter Mennim,[5] replacing those of various figures on the raft.[6]
Elvis Costello, whose managerJake Riviera approached the band, was originally employed to produce two songs for a single, "A Pair of Brown Eyes" and "Sally MacLennane", but after recording at Elephant Studios in Wapping was extended Costello agreed to record the entire album.[7] Chevron later said, "The Pogues needed, more than anything, not to be not so much as produced as facilitated. Recording the band as live as possible, but with a great deal of natural acoustic presence in the instruments – was quite a revolutionary thing to do in 1985." Costello said, "I saw my task was to capture them in their dilapidated glory before some more professional producer fucked them up."[8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| The Irish Times | [10] |
| Mojo | [11] |
| Pitchfork | 9.5/10[12] |
| Record Mirror | 4/5[13] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [14] |
| Sounds | [15] |
| Spin | [16] |
| Uncut | [17] |
| The Village Voice | A[18] |
Rum Sodomy & the Lash received very positive reviews from critics.Melody Maker'sAdam Sweeting said, "The brightest, most intense moments ofRum ... aren't about particularities of style or delivery. This is, apart from anything else, music to hang on to other people by to stave off brutal fact and the weight of history. While The Pogues make music for drunks as well, probably, as anyone has they're also dragging an oft-ignored folk tradition into the daylight with an altogether improbable potency ...Rum ... has soul, if not a great deal of innovation, and somewhere among the glasses and the ashtrays lie a few home truths."[19]Sounds' Jane Simon calledRum Sodomy & the Lash "the finest slice of story-telling your heart could wish for".[15]David Quantick ofNME described the record as "a collection of free-ranging stuff to be sure; from the funereal folk ballad to the near spaghetti-western instrumental, raucous celebration to brown study, cheerful melody to downright strangeness. It's never sentimental, it's rarely polite, and it's certainly not ordinary ...Rum Sodomy and the Lash is more than the best record The Pogues could be expected to make at this time. It's more than a brilliant example of a band using its resources in an imaginative manner. It's probably the best LP of 1985."[20]Robert Christgau ofThe Village Voice wrote that "none of it would mean much without the songs—some borrowed, some traditional, and some proof that MacGowan can roll out bitter blarney with the best of his role models."[18]
In a retrospective review, Mark Deming ofAllMusic stated thatRum Sodomy & the Lash "falls just a bit short of being the Pogues' best album, but was the first one to prove that they were a great band, and not just a great idea for a band."[9] Daniel Bristow of the Irish music website CLUAS awarded the album an eight out of ten, calling it "a record that will never cease to delight, always a pleasure to hear and highly, highly recommended if you're not familiar with it already".[21] Mark Cooper ofQ described the record as "a proud, defiant bruise of an album that manages to be both profoundly bleak and immoderately romantic and it remains MacGowan's and The Pogues' finest hour".[22]Uncut's Jon Wilde wrote that "the most startling thing about their second album was the steep ascendancy of MacGowan's songwriting",[17] whileSpin's Jon Dolan said that the album contained "some of the purest toothless lyricism in punk-rock history."[16]
In 2000,Q placedRum Sodomy & the Lash at number 93 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2012, the album was ranked number 440 onRolling Stone'sThe 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[23]Pitchfork named it the 67th best album of the 1980s.[24] The album was also included in the book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[25]
A remastered and expanded version ofRum, Sodomy & the Lash was released forcompact disc by WEA in the European market on 11 January 2005; this re-issue was released on September 19, 2006, byRhino Records in the United States. The remastered disc added sixbonus tracks, including the entirety of thePoguetry in MotionEP and theB-sides to "Dirty Old Town" – "A Pistol for Paddy Garcia" onseven-inch and "The Parting Glass" ontwelve-inch singles. The reissue includedliner notes by David Quantick and a poem about the Pogues byTom Waits.[21]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Sick Bed ofCúchulainn" | Shane MacGowan | 2:59 |
| 2. | "The Old Main Drag" | MacGowan | 3:19 |
| 3. | "The Wild Cats of Kilkenny" | MacGowan,Jem Finer | 2:48 |
| 4. | "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" | Traditional; arranged by the Pogues | 2:55 |
| 5. | "A Pair of Brown Eyes" | MacGowan | 4:54 |
| 6. | "Sally MacLennane" | MacGowan | 2:43 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dirty Old Town" | Ewan MacColl | 3:45 |
| 2. | "Jesse James" | Traditional; arranged by the Pogues | 2:58 |
| 3. | "Navigator" | Phil Gaston | 4:12 |
| 4. | "Billy's Bones" | MacGowan | 2:02 |
| 5. | "The Gentleman Soldier" | Traditional; arranged by the Pogues | 2:04 |
| 6. | "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" | Eric Bogle | 8:10 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Originally from | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13. | "A Pistol for Paddy Garcia" | Finer | B-side of "Dirty Old Town" | 2:31 |
| 14. | "London Girl" | MacGowan | Poguetry in Motion EP | 3:05 |
| 15. | "Rainy Night in Soho" | MacGowan | Poguetry in Motion EP | 5:36 |
| 16. | "Body of an American" | MacGowan | Poguetry in Motion EP | 4:49 |
| 17. | "Planxty Noel Hill" | Finer | Poguetry in Motion EP | 3:12 |
| 18. | "The Parting Glass" | Traditional; arranged by the Pogues | B-side of "Dirty Old Town" 12-inch single | 2:14 |
Credits are adapted from the liner notes ofRum Sodomy & the Lash andPoguetry in Motion, except where noted.[5][26]
The Pogues
Additional personnel
| Technical personnel
|
| Chart (1985–1986) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[28] | 89 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[29] | 17 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[30] | 39 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[31] | 13 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| France (SNEP)[32] | Gold | 100,000* |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[33] | Gold | 100,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
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