Towards the end of an October 2024 concert at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, Glen Hansard brought Pogues accordion player James Fearnley to the stage for a few songs, including a ferocious cover of the Pogues‘ 1988 classic “Bottle of Smoke.” In the wake of Hansard’s death in July, a recording of that performance was released today as a single from the upcoming 20th Century Paddy: The Songs of Shane MacGowan. That all-star album, due Nov. 20, pays tribute to Pogues frontman MacGowan, who died in 2023 — other contributors range from Bruce Springsteen to U2 to Dropkick Murphys.
Hansard served as musical director for MacGowan’s funeral, and performed the Pogues’ “A Rainy Night in SoHo” at the ceremony. ”[MacGowan would] say, ‘find the truth in that lyric,’” Hansard said on Ireland’s Late Late Show around that time. ”He would push you … and he had that honesty and a kind of fearlessness about the work. And I think he’s told me to eff off about a hundred times. And yet I’d get a Christmas card, I’d get a birthday card, he sent me a painting.”
In a statement, Shane’s widow Victoria Mary Clarke thanked Hansard. “I’m eternally grateful to Glen for being such an incredible friend to both myself and Shane,” she said, “and for being such an integral part of making this album possible. He did a magnificent version of ‘Bottle of Smoke’ and he infused it with all of the soul and spirit and passion that he was famous for. I know that Shane adored Glen and admired his work and was hoping that Glen would produce an album for him. His passing is a profound loss to the music world and to humanity in general but it is some comfort to have his voice and presence and beauty on this album, which would not have been made without him.”
When Springsteen released his own cover of “A Rainy Night in Soho” from the album, he issued a statement in praise of MacGowan. “Every once in a while, every once in a great while, an artist comes along whose voice seems to speak to history itself,” he said. “Woody Guthrie, Jimmy Rogers, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Coltrane, Patti Smith, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, John Lydon, Hank Williams, Sinatra. Geniuses all, they were both timeless and the embodiment of their moment in time. Many, unsurprisingly, led difficult lives not easily bound by the shackles of convention. They were natural rebels unable to stifle or heed the impulses that led them to their glory and personal hardships.”
