A Pair of Brown Eyes

da "Rum Sodomy & the Lash" (1985)




A young man is drinking, drowning his heartache while Johnny Cash plays on the jukebox. An old drunk corners him and begins to ramble about his own life, about how he came back from the war to discover his girl had gone off with another.

The young drinker’s immediate reaction is to despise the old sot for spoiling his orgy of self pity, and to stumble out of the pub in a rage. But then, he reconsiders. Perhaps he realises the old man has had much the harder life, and so develops a sense of perspective about his own. Or maybe he throws himself into the canal in despair. The issue is left unresolved, but the air of sorrow and entwined lives is left hanging by one of the Pogues’ most effective works.

from Pop matters

Un giovane sta bevendo, annegando il suo dolore nell'alcool mentre Johnny Cash canta dal jukebox. Un vecchio ubriaco lo avvicina e inizia a divagare sulla sua vita, su come non appena tornato dalla guerra ha scoperto che la sua ragazza se ne era andata con un altro.

La reazione immediata del giovane alcolista è di disprezzare il vecchio ubriacone per aver rovinato la sua orgia di auto-commiserazione e di uscire dal pub furioso. Ma poi riflette. Forse si rende conto che l'anziano ha avuto una vita molto più difficile, sviluppando così una prospettiva sulla propria situazione. O forse si getta nel canale preso dalla disperazione. La questione rimane irrisolta, ma l'aria di tristezza e di vite intrecciate resta sospesa in uno dei lavori più efficaci dei Pogues.


Il genio di MacGowan, il modo in cui riusciva a soffiare via la polvere da tradizioni musicali secolari, raramente si è manifestato in modo altrettanto grandioso e struggente. Di primo acchito, A Pair of Brown Eyes è una di quelle ballate celtiche marinate nella birra che tutti cantano assieme alla fine di una lunga nottata al pub. Dietro a MacGowan, la band fila magnificamente, con il banjo e la fisarmonica che evocano immagini di dolci colline irlandesi. Ma il testo è tutt’altro che allegro: un reduce di guerra ascolta canzoni country al jukebox di un bar, mentre ricorda ciò che ha patito (“Le braccia e le gambe degli uomini erano sparpagliate ovunque”) e ciò che non potrà mai riavere indietro. Quando finalmente esce, sente gli uccelli e il vento, ma il suo peregrinare in cerca della serenità non finirà mai.
rollingstone.it

(1) This might be a stretch, but "Where the water lillies grow" is the chorus to the 19th century ballad "Agnes by the River.

(2) "Johnny" might refer to Johnny McEvoy (a country artist who came to prominence on the Irish music scene in the 1960s, and was likened to an "Irish Bob Dylan") since among his hits were a version of "Muirshin Durkin" and a tune called "Those Brown Eyes." However in an interview Shane says it refers to the "Man in Black," Mr. Johnny Cash. Cash recorded an album and song (released in 1972) called "A Thing Called Love":

"It's just about a guy getting pissed at a bar round here," says Shane nonchalantly. "He's getting pissed because he's broken up with this bird and... you know how it is when you just go into a pub on your own to drink and it's really quiet and you get this old nutter who comes over and starts rambling on you. So this old guy starts on about how he came back from the war, the First World War. Or the Second. One of them anyway. And he tells him about the ship he had out there and how he got out and came back and this girl had fucked off with someone else, a girl with a pair of brown eyes. Which is the same situation as the young guy sitting there listening to all this rubbish and the juke box playing Johnny Cash and ...

(3)

Ray Lyman [sic] and Philomena Begley, classic London juke box tracks. And in the end he gets to the stage where he says fuck it, and he goes stumbling out of the pub and he walks along the canal and starts feeling really bad, on the verge of tears, and he starts realising that the old guy has had a whole fucking lifetime of that feeling, going through the war and everything, but his original reaction is to hate him and despise him. I'm not saying he goes back and starts talking to him but you know...

Ray Lynam and The Hillbillies became a fixture on the Irish record charts in the late 1960s and one of the leading country music artists in Ireland. During the 1980s Lynam had a weekly gig at Dublin's Harcourt Hotel. He is still singing and touring throughout Ireland. Philomena Begley is also an active country artist in Ireland. Indeed, in January 2000 she was awarded the 'Millennium Inspirational Award' from Country Music Ireland at its inaugural awards ceremony.

Notes from Poguetry.com