Rum Sodomy & The Lash Tabs:
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***The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn - by Shane MacGowan
from the album "Rum Sodomy & The Lash"
The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn - as perfomed by The Pogues
Intro:
C Dm C Dm C Dm F C
e|---8-8-10-12-10-8----8-8-10-12-10-----8-8-10-12-10-8----8-8-10-8-|
B|-8----------------10----------------8-----------------10---------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
Mc[C]Cormack and Richard [Dm] Tauber
Are [C] singing by the [Dm] bed.
There's a [C] glass of punch be[Dm]low your feet
And an [F] angel at your [C] head.
There's [C] devils on each [Dm] side of you
With [C] bottles in their [Dm] hands.
You need [C] one more drop of [Dm] poison
And you'll [Am] dream of foreign [Am] lands.
When you [F] pissed yourself in [Bb] Frankfurt
And got [C] syph down in Co[F]logne
And you [F] heard the rattling [Bb] death trains
As you [C] lay there all a[F]lone,
Frank [F] Ryan brought you [C] whiskey
In a [Bb] brothel in Ma[C]drid
And you [Bb] decked some fucking [Bb] blackshirt
Who was [C] cursing all the [C] Yids.
At the [F] sick bed of Cu[F]chulainn
We'll [Bb] kneel and say a [F] prayer
And the [Bb] ghosts are rattling [F] at the door
And the [C] devil's in the [F] chair.
[F] [F] [Bb] [C]
[F] [F] [Bb] [F]
And [F] in the Euston [Bb] Tavern
You [C] screamed it was your [F] shout
But they [F] wouldn't give you [Bb] service
So you [C] kicked the windows [F] out.
They [F] took you out in[C]to the street
And [Bb] kicked you in the [C] brains,
So you [Bb] walked back in through a [Bb] bolted door
And [C] did it all a[C]gain.
At the [F] sick bed of Cu[F]chulainn
We'll [Bb] kneel and say a [F] prayer
And the [Bb] ghosts are rattling [F] at the door
And the [C] devil's in the [F] chair.
F Bb C
e|----------------------------------------|
B|------------------------5-6--5----------|
G|---------------5----5-7--------7-5------|
D|-7-7-7-5-7-5-7---3------------------5-5-|
A|----------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------|
F Bb C F
e|----------------------------------------|
B|------------------------5-6--5----------|
G|---------------5----5-7--------7-5------|
D|-7-7-7-5-7-5-7---3------------------5-5-|
A|----------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------|
[C]
You re[C]member that foul [Dm] evening
When you [C] heard the banshees [Dm] howl,
There was [C] lazy drunken [Dm] bastards
Singing [F] 'Billy is in the [C] bowl.'
They [C] took you up to [Dm] midnight mass
And [C] left you in the [Dm] lurch
So you [C] dropped a button [Dm] in the plate
And [Am] spewed up in the [Am] church.
Now you'll [F] sing a song of [Bb] liberty
For [C] blacks and paks and [F] jocks
And they'll [F] take you from this [Bb] dump you're in
And [C] stick you in a [F] box.
Then they'll [F] take you to Clough[C]prior
And [Bb] shove you in the [C] ground
But you'll [Bb] stick your head back [Bb] out and shout,
"We'll [C] have another [C] round."
At the [F] graveside of Cu[F]chulainn
We'll [Bb] kneel around and [F] pray
And [Bb] God is in His [F] heaven,
And [C] Billy's down by the [F] bay.
F Bb C
e|----------------------------------------|
B|------------------------5-6--5----------|
G|---------------5----5-7--------7-5------|
D|-7-7-7-5-7-5-7---3------------------5-5-|
A|----------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------|
F Bb C F
e|----------------------------------------|
B|------------------------5-6--5----------|
G|---------------5----5-7--------7-5------|
D|-7-7-7-5-7-5-7---3------------------5-5-|
A|----------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------|
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Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques
|
No Picture
michael Wanna Be |
#1 by michael Dittrich at Mar 21, 1974 at 11:49 PM EST |
| This is written as a defiant death bed rant from an exile returned to Ireland. He is recalling demons and drunken rampages that have marked his life | |
|
No Picture
Randy Wanna Be |
#2 by Randy Burden at Sep 26, 1978 at 12:37 AM EST |
| That's some great information Anacharis, Thanks. A Modern Cuchulainn, I like it. | |
|
No Picture
SOCIETY DWELLIN Average |
#3 by SOCIETY DWELLIN MOTHER FUCKER! at Nov 6, 2002 at 11:43 PM EST |
| And spewed up in the church | |
|
No Picture
KISS is the gre Average |
#4 by KISS is the greatest at Jun 13, 2004 at 9:19 AM EST |
| 'S about an Irish nationalist and anti-fascist looking back on his life, and about Gaelic Self-destruction, as said above, and about Irish Folklore. Specifically, it sounds like the Narrator was involved in the Spanish Civil War- John McCormack and Richard Tauber were famous tenors of that era, and Frank Ryan was an IRA member who led Irish Volunteers against Franco's Nazi-backed Fascists- the 'fucking blackshirts' who ran the death-trains; it sounds like the narrator was a member of Ryan's International Brigade, 'Connolly's Column'. After the war, the narrator descends into Alcoholism (the second verse describes a single drunken rampage in London, while he's pretty much gone in the bridge), and dies a classic Gaelic death- drunken, furious, passionate to the last- Cloughprior, in this case, refers to a cemetary in County Tipperary. At the same time, the narrator's life parallels that of the doomed Irish Hero Cúchulainn. A great warrior, he was said to fly into unquenchable rages in battle, and who, when his strength was finally sapped, tied himself to a rock to face his enemies, in order to die on his feet- an echo of the narrator's defiant love of liberty to the end. As a side note, Cúchulainn was decapitated after his death- "But you'll stick your head back out and shout 'we'll have another round'" takes on a slightly different meaning with that in mind | |
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