The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (40th Anniversary Expanded) (Rhino)
2025 marks the 40th anniversary reissue of The Pogues’ seminal second album, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. Four decades on, this record remains as vital, exhilarating, and essential as ever.
For a generation, The Pogues were the punk experience—a raw, joyous rebellion fueled by Irish spirit and poetic fury. Many of us of a certain age will recall the explosion of Irish bands across New Zealand pubs: the pogoing chaos giving way to moments of sublime, swaying unity, arms thrown over shoulders, voices joining in stoic, drunken chorus. No longer just folk music for old bastards, this was the soundtrack to a semi-religious, often messy, communal catharsis.
And who provided the bulk of that sacred noise? Shane MacGowan and The Pogues, of course.
The leap from their debut, Red Roses for Me, to this second effort was immense. Much was initially made of Elvis Costello’s involvement, but his genius as a producer here was simply knowing when to step back, his goal being, in his own words, to “get in before another producer f***ed it up.” He captured a band operating at peak capacity, driven by storytelling, raw instrumentation, and the untamed voice of a literary genius.
The album explodes with The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn, a track that leaps out of the gate at a frenetic, breathtaking pace, detailing a dying hero’s last-minute decision: one more pint before the dying of the light. This is quickly followed by the haunting resignation of The Old Main Drag, an intimate MacGowan confessional detailing his dark experiences as a young rent boy in London. (He was quick to note his self-imposed boundaries, coining the phrase, “a job in hand,” to paraphrase.)
Bassist and firebrand Cait O’Riordan offers a moment of sweet respite with the gentle, melancholy cover,A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day, before the album’s iconic centrepiece, A Pair of Brown Eyes, swells the heart. It’s a sad, timeless tale of a returning soldier struggling to process a world that has irrevocably moved on without him.
Before despair can set in, the band roars back with the celebratory, life-affirming chaos of Sally Maclennane. (How many times did I leap up and down in the Loft Bar to that tune?) Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town expertly brings the mood back down, proving The Pogues were not just on a white-hot writing streak but were also master interpreters; for many, their version remains the definitive one. The album proper closes with The Band Played Waltzing Matilda a dirge of heartbreaking scale that details the horror of the ANZAC soldier’s experience from Gallipoli, brutally revisiting the themes of post-war displacement.
The expanded reissue includes the songs from the Poguetry In Motion EP, quickly recorded as a follow-up. This bonus material proves the fuel tank was far from empty, offering the irresistibly catchy London Girl, the epic Body of An American (which foreshadowed their focused exploration of the Irish-American diaspora on their next major release), and the enduringly beautiful Rainy Night In Soho, arguably MacGowan’s finest moment of hopeless, tender romance. Live tracks round out the rest of this essential 40th-anniversary package.
While If I Should Fall from Grace with God stands as the most commercially successful and arguably most polished album The Pogues ever released, for me—and for anyone who ever went gloriously mad to an Irish band in a sticky-floored pub—the true magic was first bottled on Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.
It remains an educated shot across the bow of the establishment, heroic proof that passion, poetry, and a magnificent racket could all be delivered with a beating heart and a raised glass.
It is a masterpiece.
Rob Jones
Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (40th Anniversary) is released Friday, Oct 24 on Rhino Records
Rum Sodomy & The Lash 2-CD Expanded Edition Tracklist:
CD 1 – Rum Sodomy & The Lash (1985)
01. The Sick Bed Of Cúchulainn
02. The Old Main Drag
03. Wild Cats Of Kilkenny
04. I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day
05. A Pair Of Brown Eyes
06. Sally MacLennane
07. Dirty Old Town
08. Jesse James
09. Navigator
10. Billy’s Bones
11. The Gentleman Soldier
12. And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
CD2:
01. The Parting Glass (B-Side)
02. A Pistol For Paddy Garcia (B-Side)
Poguetry In Motion EP
03. London Girl
04. A Rainy Night In Soho
05. The Body Of An American
06. Planxty Noel Hill
BBC Radio 1 – The Janice Long Show – July 11, 1985
07. Wild Cats Of Kilkenny
08. Billy’s Bones
09. The Old Main Drag
10. Dirty Old Town
Bonus Tracks
11. A Pair Of Brown Eyes (Live at Glasgow Barrowland)
12. Sally MacLennane (Live at Glasgow Barrowland)
13. Do You Believe in Magic? (Rough Mix)
2LP Edition:
Side One
01. The Sick Bed Of Cúchulainn
02. The Old Main Drag
03. Wild Cats Of Kilkenny
04. I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day
05. A Pair Of Brown Eyes
06. Sally MacLennane
Side Two
01. Dirty Old Town
02. Jesse James
03. Navigator
04. Billy’s Bones
05. The Gentleman Soldier
06. And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Side Three
01. The Parting Glass (B-Side)
02. A Pistol For Paddy Garcia (B-Side)
03. London Girl
04. A Rainy Night In Soho
05. The Body Of An American
06. Planxty Noel Hill
Side Four
01. Wild Cats Of Kilkenny
02. Billy’s Bones
03. The Old Main Drag
04. Dirty Old Town
05. A Pair Of Brown Eyes (Live at Glasgow Barrowland)
06. Sally MacLennane (Live at Glasgow Barrowland)
07. Do You Believe in Magic (Rough Mix)
