The Pogues Songs - Sally MacLennane Lyrics

The Pogues - Sally MacLennane

The Pogues - Sally MacLennane Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Rum Sodomy & the Lash
Released: 1985

Sally MacLennane Lyrics

Well, Jimmy played harmonica in the pub where I was born
He played it from the night time to the peaceful early morn
He soothed the souls of psychos and the men who had the horn
And they all looked very happy in the morning

But Jimmy didn't like his place in this world of ours
Where the elephant man broke strong men's necks when he'd had too many pours
So sad to see the grieving and the people that I'm leaving
And he took the road for god knows in the morning

We walked him to the station in the rain
We kissed him as we put him on the train
And we sang him a song of times long gone
Though we knew that we'd be seeing him again

(Far away) I'm sad to say I must be on me way
So buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away (far away)
I'd like to think of me returning when I can
To the greatest little boozer and to Sally MacLennane

The years went by, the times had changed I grew to be a man
I learned to love the virtues of sweet Sally Maclennane
I took the jeers and drank the beers and crawled back home at dawn
And ended up a barman in the morning

I played the pump and took the hump and watered whiskey down
I talked of whores and horses to the men who drank the brown
I heard them say that Jimmy's making money far away
And some people left for heaven without warning

We walked him to the station in the rain
We kissed him as we put him on the train
And we sang him a song of times long gone
Though we knew that we'd be seeing him again

(Far away) I'm sad to say I must be on me way
So buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away (far away)
I'd like to think of me returning when I can
To the greatest little boozer and to Sally Maclennane

When Jimmy came back home he was surprised that they were gone
He asked me all the details of the train that they went on
Some people they are scared to croak but Jimmy drank until he choked
Took the road for heaven in the morning

We walked him to the station in the rain
And we kissed him as we put him on the train
And we sang him a song of times long gone
Though we knew that we'd be seeing him again

(Far away) I'm sad to say I must be on me way
So buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away (far away)
I'd like to think of me returning when I can
To the greatest little boozer and to Sally Maclennane

Writer/s: SHANE MACGOWAN
Publisher: DOWNTOWN MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sally MacLennane

This song was inspired by the legendary early 1980s drinking sessions that Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan would take part in with his friends around the bars at Euston railway station before boarding the boat train to Holyhead for the ferry to Dun Laoghaire. "I was always a little envious of Shane, it was almost this ritualistic thing where he'd get stocious and his friends would put him on the train to Ireland," accordion player James Fearnley recalled to The Irish Post December 16, 2013. "A lot from that song had also come from being a barman himself at the Great Ormond Street hospital bar. He knew about watering whiskey down from that I'm sure."

The Sally MacLennane that MacGowan sings of returning to in his "greatest little boozer" is not a woman, but a brand of stout.