Tom Dunne: Shane MacGowan was the greatest songwriter of his generation
Shane MacGowan at 19. (Photo by Sydney O'Meara/Getty Images)
When will 2023 be done with us? First Christy from Aslan, then our beloved Sinéad, now Shane MacGowan, the greatest song writer of his generation. The boy who, born on Christmas Day, spent his 18th Christmas “anxious and upset” in a psychiatric hospital in London, but who would later write the greatest Christmas song of all time. And now he has left us, just before the Christmas that would have marked his 66th birthday.
In the hubbub and confusion of The Pogues’ success and live shows, it sometimes took a while for the din to settle and the songs to come through. But when they did, they were startling. “He wrote these?” you found yourself asking.
