Tune du Jour: “Thousands Are Sailing” – The Pogues
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: The Chancey Brothers vs. East Wall vs. Jiggernaut
VOTE, COMMENT, then DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF
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The Original
“Fairytale of New York” and “Thousands Are Sailing” are, perhaps, The Pogues’ two most extraordinary storytelling ballad masterpieces. And its simply remarkable that they both appear on the same album, the transcendent “If I Should Fall From Grace With God“.
The Pogues:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
I’ve read that The Mahones do the definitive cover of this song. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere to be found.
The Chancey Brothers vs. East Wall vs. Jiggernaut
The Chancey Brothers:
East Wall:
Jiggernaut:
SPACE
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On!??!
Disclaimer: Votes cast from Florida may or may not be counted.
cover me impressed 
This is such a difficult song to cover. First and obvious, The Pogues version simply cannot be improved upon. And it also does not lend itself to differing interpretations. It is what it is, a perfect song embodying immigration, imagery (Dancing down the street in Brendan Behan’s footsteps …), longing, diaspora and identity. Play it straight and you’ll never approach the brilliance of The Pogues. Turn it into a rocker and it loses its emotional storytelling edge. Yet “under-sing” it and it loses the ache and humanity. And, of course, to do it right it requires a host of Celtic instrumentation. Well, with that said, let’s comment on our courageous contestants.
I checked a few sites offering their opinions of the best covers of this song. Interestingly, I did not include any of them. I found these three unmentioned covers to be the best of the lot.
Not familiar with The Chancey Brothers (actually I had never heard of any of the contestants). I like the vocals. Seems a little sped up but not too noticeably so. Instrumentation is excellent. Overall a solid effort.
As you can see, East Wall appeared in year’s past on the blog. And it was not offered on YouTube so I cannot recall how or where I unearthed it. Unlike the other contestants from long ago, I thought enough of this version to include it again. Closely reverent to the original but, as I alluded to above, I don’t know if you could fault musicians for not changing much. I find it to be as excellent a cover now as I did many years ago.
Of the scores of good-to-adequate covers that I reviewed for this post, Jiggernaut jumped out at me from the opening seconds, for reasons I am not really sure of. Like the two previous covers it offers perfectly fine vocals and instrumentation. They kind of rock out a bit towards the end, which is a distinct deviation from the original and the ending has a definitely different tone.
I applaud all of these acts for taking on the monumental task of covering this masterpiece, and all delivered admirably fine versions. It’s damn near impossible for me to award one of these bands over the others. I was leaning towards Jiggernaut but, although I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of the journey, they finished with a bit too much straying from the original for my taste. And so, with a flip of the coin, The Chancey Brothers prevailed. A tip of the hat, laddies!
One of the greatest tracks from one of the greatest bands and the most impressive feature may be that this was written by Philip Chevron. He wrote Lorelei from Peace and Love but little else for The Pogues. East Wall brought the whistle and gristle. The grand story intact and in the hands of craggy tars. Capably delivered the song but the vocals could have been much better. Chancey Brothers played and sang it well with the accordion and fiddle together bringing that distinctive Irish sound. Too similar to the original otherwise. Jiggernaut had a more upbeat take with the pipes prominently featured aling with electric bass and drum kit. A pipe solo into an electric guitar solo and it still winds up 37 seconds shorter than the original. My favorite of three.
A great song from a great album by a great band. I first heard the Pogues after Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash came out, courtesy of a friend who had the album and became obsessed with the band, and thankfully he shared his obsession with me.
And now the agony of choosing the best cover version. All three were done very well. I loved Jiggernaut’s version, but ultimately I felt that this song should really stick closely to the Celtic roots. This made choosing between The Chancey Brothers and East Wall an agonizing task, but East Wall prevailed, for me. I think it was the vocals and that whistle. Just wonderful.
One of my all-time favorite songs, from one of my all-time favorite albums, and one of my all-time favorite bands.
I have a bunch of Irish music in my collection, but never heard of any of these contestants. I wasn’t impressed with the covers, and was considering withholding my vote, but I was curious to see how other reviewers voted. The version by Jiggernaut was probably my favorite, and got my vote.