It was a pleasant, warm evening in Nowlan Park Co. Kilkenny, yesterday May 12th for the arrival of American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist the great Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen.
Despite Met Éireann warning of continuous heavy showers; a dirty looking sky containing cumulonimbus and other cloud formations, failed to materialise; dared to do so by an estimated and welcoming 40,000 fans.
Springsteen and his E Street band (or should I be more accurate “his magnificent and talented E Street orchestra”), took the opportunity yesterday to pay tribute to a recently departed Irish and Tipperary talent, which he had visited in person just last year.
In the knowledge, that over 25,000 thousand Tipperary fans were present, Springsteen and his E Street band of musicians remembered Shane MacGowan, by opening their outstanding three hour and fifteen minute performance, with that heart-wrecking 1986 MacGowan and Pogues classic “A Rainy Night in Soho.”
Our readers will remember Shane MacGowan passed away last year, [Thursday 30th November 2023] at the age of just 65 years.
On hearing of Shane MacGowan’s death; Springsteen had announced on social media, stating; “Over here on E Street, we are heartbroken over the death of Shane MacGowan. Shane was one of my all-time favourite writers. The passion and deep intensity of his music and lyrics is unmatched by all but the very best in the rock and roll canon. I was fortunate to spend a little time with Shane and his lovely wife Victoria the last time we were in Dublin. He was very ill, but still beautifully present in his heart and spirit. His music is timeless and eternal. I don’t know about the rest of us, but they’ll be singing Shane’s songs 100 years from now”.
A Rainy Night in Soho.
Lyrics: Shane MacGowan.
Vocals: Bruce Springsteen and his E Street band.
A Rainy Night in Soho.
I’ve been loving you a long time,
Down all the years, down all the days,
And I’ve cried for all your troubles,
Smiled at your funny little ways.
We watched our friends grow up together,
And we saw them as they fell,
Some of them fell into Heaven,
Some of them fell into Hell,
I took shelter from a shower,
And I stepped into your arms,
On a rainy night in Soho,
The wind was whistling all its charms.
I sang you all my sorrows,
You told me all your joys.
Whatever happened to that old song?
To all those little girls and boys.
Sometimes I’d wake up in the morning,
The ginger lady by my bed,
Covered in a cloak of silence,
I’d hear you talking in my head.
I’m was not singing for the future,
And I’m not dreaming of the past,
I’m not talking of the first times,
I never think about the last.
Now the song is nearly over,
We may never find out what it means,
Still there’s a light I hold before me,
You’re the measure of my dreams.
The measure of my dreams.
END
Leave a Reply