A Pair of Brown Eyes
"A Pair of Brown Eyes" | ||||
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Single by The Pogues | ||||
from the album Rum Sodomy & the Lash | ||||
B-side | "Whiskey You're the Devil" | |||
Released | 18 March 1985 | |||
Genre | Celtic rock | |||
Length | 4:54 | |||
Label | Stiff | |||
Songwriter(s) | Shane MacGowan | |||
Producer(s) | Elvis Costello | |||
The Pogues singles chronology | ||||
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"A Pair of Brown Eyes" is a single by The Pogues, released on 18 March 1985.[1] The single was their first to make the UK Top 100, peaking at Number 72.[2] It featured on the band's second album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, and was composed by Pogues front man Shane MacGowan. Its melody is loosely based on that of “Wild Mountain Thyme" (also known as "Will Ye Go Lassie Go"), a song by Francis McPeake in a traditional folk style.
The song references the Johnny Cash version of the song "A Thing Called Love": "And on the jukebox Johnny sang / About a thing called love". It also references Irish country music singers Ray Lynam and Philomena Begley's version of "My Elusive Dreams": "While Ray and Philomena sang / Of my elusive dream".
Music video
The music video for the single was directed in 1985 by Alex Cox and was set in a Nineteen Eighty-Four-esque Britain with Margaret Thatcher in the place of Big Brother as a supreme, god-like authoritarian figure. The video featured roles played by band members as well as a cameo by the record's producer Elvis Costello.
Critical reception
The song was ranked number 9 among the "Tracks of the Year" for 1985 by NME.[3]
References
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- Spider Stacy
- Jem Finer
- James Fearnley
- Shane MacGowan
- Andrew Ranken
- Darryl Hunt
- Terry Woods
- Cait O'Riordan
- Philip Chevron
- Joe Strummer
- Dave Coulter
- James McNally
- Jamie Clarke
- "Dark Streets of London"
- "A Pair of Brown Eyes"
- "Sally MacLennane"
- "Dirty Old Town"
- "Haunted"
- "The Irish Rover"
- "Fairytale of New York"
- "If I Should Fall from Grace with God"
- "Fiesta"
- "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah"
- "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge"
- "Summer in Siam"
- "Jack's Heroes"
- "Sunny Side of the Street"
- "A Rainy Night in Soho"
- "Honky Tonk Women"
- "Tuesday Morning"
- "Once Upon a Time"
- "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
- "The Auld Triangle"
- "Greenland Whale Fisheries"
- "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day"
- "Jesse James"
- "Maggie May"
- "Mountain Dew"
- "The Parting Glass"
- "Poor Paddy"
- "South Australia"
- "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six"
- "Thousands Are Sailing"
- "Waxie's Dargle"
- "When the Ship Comes In"
- "Worms"
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