Red Roses for Me

Critical reception

The UK music press hailed The Pogues' début album as a breath of fresh air, with positive reviews. Melody Maker felt that "the quality of their music, even the very nature of it, is strangely irrelevant. What's important is their existence at all. For The Pogues are a gesture – a particularly bloody two-fingered one – aimed at all things considered current and fashionable in 1984... Theirs is a gut reaction to traditional music – and with it comes all the motion, intensity and vigour that has largely been lost to these songs since the early days of the folk revival in the Sixties." NME stated, "From the strummed banjo and lilting accordion that preface a roaring singalong 'Transmetropolitan' to the final unidentified voice offering an unaccompanied 'diddly I di di' refrain, there exists a wealth of evidence that Shane MacGowan's faith in the power of positive drinking-music has paid premiums. The raucous surge and evocative noise that has filled the capital's pubs and clubs has come through the stark sobriety of the studio set-up to arrive intact in all its sweat-soaked beer-stained glory... If you think they've rehabilitated a music that's been asleep for a while you're dead wrong – on both counts. The music has never been away, and The Pogues in all their irreverent 'seriousness' have taken it out on a limb, where it all started, where it belongs." Awarding the album 3¾ stars out of five, Sounds said, "Red Roses for Me is a satisfyingly impure, purposefully imperfect and totally irresistible collection of lasting resentment, rebellious roars, watery-eyed romance and uproarious jigs... Surprisingly, this record works. It manages to convey the sullied, brazen and raucous spirit of their live set very effectively." For the 1994 reissue of the album Q observed that the album "rushes along at an unholy amphetamine gallop... they sound utterly intoxicated both with their own enthusiasm and the spirit of the jig and the reel".

Mark Deming of AllMusic gave Red Roses for Me three and a half out of five stars, calling it "good and rowdy fun", but felt that "on Rum Sodomy & the Lash and If I Should Fall from Grace with God, the Pogues would prove that they were capable of a lot more than that". Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ and proclaimed "tepid it ain't".

Track listing

The original UK LP has the following track listing

1. "Transmetropolitan" (Shane MacGowan) – 4:15
2. "The Battle of Brisbane" (instrumental) (MacGowan) – 1:49
3. "The Auld Triangle" (Brendan Behan) – 4:20
4. "Waxie's Dargle" (Traditional) – 1:53
5. "Boys from the County Hell" (MacGowan) – 2:56
6. "Sea Shanty" (MacGowan) – 2:24
7. "Dark Streets of London" (MacGowan) – 3:33
8. "Streams of Whiskey" (MacGowan) – 2:32
9. "Poor Paddy" (Traditional) – 3:09
10. "Dingle Regatta" (instrumental) (Traditional) – 2:52
11. "Greenland Whale Fisheries" (Traditional) – 2:36
12. "Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go" (MacGowan) – 3:30
13. "Kitty" (Traditional) – 4:23

Bonus tracks

The first CD issue of the album had a total of 14 tracks, adding "Whiskey You're the Devil" as track 8. In 2004 a remastered CD was issued adding a total of 6 bonus tracks to the original UK album listing. "Repeal of the Licensing Laws" was the B-side of "The Boys from the County Hell" their second single. "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" was the B-side of their first single, "Dark Streets of London". "Whiskey You're the Devil" and "Mursheen Durkin" were the B-sides of their third single, "A Pair of Brown Eyes". "The Wild Rover" was the B-side of their fourth single, "Sally Maclennane".

1. "The Leaving of Liverpool" (Traditional)
2. "Muirshin Durkin" (Traditional)
3. "Repeal of the Licensing Laws" (instrumental) (Stacy)
4. "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (Eric Bogle)
5. "Whiskey You're the Devil" (Traditional)
6. "The Wild Rover" (Traditional)

Personnel

The Pogues:

Additional personnel: