Editing Red Roses for Me

{{About|the Pogues album|the play|Red Roses for Me (play)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Red Roses for Me
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[The Pogues]]
| cover      = Red roses for me.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = 15 October 1984
| recorded   = 
| studio     = Elephant Studios, Wapping, London
| genre      = 
*[[Traditional Irish music]]<ref name="musos" />
*[[folk punk]]<ref name="musos" />
*[[post-punk]]<ref name="Mancunion" />
| length     = 40:12
| label      = [[Stiff Records|Stiff]]
| producer   = Stan Brennan
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title = [[Rum Sodomy & the Lash]]
| next_year  = 1985
| misc       = {{Singles
 | name        = Red Roses for Me
 | type        = studio
 | single1     = [[Dark Streets of London]]
 | single1date = June 1984
 | single2     = Boys from the County Hell
 | single2date = 15 October 1984
}}
}}

'''''Red Roses for Me''''' is the debut studio album by the [[London]]-based band [[the Pogues]], released on 15 October 1984.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Eurotipsheet No 28 (8 October 1984): Next News Corner|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-and-Media/80s/1984/M&M-1984-10-08.pdf|journal=Eurotipsheet|volume=28|pages=6 (PDF), 14 (Original)|via=World Radio History}}</ref> It was produced by Stan Brennan, who had managed the [[Nipple Erectors]]/[[The Nips]] and Rocks Off Records shop in London.

==Overview==
''Red Roses for Me'' is filled with traditional [[Irish music]] performed with [[punk rock|punk]] influences. ''The Mancunion'' saw the "creativity of [[post-punk]]" as being "evident throughout the record", while Muso's Guide described much of ''Red Roses for Me'' as "a whirlwind of revved-up folk punk".<ref name="Mancunion">{{cite news |title=Classic album: The Pogues – Red Roses For Me |url=https://mancunion.com/2012/02/09/classic-album-the-pogues-red-roses-for-me/ |work=Mancunion |date=9 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="musos">{{cite news |last1=Coote |first1=Jono |title=Classic Album : The Pogues – Red Roses For Me |url=http://www.musosguide.org.uk/k2-categories/classic-albums1/item/782-classic-album-the-pogues-red-roses-for-me |access-date=28 September 2021 |work=Muso's Guide |date=26 February 2013}}</ref> The band's approach of mixing traditional songs and ballads with frontman [[Shane MacGowan]]'s "gutter hymns" about drinking, fighting and sex was innovative at the time. The album reached number 89 in the UK album charts.

The front of the album shows the band with the exception of drummer [[Andrew Ranken]] (pictured in inset) sitting in front of a picture of US President [[John F. Kennedy]]. On the back cover, accordion player [[James Fearnley]] has a bottle sticking out of his coat, while bass player [[Cait O'Riordan]] is seen holding a can of beer.  [[Shane MacGowan]] is pictured with his foot in a cast.

==Critical reception==
{{Album ratings
| rev1      = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="AllMusic" />
| rev2      = ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}} (2004 reissue)<ref name="MojoDec04">{{cite magazine |first=Pat |last=Gilbert |title=You shebeen there! |magazine=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]] |issue=133 |pages=123 |date=December 2004}}</ref>
| rev3      = ''Q''
| rev3score = {{Rating|4|5}} (2004 reissue)<ref>{{cite magazine |first=John |last=Aizlewood |title=Review: The Pogues – ''Red Roses for Me'' |magazine=Q |issue=222 |page=141 |date=January 2005}}</ref>
| rev4      = ''[[Record Mirror]]''
| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Mark |last=Cordery |title=Review: The Pogues – ''Red Roses for Me'' |magazine=[[Record Mirror]] |page=20 |date=6 October 1984}}</ref>
}}

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 [[British folk revival#Second revival 1945–69|folk revival in the Sixties]]."<ref name="MM19841006">{{cite magazine |first=Colin |last=Irwin |author-link=Colin Irwin (journalist) |title=The Thorn Birds |magazine=[[Melody Maker]] |page=36 |date=6 October 1984}}</ref> ''[[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."<ref name="NME19841013">{{cite magazine |first=Sean |last=O'Hagan |author-link=Sean O'Hagan (journalist) |title=Pogueless? Help Is at Hand |magazine=[[NME]] |page=36 |date=13 October 1984}}</ref> Awarding the album 3¾ stars out of five, ''[[Sounds (magazine)|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 [[jig]]s... Surprisingly, this record works. It manages to convey the sullied, brazen and raucous spirit of their live set very effectively."<ref name="Sounds19841006">{{cite magazine |first=Rose |last=Rouse |title=Pogue-O-Schtick |magazine=[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]] |page=38 |date=6 October 1984}}</ref> [[Robert Christgau]] gave the album a B+ and proclaimed "tepid it ain't".<ref name="rc">{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=the+pogues |title=The Pogues |first=Robert |last=Christgau |author-link=Robert Christgau  |website=Robert Christgau |access-date=20 May 2014}}</ref>

===Legacy===
For the 1994 reissue of the album ''[[Q (magazine)|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 (dance)|reel]]".<ref name="QJun94">{{cite magazine |first=Mark |last=Cooper |title=Review: The Pogues – ''Red Roses for Me'' |magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |issue=93 |pages=134–35 |date=June 1994}}</ref>

In a retrospective review for [[AllMusic]], Mark Deming calls the album "good and rowdy fun", but feels 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".<ref name="AllMusic">{{cite web |first=Mark |last=Deming |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000651782 |title=''Red Roses for Me'' – The Pogues |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=24 October 2020}}</ref>

==Track listing==
{{Track listing 
| headline = Standard edition
| title1          = Transmetropolitan
| writer1         = [[Shane MacGowan]]
| length1         = 4:15
| title2          = The [[Battle of Brisbane]]
| writer2         = MacGowan
| length2         = 1:49
| title3          = [[The Auld Triangle]]
| writer3         = Dick Shannon; credited on the album to [[Brendan Behan]]
| length3         = 4:20
| title4          = [[Waxie's Dargle]]
| writer4         = Traditional; arranged by the Pogues
| length4         = 1:53
| title5          = Boys from the County Hell
| writer5         = MacGowan
| length5         = 2:56
| title6          = Sea Shanty
| writer6         = MacGowan
| length6         = 2:24
| title7          = [[Dark Streets of London]]
| writer7         = MacGowan
| length7         = 3:33
| title8          = Streams of Whiskey
| writer8         = MacGowan
| length8         = 2:32
| title9          = [[Poor Paddy Works on the Railway|Poor Paddy]]
| writer9         = Traditional; arranged by the Pogues
| length9         = 3:09
| title10          = Dingle Regatta
| writer10         = Traditional; arranged by Jem Finer
| length10         = 2:52
| title11          = [[Greenland Whale Fisheries]]
| writer11         = Traditional; arranged by the Pogues
| length11         = 2:36
| title12          = Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go
| writer12         = MacGowan
| length12         = 3:30
| title13          = Kitty
| writer13         = Traditional; arranged by the Pogues
| length13         = 4:23
}}

'''Bonus tracks (2004 reissue)'''

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" and "The Leaving of Liverpool" were the B-sides of their fourth single, "Sally Maclennane".

#<li value=14> "[[Leaving of Liverpool|The Leaving of Liverpool]]" (Traditional; arranged by the Pogues) produced by [[Elvis Costello]]
# "[[Mursheen Durkin|Muirshin Durkin]]" (Traditional; arranged by the Pogues) produced by [[Philip Chevron]]
# "Repeal of the Licensing Laws" (instrumental) (Spider Stacy) produced by Stan Brennan
# "[[And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda]]" ([[Eric Bogle]]) produced by Stan Brennan
# "Whiskey You're the Devil" (Traditional; arranged by the Pogues) produced by Philip Chevron
# "[[The Wild Rover]]" (Traditional; arranged by the Pogues) produced by Elvis Costello

'''Bonus tracks (2024 reissue)'''

In 2024, a 40th anniversary edition was released, featuring a 2013 remix of the tracks on the original album, the bonus tracks from the 2004 release, and a further 12 tracks, all taken from sessions recorded for BBC radio.

#<li value=20> "Streams of Whiskey" (John Peel Session – April 1984)
#"Greenland Whale Fisheries" (John Peel Session – April 1984)
#"Boys from the County Hell" (John Peel Session – April 1984)
#"The Auld Triangle" (John Peel Session – April 1984)
#"Dingle Regatta/Holly Johnsons" (David "Kid" Jensen Session – June 1984)
#"Poor Paddy on the Railway" (David "Kid" Jensen Session – June 1984)
#"Boys from the County Hell" (David "Kid" Jensen Session – June 1984)
#"Connemara, Let's Go!" (David "Kid" Jensen Session – June 1984)
#"Whiskey You're the Devil" (John Peel Session – December 1984)
#"The Navigator" (John Peel Session – December 1984)
#"Sally MacLennane" (John Peel Session – December 1984)
#"[[Danny Boy]]" (John Peel Session – December 1984)

==Charts==
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!scope=col | Chart (1984)
!scope=col | Peak<br />position
|-
{{Album chart|UK2|89|artist=Pogues|album=Red Roses for Me|date=19841028|rowheader=true}}
|}

==Certifications==
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry |region=United Kingdom |type=album |artist=The Pogues |title=Red Roses for Me |award=Silver |relyear=1984 |certyear=1988|id=5413-486-2|access-date=13 February 2022}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=yes}}

==Personnel==
'''The Pogues'''
*[[Shane MacGowan]]
*[[Jem Finer|Country Jem Finer]]
*[[Spider Stacy]]
*[[James Fearnley|Maestro Jimmy Fearnley]]
*[[Cait O'Riordan|Rocky O'Riordan]]
*[[Andrew Ranken|Andy "The Clobberer" Ranken]]

'''Additional personnel on bonus tracks'''
*[[Phil Chevron]]

'''Technical'''
*Stan Brennan – producer
*Nick Robbins – engineer
*Craig Thompson –  engineer
*Steve Tynan – photography

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{The Pogues}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1984 debut albums]]
[[Category:The Pogues albums]]
[[Category:Stiff Records albums]]