The Pogues

"If I Should Fall From Grace With God" by the Pogues from

If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988)

Irish punk at its very finest, the Pogues seminal album If I Should Fall From Grace With God contains most of their finest songs, as well as their most widely known and covered tune, the Christmas classic "Fairytale of New York." The title track however is the most well crafted and mature song as in it deals with death as its subject matter. Singer Shane MacGowan was a notorious drug addict (heroin and alcohol) throughout the majority of his time with the Pogues and many believed he would wind up dead at any point. This seems to be his way of coming to grips with that possibility, and he does so in a way that doesn't at all reflect the reckless attitude that made him such a infamous character. In the twenty-plus years since the recording of "If I Should Fall From Grace With God," I'd bet on this being in the top ten most played songs at Irish wakes; I, for one, will certainly put in on my post-life playlist.

If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I’m buried ’neath the sod
But the angels won’t receive me

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

This land was always ours
Was the proud land of our fathers
It belongs to us and them
Not to any of the others

Let them go, boys
Let them go, boys
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

Bury me at sea
Where no murdered ghost can haunt me
If I rock upon the waves
Then no corpse can lie upon me

It’s coming up three, boys
Keeps coming up three, boys
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I’m buried ’neath the sod
But the angels won’t receive me

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry