Finally got round to watching this, I honestly don't know how I feel about it.
It's a rivetting watch and Shane McGowan is unquestionably a genius........but by God it's tough seeing him now.
The lifestyle made him the poet he is and the lifestyle has left him the broken shell he is now.
Was the trade off worth it?
I guess he alone can answer that.
He's left behind a body of work that's just phenomenal.
A pair of brown eyes, The old main drag, Streams of whiskey, Birmingham 6/Guildford 4, surely one of the definitive songs about the last Irish civil war (or "the troubles" as it is euphemistically known this side of the water), Thousands are sailing, one of the best songs ever written........the list goes on, including the best ever Christmas song bar none.
Bobby Gillespie, Gerry Adams, Johnny Depp all got into conversation with him ........ really interesting listen.
He seems to have made his peace with his contemporary and historic life, he's been with his now wife for 32 years and the footage of his 60th birthday gig made me cry.
Like I say, he seems at one with things, he's "embraced" (I'm not remotely sure that's the right way to put it but I can't think of a better one) his alcoholism, he's not going to live much longer, chalk up one more Irish writer gone the way of Behan, O'Brien/O'Nolan, Joyce.
A tough but rivetting watch.
Oh I got that, especially the dying soon, figured you were relating his lifestyle to his morality, 'tis what happens to us when we live hard. Except for those who seem to defy that.