U2 has released their Shane MacGowan cover in anticipation of the tribute album to the late Pogues singer/songwriter. “Shane MacGowan was full of contradictions — and that’s where the truth of him lived,” said U2 guitarist The Edge in a press release. “He could be precise about what mattered and gloriously careless about everything else. If that sounds like a kind of performance, maybe it was. But as Oscar Wilde put it, ‘a mask tells us more than a face.’”
This is the fourth single released from the tribute album, titled 20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan. Also appearing on the album (and previously reported on here) are Bruce Springsteen, The Dropkick Murphys and Johnny Depp & Imelda May.
“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” first appeared as the title track to the 1990 Pogues EP, coming out the same year as their Hell’s Ditch album. MacGowan passed away in November of 2023.
20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan will be released November 13th. Half of the artists’ royalties from sales will be donated to the Dublin Simon Community, which benefits unhoused people in Dublin.
