Farewell to Henry the Rogue & Shane the Pogue

Cartoonists slam Kissinger while musical tributes to the great Shane MacGowan pour in.

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestselling “The Tunnels,” “Atomic Cover-up” and the recent award-winning “The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” His “Atomic Cover-up” just debuted on PBS and you can watch here. And “Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried" remains free on the PBS site. Both have companion books, which you can easily find at Amazon.

My collection of barbs greeting the passing of Henry Kissinger on Wednesday night became one of the most popular posts here in recent months. If you are a subscriber, you might want to check it out as was updated extensively since you received it in the mail (with contributions by Al Franken, Stevie Van Zandt, Sarah Kendzior and many others). Now I’m adding to the assault, below, with a few visual responses hammering Henry.

Before that, a few tunes to mark the sad passing of Shane MacGowan, leader of the great trad/modern Irish group The Pogues, at the tender age of sixty-five. Well, he did lead a wild and hard-drinking life. Bruce Springsteen and others considered him a true original and influence. Nick Cave paid tribute last night. Here we find him singing “Gloria” with Van Morrison.

Surprise: Travis and Jason Kelce have a current hit with their version of the Pogues’ Christmas classic “Fairytale of New York” now retitled “Fairytale of Philadelphia.”

I may have first encountered the Pogues when they backed my man Steve Earle on his early “Johnny Come Lately,” so let’s start with that.

One of my particular Pogue faves, “Dirty Old Town,” via Ewan MacColl.

The far quieter “A Rainy Night in Soho”

“If I Should Fall from Grace With God”

“A Pair of Brown Eyes”

In post-Pogues solo career, here with Sinead O’Connor on “Haunted.”

Kind of iconic for Shane, “The Old Main Drag,” don’t miss, wow, and you can actually make out the great lyrics.

Their unlikely hit Christmas classic “Fairy Tale of New York,” with Kirsty MacColl.

Trailer for a Julien Temple film doc….

Hammering Hank

Artists offered new cartoons or revived ones from the past.

The great David Levine, titled “Screwing the World”