Beyond the musicianship and quality from both Bob Dylan and Shane MacGowan, their friendship is fascinating. The Pogues would open for Dylan back in 1989, but without MacGowan. Dylan has covered their work, the deepest sign of respect he can offer to the other musicians he has covered. Randy Newman, Johnny Cash, and Leonard Cohen also feature in that category. MacGowan deserves to be in there, and he is, thanks to Dylan’s occasional cover of The Pogues’ discography. His rendition of A Rainy Night in Soho is a delicate one. What you can guarantee with Dylan is either a wonderful reading of the source and subtleties of the song, or a projection of himself and his historied career onto the track at hand. This bootleg recording was, of course, not going to feature on 20th Century Paddy, but treat it as an epilogue of sorts. One of the all-time greats has laid a cover down that speaks the truth of the song to life. Set aside the surprise that comes from hearing Dylan cover contemporary classics, this is a tremendous send-off of a fine piece of work from The Pogues.
Like with everything Dylan does on stage, this could be the last time we hear him touch on A Rainy Night in Soho. A tremendously fitting place to throw it out there one last time, on the last show of 2025 in Dublin, Ireland. Those piano-led charms found on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour compliment A Rainy Night in Soho tremendously. With or without Dylan’s involvement, the song is special. Soho is a beautiful part of London. Commercialised and filled with tourist traps it may be, there was no greater feeling this year than having an oversized cannoli at Bar Italia. This year has been poor for Cult Following and the cretin who owns the place, but those pistachio and cream-filled luxuries with a bit of a burnt flat white had healing powers that have kept me alive. A Rainy Night in Soho never sprung to mind at the time because musical ignorance is bliss, but also because it doesn’t feel like a song to do with London. It is, of course, but it stretches beyond the capital.
MacGowan’s original is a tough listen now. Dylan’s, too. Not because they’re bad songs, quite the opposite. A Celtic rock original with delightful brass and hopeful romance that’ll put you on the verge of tears once you’ve lost it yourself. Dylan’s version, too, has that blistering romance to it and the lament heard throughout his sparse, piano-led rendition of A Rainy Night in Soho is breathtaking. What makes Dylan’s version particularly beautiful is the space given for those beautiful words of MacGowan’s to breathe. As a result, you can reflect on your own rainy nights in Soho. Doing so is bittersweet. It shouldn’t be a memory. But it is. Dylan’s version has a bit more of a punch behind it where that message is concerned, and it becomes the driving force of his cover here.
That’s the case for many of his covers. More recently, a rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis’ I Can’t Seem to Say Goodbye has become a staple of his set. It’s a moody offering where Dylan covers an artist whose work he clearly respects. That goodbye is coming, but not quite yet. It’s an inevitability, but the when is unknowable. Such is the case for the meaning of A Rainy Night in Soho. There’s a delicate layer added by the guitar players backing Dylan on stage, his boxer-like hands hammering away at the keys of a grand piano. Dylan, inevitably, does The Pogues, MacGowan, and the song, justice with this cover. It’s in the softer, quieter moments that the darker structure of A Rainy Night in Soho comes to play. A beautiful rendition of a tremendous song.
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