The Pogues es una banda de rock anglo-irlandesa, que se forma a principios de los años 80. Aparece en los años posteriores al surgimiento del movimiento Punk, y mezcla a partes iguales música punk y música tradicional irlandesa.
Liderados por Shane Macgowan, fueron un grupo con fama de juerguistas y borrachos, consiguen ir haciéndose un espacio en los ambientes musicales, no sólo por la música sino por las broncas en sus conciertos y los desencuentros con la discográfica.
The Very Best Of The Pogues es un álbum recopilatorio de la banda editado en 2001 y que contiene todos sus grandes éxitos. Entre ellos elegimos este A pair of Brown Eyes, este tema apareció originalmente en el álbum de 1985 Rum, sodomy and the lash.
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox johnny sang
About a thing called love
And its how are you kid and whats your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin a rovin a rovin Ill go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While ray and philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin a rovin a rovin Ill go
For a pair of brown eyes