“Shane MacGowan was full of contradictions—and that’s where the truth of him lived,” writes the Edge in a statement introducing U2’s new cover of the Pogues’ “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah.”
According to the Edge, MacGowan could be “precise about what mattered and gloriously careless about everything else,” suggesting his persona was a performance. He cited Oscar Wilde: “a mask tells us more than a face.” The crooked grin, wildness, and Irish inflections were not disguises but signals, situating him within a lineage that spanned from pub storytellers to punk stages.