Labyrinthitis

And now the word comes that Shane MacGowan has shuffled off.  And as my friends agreed, the only real surprise here is that he made it as far as he did. Of course, that's been said of many a rock and roll death (Keith Moon, por favor?).  Which doesn't make it any less true.  Or any less of an obvious cliche. But I come to praise and to bury.  Because lost in the inevitable tide of no surprise  will be the fact that MacGowan really was a "mad genius", as Rolling Stone called him, a brilliant writer and a soulful singer, and there was a time when The Pogues were one of the bands I listened to almost every day.  And while its become fashionable to write them off as a simply a drunken goof, a bad parody of Irish culture, blasting out lowest common denominator Irish pub songs at punk rock volume and tempos, anyone who ever actually listened to their albums would know that their musical ambition was broad and rich.  They reached for a lot, and they got it.  Rolling Stone (a