Summer in Siam

"Summer in Siam"
"Summer in Siam"
Single by The Pogues
from the album Hell's Ditch
Released	1990
Genre	Folk rock
Length	4:06
Songwriter(s)	Shane MacGowan
Producer(s)	Joe Strummer
The Pogues singles chronology

Last updated October 31, 2023

"Summer in Siam" is a single by The Pogues from their 1990 album, Hell's Ditch . Composed by enigmatic frontman Shane MacGowan, it charted in the UK Top 100 at Number 64. The accompanying music video was directed by Don Letts and produced by Nick Verden for Radar Films. The album was produced by Joe Strummer.

"Summer in Siam" was originally played by MacGowan to the rest of the band on a Casio synthesizer. While the final arrangement was greatly modified from the original demo, it reflected MacGowan's growing interest in acid-house music.^[1] MacGowan claimed in 2022 that along with "Lorca's Novena" and "Hot Dogs With Everything," "Summer in Siam" is one of his favorite songs by The Pogues.^[2]

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References

↑ Balls, Richard (2021). A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan. Omnibus Press. p. 262. ISBN 978-1-78760-108-6. "Victoria vividly remembers Shane's acid phase. She says he became completely immersed in it and was writing new material for the record while tripping, something other members of The Pogues found difficult. 'He was listening to a lot of acid-house music and he was going to acid-house clubs all the time and taking acid all the time,' she says. So, he started writing things that were very far out. Even "Summer In Siam", when he first did it, everybody thought, What the fuck is this pile of crap? because he was doing it on a little Casio thing, and he was off his face. He wrote the entire album completely off his face, but none of them were doing acid.
So, I think they thought it was quite scary and weird and not The Pogues. They thought he was completely insane, which probably he technically was. He was wearing T-shirts that were all multi-coloured and his hair was grown, and he was just mental. He latched on to that because it was like, "Wow, this is really trippy." But they couldn't really handle it because they gave a shit. How did the performance come across[…]"

Excerpt From
A Furious Devotion
Richard Balls
This material may be protected by copyright.
↑ Thomson, Graeme (28 April 2022). "'I came, I saw, I scribbled': Shane MacGowan on Bob Dylan, angels and his lifelong love of art". The Spectator. Retrieved 10 August 2023.

Summer in Siam at AllMusic . Retrieved 16:04, 20 August 2017 (UTC).

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[1] Balls, Richard (2021). A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan. Omnibus Press. p. 262. ISBN 978-1-78760-108-6. "Victoria vividly remembers Shane's acid phase. She says he became completely immersed in it and was writing new material for the record while tripping, something other members of The Pogues found difficult. 'He was listening to a lot of acid-house music and he was going to acid-house clubs all the time and taking acid all the time,' she says. So, he started writing things that were very far out. Even "Summer In Siam", when he first did it, everybody thought, What the fuck is this pile of crap? because he was doing it on a little Casio thing, and he was off his face. He wrote the entire album completely off his face, but none of them were doing acid.
So, I think they thought it was quite scary and weird and not The Pogues. They thought he was completely insane, which probably he technically was. He was wearing T-shirts that were all multi-coloured and his hair was grown, and he was just mental. He latched on to that because it was like, "Wow, this is really trippy." But they couldn't really handle it because they gave a shit. How did the performance come across[…]"

Excerpt From
A Furious Devotion
Richard Balls
This material may be protected by copyright.

[2] Thomson, Graeme (28 April 2022). "'I came, I saw, I scribbled': Shane MacGowan on Bob Dylan, angels and his lifelong love of art". The Spectator. Retrieved 10 August 2023.

[1]

[2]

v t e The Pogues
Spider Stacy Jem Finer James Fearnley Shane MacGowan Andrew Ranken Darryl Hunt Terry Woods Cait O'Riordan Philip Chevron Joe Strummer Dave Coulter James McNally Jamie Clarke
Studio albums	Red Roses for Me Rum Sodomy & the Lash If I Should Fall from Grace with God Peace and Love Hell's Ditch Waiting for Herb Pogue Mahone
EPs	Poguetry in Motion Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Compilations	Essential Pogues The Best of The Pogues The Very Best of The Pogues
Singles	"Dark Streets of London" "A Pair of Brown Eyes" "Sally MacLennane" "Dirty Old Town" "Haunted" "The Irish Rover" "Fairytale of New York" "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" "Fiesta" "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" "Summer in Siam" "Jack's Heroes" "Sunny Side of the Street" "A Rainy Night in Soho" "Honky Tonk Women" "Tuesday Morning" "Once Upon a Time"
Other songs	"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" "The Auld Triangle" "Greenland Whale Fisheries" "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" "Jesse James" "Maggie May" "Mountain Dew" "The Parting Glass" "Poor Paddy" "South Australia" "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six" "Thousands Are Sailing" "Waxie's Dargle" "When the Ship Comes In" "Worms"
Related articles	Discography Songs