Bruce Springsteen, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp will appear on Shane MacGowan’s tribute album Shane MacGowan

Bruce Springsteen has written an article celebrating the “flashing, vital and historically rich” songwriting of the late singer Shane MacGowan, announcing an all-star covers album featuring Springsteen, Kate Moss, Johnny Depp and others.

Springsteen’s cover of “A Rainy Night in Soho” is out now, the first single to be released from 20th Century Paddy: The Songs of Shane MacGowan, which will be released on November 13.

Springsteen begins his essay by placing McGowan among a long line of artists including Woody Guthrie, Little Richard, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, and John Lydon, who were “geniuses…immortal and embodiments of their moment in time.” He continues:

Unsurprisingly, many of them lived difficult lives that were not easily bound by the shackles of tradition. They were natural rebels unable to stifle or pay attention to the impulses that led them to their glory and personal hardship. Great art is by its very nature lawless. We cannot choose our obsessions. We cannot dictate our blessings or our transgressions. It’s a little joke the gods are playing on us. Sheen’s voice was so real, raw and honest, his writing so flamboyant, lively and historically rich, its beginnings seem like a mystery to everyone including, I think, its creator. Dangerous joy, joy and courage, humor in the face of fate, the wild wanderings of a life driven toward artistic heaven and the daily balm of self-effacement. Shane was a bottomless humanitarian. Threatening to force us to ask ourselves whether we are living deeply and authentically. It was raw, funny, unapologetic and deep. His soul was filled with the characteristics of transgressive and ecstatic saints. I don’t know who will listen to my music in 100 years, but I know they will listen to my music.

Springsteen also reveals that he spent a “beautiful afternoon” with McGowan shortly before his death. “Only he and his wife Victoria were in good health [Mary Clarke]They proved to be warm and generous hosts. As I left, I thanked him for his beautiful work, his music, his songs, and his life. “I stood in his warmth and kissed him and told him I loved him.”

Other artists who contributed to the album include American stars Tom Waits and Steve Earle. British indie legends The Libertines, Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain; and a rich, multi-generational variety of Irish musicians from Lisa O’Neill to Damian Dempsey and the surviving Pogues.

There are a couple of star-studded duets, too: Hozier with Jesse Buckley, and Johnny Depp with Imelda May. The tracklist has yet to be announced and details of Kate Moss’ contribution have not been revealed, but it will continue the British model’s sporadic music career, which includes duets with Primal Scream, Babyshambles and Lemonheads, as well as tambourine contributions to a number of Oasis songs.

Dublin Simon Community, a charity that works with the city’s homeless population, will receive 50% of the artist’s royalties generated from the 20th Century Paddy album.

“Shane’s spirit and songwriting are forever venerated through this glorious collection, each song is uniquely and lovingly interpreted by these amazing artists, and his family is humbled and thankful for each and every one of the musicians involved,” McGowan’s wife, Victoria Marie Clark, said in a statement.

Born in England to Irish parents, MacGowan remains one of the most distinctive and celebrated voices in Irish music thanks to his diverse, raucous, heartbreaking songs, performed with the Pogues and solo. The Pogues’ classic New York Christmas fairy tale is particularly enduring, having returned to the UK’s top 10 every year since 2017.

McGowan died aged 65 in November 2023 after a long period of ill health, and the new compilation album is the latest in a series of posthumous musical tributes.

In March 2024, New York’s Carnegie Hall hosted a joint tribute to McGowan and Sinéad O’Connor – who also died in 2023, aged 56 – which featured artists including David Gray, Dropkick Murphys and Glen Hansard, all returning for the new compilation.

The Pogues celebrated the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Red Roses for Me, that same year with a series of concerts – including one at London’s Hackney Empire, which featured guest appearances by members of Fontaines DC, Lankum and Goat Girl, among others.

Earlier this week, they announced a blockbuster tour across Europe in November and December, again with special guest appearances planned.