Thousands Are Sailing

Chevron wrote it about the roughly 450,000 people who left Ireland during the economic slump of the 1980s, drawing a parallel with the exodus of the Great Famine. He said the heart-sickness in the song is less about missing home than about the alienation of being somewhere else. He had written many songs before as the frontman of the Radiators, but he held this one back until well into the sessions for the album, unsure about offering it when MacGowan was the recognised songwriter. Terry Woods offered to help, suggesting chord changes that Chevron said kicked off the magic, and MacGowan approved. Producer Steve Lillywhite was receptive to the song.

MacGowan at first refused to sing two of its lines. The Irish Times has described it as one of the finest songs about Irish emigration. It was never released as a single, and it inspired the 2012 graphic novel Gone to Amerikay by Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran.