Dropkick Murphys have released their take on ‘The Body of an American’, a single lifted from the hotly anticipated tribute album ’20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan’. Pre-order HERE.

The Boston outfit have long carried the torch for Celtic punk, and this rendition finds them paying tribute to one of the genre’s founding fathers with the kind of reverence and grit that only a band cut from the same cloth could bring.

Originally penned by Shane MacGowan for The Pogues, ‘The Body of an American’ has become one of the most quietly devastating songs in the Irish folk-punk canon.

Rolling Stone once described it as one of the realest songs ever written about immigration, doubling as both a funeral song and a drinking song, and as the definitive account of leaving home and laughing it off while knowing, deep down, that you will never truly return.

That sense of dislocation runs straight through Dropkick Murphys’ own story. As Boston-born musicians shaped by the same Irish diaspora experience MacGowan wrote about so vividly, the band see this cover as something closer to a homecoming than a tribute.

There is a direct line connecting MacGowan’s London Irish streets to the docks of Quincy, Massachusetts, and Dropkick Murphys draw that line out with real intent on this recording.

The song itself is built on contradictions, and the band lean into every one of them. It tackles the friction at the heart of the Irish American experience: communities forced from their homeland who went on to build genuinely better lives in the United States, all while carrying a fierce, hard-won pride in their adopted country alongside an ache for the one they left behind.

Dropkick Murphys’ version balances the poetic longing of “Amerikay” against the defiant rallying cry of “Erin go”, short for Éirinn go Brách, meaning Ireland Forever.

Speaking about their involvement in the project, Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey explained just how much MacGowan’s writing meant to the band.

He described Shane as someone who left a tremendous impact on the group, both individually and collectively, noting that his lyrics carried a dark, sometimes twisted, street level reality that made them more punk than most of what got labelled as punk at the time.

Casey also spoke about the company Dropkick Murphys are keeping on ’20th Century Paddy’, calling it a genuine thrill to be part of a lineup that includes Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Hozier, and a long list of other artists who found inspiration in MacGowan’s work.

For Dropkick Murphys, ‘The Body of an American’ is far from an unfamiliar song. It has been a live staple for the band for years, which made the chance to finally commit it to record for this tribute feel like something of a dream fulfilled.

’20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan’ brings together one of the most varied artist rosters assembled for a tribute record in recent memory.

Alongside Dropkick Murphys, the tracklisting features Bruce Springsteen, Hozier and Jessie Buckley, Johnny Depp and Imelda May, The Libertines, Primal Scream, Steve Earle, Tom Waits, U2, Glen Hansard, The Pogues themselves, and dozens more, spanning generations and genres in a way that mirrors just how far MacGowan’s influence travelled.

In keeping with MacGowan’s own lifelong advocacy for people experiencing homelessness, at least 50% of artist royalties generated by the album will be donated to the Dublin Simon Community.

The partnership reflects MacGowan’s long standing connection to the organisation and ensures his commitment to that cause continues well beyond the record itself.

’20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan’ arrives on all streaming platforms on November 13, 2026. It will also be released across three physical formats, headlined by a Limited Edition Deluxe Bookpack containing three LPs, two CDs, and a sixty page book packed with rare memorabilia and liner notes. Pre-orders are available now.

Dropkick Murphys’ ‘The Body of an American’ is available to stream on all major platforms today.

Since 1996, Dropkick Murphys have built a reputation as Boston’s own rock and roll underdogs turned champions, crafting music designed to be chanted at last call, in packed arenas, and during the dying minutes of a comeback rally.

Their discography includes four consecutive Billboard top 10 album debuts, among them Turn Up That Dial, 11 Short Stories Of Pain & Glory, Signed and Sealed in Blood, and Going Out In Style, alongside 2005’s Certified-Gold album The Warrior’s Code, home to the double platinum anthem “I’m Shipping Up To Boston.”

Whether fans first caught the band at the legendary Rathskeller under Kenmore Square, discovered them through Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award winning The Departed, or saw them tear through a festival set at Coachella, Dropkick Murphys have built an extended family stretching across continents.

Their music has racked up half a billion streams, they have moved more than eight million units worldwide, and they continue to sell out shows wherever they go.

Beyond the music, Dropkick Murphys’ official charity, The Claddagh Fund, has raised millions of dollars in support of non-profit organisations focused on children, veterans, and addiction recovery.

The band were also among the first to embrace livestreamed performances back in 2020, with their Streaming Outta Fenway event drawing more than 5.9 million viewers and landing the number three spot on Pollstar’s Top 2020 Live Streams chart.

In 2022, Dropkick Murphys released their first all-acoustic record, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, followed by Okemah Rising, both built from previously unpublished lyrics by Woody Guthrie, curated for the band by Guthrie’s daughter Nora.

Their current album, For The People, continues that tradition of music with purpose, offering a defiant, hopeful response to division at a moment when solidarity matters more than ever.

With ‘The Body of an American’, Dropkick Murphys add another chapter to a career built on honouring the artists who shaped them, while making sure Shane MacGowan’s legacy reaches the audiences it deserves.