A Post of Musical Proportions.

[apolla]

This post is sponsored by a comment by ali_granger regarding her daughter's precocious (and precious) ability to mimic dentally-challenged punk Shane MacGowan.

I like traditional Irish music. I love the Dubliners. I like the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. I even like the Pogues, although they punked it up. If it's got a bodhrun, a banjo and a voice like sandpaper, chances are I'll love it. I can even sit through that dirge of a song 'Kevin Barry'. I spent my entire trip to Paris in August listening to the Best of the Dubliners. I was on the way to see Jim Morrison, but I listened to the dulcet tones of Ronnie Drew and his mates.

It's no secret I'm a fan of most things Irish. Not all things- I fucking hate U2. I like soda bread, Guinness, potatoes, bacon and cabbage and what my father derisively calls 'diddly-diddly music'. I'm also a big fan of Dublin. I love Thin Lizzy, and my favourite Lizzy songs are those that rockify the trad stuff, like 'Roisin Dubh', which features 'The Mason's Apron' done by electric guitars- you've not lived till you've heard it.

Now, quite why I love it has never been totally clear to me. I don't like that faux-Celtic stuff that gets punched out and marketed as 'chill-out' music. I don't like Enya. I don't like Clannad particularly, and Scots-Celtic stuff is out for me. Ruby Murray singing 'Galway Bay' or Bing doing 'Too Ra Loo Ra Loo-Ra' pisses me off. I don't like most versions of Danny Boy (although the Londonderry Air is a different matter)

No, for me it has to be the almost shambolic sound of The Irish Rover or 'Maids When You're Young (Never Wed An Old Man'. Trad Irish shouldn't make sense- a bunch of blokes all playing different, very complicated things really quite fast shouldn't sound good. Somehow, when done by great musicians, it does. Somehow when done by great musicians something shambolic and noisy is transformed into a sound of great and complex beauty. It's hypnotic and, at its best makes even those blessed with two left feet want to get up and flail about in some impression of Michael Flatley (another Irishman I don't like, incidentally). It is filled with great joy, great sadness and of course, the history of bitterness, tragedy and 'blessed martyrs' that 700 hundred years of English rule tends to leave behind. It is heartbreaking and it is funny. It is drenched in porter, whiskey and poteen. It has balls and it has heart. It is angry and sad and it is everything the Irish have ever felt.

It has also become an aural cliche- the 'diddly-diddly music' my dad makes snidey remarks about. Too many bad records, too much of the stereotype of the Oirishman and his pig have sullied the greatness of what is incredibly complex music. The aforementioned 'The Mason's Apron' is not easy to play. This stuff is fast, hard and it takes musicians of incredible ability to even attempt it. Some of it overplayed or over-covered- Charlotte fucking Church singing 'Carrickfergus'? That's 'Carrickfergus', a song about a man in his last days wistful for home, sung by a 16 year old millionaire bint from Wales. Or 'The Wild Rover' as done by another Irish bloke I don't like, Elvis Costello, on fucking Frasier.

But you know, sat in O'Sullivan's pub in Dublin on a Saturday night, one bloke with a guitar and a microphone held sway over a pub full of people. They all knew the words to all the stuff- the only time there was anything approaching silence was when he sang contemporary songs by wankers like Oasis (who are as faux-Irish as me, btw). We all knew the words and we all joined in. Shambolic but amazing. I'll take tin whistles, banjos and a Dub singer any day of the week.

Recommended listening for those who care or are at least intrigued (there are obviously other greats beside the Dubliners and the Pogues, but they're the two bands I'm listening to right now):

The Irish Rover (best version by The Dubliners & The Pogues)
The Fields of Athenry
If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
Roisin Dubh: A Rock Legend by Thin Lizzy.
I'll Tell Me Ma (coolest version by Van Morrison & The Chieftans.)
Finnegan's Wake
Carrickfergus
The Wild Rover
Whiskey In The Jar (there's the trad version, but there's also the famous rock version by Thin Lizzy)
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (it's actually about Aussie soldiers in the first world war, but seems popular with Irish bands given the number of Irish sent to Australia. The best version IMO is by The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem.)

If you want to buy a record:

Irish Heartbeat by Van Morrison and the Chieftains
Spirit of the Irish: The Ultimate Collection by The Dubliners
Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by The Pogues

There are a thousand great bands out there. If you want, if you like and if you care, I suggest trying that time honoured tradition of Googling.

Comments

[mangosong.livejournal.com]

Okay, must start what will probably be a novella of a comment. ;)

I FUCKING LOVE Irish music and I have no idea why. If I am Irish at all, it is pretty far back in my ancestry, but it speaks to me as if it's my long-lost heritage for some reason. I have been absolutely obsessed in recent months and I have been sort of fumbling around discovering things, because I don't know anyone else in RL who is really into it.

I've loved the Pogues for quite a few years, and have obsessively listened to "Rum, Sodomy & the Lash" as well as "IISFFGWG." But recently I have discovered the Best of the Dubliners and the Chieftans album "The Long Black Veil," one or the other of which has been in my CD player pretty much constantly ever since.

I do NOT know Thin Lizzy and considering our musical taste is so completely similar (except that I love U2) I will definitely have to try it out. Thanks SO much for the other recs, because I have not really had any direction in picking out CDs -- just assistance from the folks in my local record shop. I am thrilled to find out that out of the songs you mentioned, I know and adore seven of them, and I've got two out of the three albums.

And yeah, I'm not into Enya. I'm not into that Celtic trance earth mother stuff. I need a rough-voiced drunk guy singing to me in a pub. Or something similar, anyway.

Strangely, by the way, some Irish music is pretty closely related to American bluegrass, which I listen to because my husband plays the banjo. No idea how they came to be related but it's a similar idea, except we sing about whiskey stills and foggy mountains. Wait, that's pretty much the same...

[apolla.livejournal.com]

:D :D THIN LIZZY ROCK Dig the dual lead guitars! Dig the cocky lead singer! They're the guys who did 'The Boys Are Back In Town' which is dead famous. They tried cracking America a few times, toured with a bunch of recognisable names, but their own ability for self-destruction ruined it all (Phil got hepatitis, Robbo bust his hand in a fight, etc etc). You'd like them, I reckon. Their live album Live & Dangerous is routinely (and rightly) named best ever live album. Jailbreak is a classic album by anyone's standards.

As to bluegrass, which I hate with a passion usually reserved for Phil Collins... I know that a lot of mountain music is derived from the celtic stuff... they got a mishmash of blues, celtic and everything else when you think about where they are and who they started off as (Irish and Scots immigrants). A lot of the soundtrack of Gangs of New York isn't actually Irish music- it's mountain blues. I think some of the other mountain stuff is more closely related than bluegrass, but I might just be saying that cos I hate bluegrass.

There's also a relatively new phenomenon of afro-celt, which seems mad but makes perfect sense. There's actually a group called Afro-Celt or something, but I've not heard much of them.

As for the Pogues: I remember as a kid seeing Shane on Top of the Pops miming really badly to somethingorother. My dad said he was crap and because of the miming, I believed him. It was only fairly recently that I got into them- I'm not a punk, so I didn't get to them from there. I was genuinely AMAZED by them- not least the lyrics, which are much, much greater than any punk band has a right to. Vive la Shane!

[mangosong.livejournal.com]

Dual lead guitars, I am THERE! ;) And you were not wrong about The Darkness so I will heed your words.

I understand the hating bluegrass. I think it is possible to like Irish music and hate bluegrass, or like bluegrass and hate country, or zydeco, or other related stuff. I despise country-western with a passion but I kinda like the down home on the porch with the banjo stuff. When it comes down to it I like folk music so I like anything that draws from that as a base.

I got into the Pogues five or so years ago thanks to my friend ninjacodemonkey, who's English and I dunno, found them via his good radar for cool music. I'm not really a punk either but I do love the Pixies and the Clash and punk type stuff. And then I got frustrated with how few Pogues albums there really are and went in search of other Irish stuff, and that's how I found everything else!

[mangosong.livejournal.com]

Um that was supposed to say ninjacodemonkey. :D

[88l71.livejournal.com]

Wandered in here from deleterious since I saw in one thread you said you hated modern rock and had a Morrison icon...

A fellow Thin Lizzy fan? SWEET! IMHO one of the most underrated rock bands of all time. I have Live and Dangerous on LP. Hell, my fiancee's nickname is Thin Lizzy.

They were before my time, but I managed to catch them recently on tour with Deep Purple with new lead singer/guitarist (they had someone else playing bass but forget who.) Gorham is still playing guitar with them, though. Was in the 5th row - great show. Set list included Jailbreak, Bad Reputation, Boys are Back in Town, Warrior, Cowboy Song...

[apolla.livejournal.com]

Everything is linked to everything else one way or another. It's one of the very best things about music, I reckon.*

*except Phil Collins being linked to anything, ever.

[apolla.livejournal.com]

Thin Lizzy were before my time (was four when Philip shuffled off the mortal coil) too, but I've found that if I went with 'of my time', I wouldn't have anything to listen to.

I've found that they're incredibly underrated here in Britain, and even moreso in America (my American pals know The Boys Are Back In Town, but couldn't tell you who did it. One pal was genuinely shocked when I posted a pic of Philip. She was like 'He's BLACK'?) for several reasons- Philip's colour, their bad luck and ability to screw up their career.

But I was just in Dublin two weekends ago, and the affection the Dubs still have for their king is unabated. I saw posters for the Vibe For Philo (which I'm saving up for with any luck) months before it's happening. My mam bought me six Lizzy CDs in Grafton Street because you just can't get those ones here. Was mucho grateful.

Was the new lineup good? I heard that there's a gen-yoo-ine reunion tour happening but the line-up is in question. Was Scott good when you saw him? Aside from being the prettiest guitarist in the entire 70s, he really was amazing. In any other band he'd have been the focus of attention, but he was in a band with Philip, and that's that.

Dunno if you know of it, but www.roisindubh.info is the 'official' Lynott site and seems to be updated pretty regularly with news and stuff.