A Post of Musical Proportions.

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.

A Post of Musical Proportions.

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.