10 Greatest Irish Songs (Part 1)

It's two days late, but here you go, for St.Patrick's Day.


1) "Danny Boy"- This is an obvious one, and although it was written by an Englishman he must have had an Irish soul. The Irish goodbye, the "our souls are love and an everlasting farewell". (Yeats) Pulled between the ones we love and the world we live in, the best we've got to give is love and our goodbyes. And Danny's leaving too, and someone who loves him lets him know,

"If you come back and all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me,

And I shall hear, tho' soft ye tread above me
And all my dreams will richer, sweeter be
And you'll bend down, and tell me that you love me,
and I will rest in peace until you come to me"

In a lifetime of goodbyes here's the best goodbye forever. My favorite version is by Johnny Cash, off his American IV album, the last album he finished before he died. When he sings the "But if you come and all the flowers are dying, and I am dead, as dead I well may be" line means it. Listen to that version to hear him say goodbye. Here's another version by him and Jimmie Rodgers, and also the lyrics.

"Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen and down the mountain side;
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling;
It's you, it's you must go, and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow;
I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow;
Danny boy, Oh Danny boy, I love you so.

But if you come and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be.
You'll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I will know, 'though soft ye tread around me,
And then my grave shall richer sweeter be,
Then you'll bend down and tell me that you love me,
And I shall rest in peace until you come to me."

2) "Finnegan's Wake"- A street ballad on the resurection. But not of Christ, of Finnegan. It's about a guy who dies, has a funeral where a fight breaks out among the mourners, has liqour splashed on him in the course of it, and then wakes up, saying "Hurling whiskey round like blazes...Thunder and Jesus, did you think I was dead?" Symbolic of a lot, maybe symbolic of everything, it's a song James Joyce based a whole 600 page book on. The eternal affirmation of the human spirit, "Wasn't it the truth I tell ya? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake". The Dubliners do a really good version of it, and so do the Clancy Brothers. Here's a live Clancy Brothers version and the lyrics.

"Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street, a gentle Irishman mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet, an' to rise in the world he carried a hod
You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way but the love for the liquor poor Tim was born
To help him on his way each day, he'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim got rather full, his head felt heavy which made him shake
Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and they carried him home his corpse to wake
Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet, and laid him out upon the bed
A bottle of whiskey at his feet and a barrel of porter at his head

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

His friends assembled at the wake, and Mrs Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake, then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry, "Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
Tim avourneen, why did you die?", "Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Then Maggie O'Connor took up the job, "Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob and left her sprawling on the floor
Then the war did soon engage, t'was woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh law was all the rage and a row and a ruction soon began

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Mickey Maloney ducked his head when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed, the liquor scattered over Tim
Bedad he revives, see how he rises, Timothy rising from the bed
Saying "Whittle your whiskey around like blazes, t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake"

Continued next post