Back to ‘Live in Dublin’… ‘Hey Sandy’ – a fine opener. Harvey Andrews was a powerful voice in the 70s and there’s a good piece on the song at http://www.antiwarsongs.org (along with much more of interest to guestbookers, I hope). Neil Young’s ‘Ohio’ was the post Kent State anthem, but ‘Sandy’ seems to paint a bigger picture, somehow. I’ve never seen Harvey Andrews but am guessing that your paths might have crossed somewhere around Brum…
Thanks for the info about ‘Little Mother’ – bitter/sweet memories, I guess, but one of those songs that’ll always be linked to a time and place for you. The power of music, for sure – all part of your collecting, thankfully.
‘Clyde’s Bonnie Banks’ is brilliant and, in many ways, a glance into the future as I can ‘hear’ you playing it now in an identical way… what a fascinating process this music lark can be!
Dave
Christy's reply
Arty McGlynn played beautifully on that album as did Liam Óg Ó’Flynn…both departed,
good memories of that recording…in the main twas Donal Lunny,Arty and Myself as well as Liam there were contributions from Noel Bridgeman (RIP),Tony Molloy,Andy Irvine, Enya and Anto Drennan, it took place in Nicky Ryan’s studio 36 years ago, and it still reverberates getting the odd airplay …
I may have mentioned it before but Arty’s album “Botera” is a classic..
Hello Christy and All,
I started collecting vinyl when the early years album came out. The white album? The white vinyl would not be resisted.
Anyway, I was sifting through them all last night and found an album called just Christy Moore. The black album? The first song on it is Dalesman’s litany and its crammed with other fab songs too. Lovely album.
I think you’d started to settle into a singing style by this album?
So I was listening and I realised I sing a differently shaped tune to you for Dalesman’s Litany. Weird, because I think you’re the only other person I’ve listened to singing it. I love both tunes, but they aren’t the same.
Tunes have a life of their own, I guess, and I’m like a road they’re on…?
Rebecca
Christy's reply
Dave Burland recorded it too… and a few others whom I cant recall just now..Dave ran a great club in Barnsley….good singer and player
that album was made in 1975….I recall Barney McKenna and Michéal Ó Dómhnaill contributing, also Donal Lunny, Kevin Burke, Jimmy Faulkner,Declan McNelis and Robbie Brennan..only Donal and Kevin survive…
I always thought Gordon Lightfoot would be a great name for a dancer. Then I found out that there was actually a British athlete called Ricky Lightfoot. That got me thinking about names and professions. Robbie Fowler and Marc de Mann were both professional footballers. Dave Bird was Head of Conservation at Birdwatch Ireland before handing the position over to Mark Robbins. When I was growing up in Sligo there was a firm of solicitors on Teeling Street called Argue and Phibbs! And who could forget the former the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Sin. Arrah now, lads!
Christy's reply
are the Bombardes getting to you Joe..I was there with Planxty 50 years ago.. between the Bombardes and Pastis I came away a Basquet case…..got a bad crepes in Brest at feeding time
Nice one Lar and Kieran….. keeper of the archive….I can still see the exhibition in the Royal Spa during the Gathering.
Which takes me on to the NCH gig ….we watched again and again , so much there that only hits true on the 2nd or 3rd watch…. Gasun is special Indeed and it brought back memories of a chat some of us had that weekend in Lisdoon as Tom Touhy sang the funny songs at the seisun….. us talking of the talent that he had and how he could indeed write songs of a different nature.
Where would we be without the songs and music….
Christy's reply
I enjoyed the Q & A ….the Wally gig…..listening to the after session from my room upstairs…the Doherty Hospitality…the Royal Spa….seeing Gerry Brady…his Bones Solo…being in Lisdoonvarna…a perfect match
OK, I think we have it…….’They Never Came Home’ was a B-Side on the ‘Ordinary Man’ single release and also a B-Side on the ‘Delirium Tremens’ single…When The Ordinary Man LP and single were recalled and then re-released, both the LP and singles included ‘Another Song Is Born’ with the song on the B-Side on the B-Side. The DT’s was recalled also because it had ‘They Never Came Home’ on the B-Side, it was also re-released with ‘Another Song Is Born’ on the B-Side….and we have the photographic evidence…there was a bit of shed searchin, but we got there…so two versions of Ordinary Man single and two versions of Delirium Tremens single.The DT singles are two slightly different shades of blue…the Kieran Kelly knows his shhhtuff alright…a quick 5 minute phone call turned into 90 minutes, but that’s what it’s all about..he got a wave from Cassius Clay too… 😉
Christy's reply
Not heard from KK for a while…Ye fairly sorted out that single query….reminds me of all the vinyl singles that were released back 30-40 years ago..some with memorable sleeves….
ps just found a great youtube version of John Denver singing ‘Thirsty Boots’… notes say that Eric Andersen wrote it after friends had been on Civil Rights marches. He left the song unfinished for quite awhile, but was urged to finish writing it by Phil Ochs… more good work by Mr O – fair play to him.RIP. D
Good news that the excellent ‘ Hot Press’ people are publishing a Dylan/80th special c end of May… hard to find HP here, sadly ,but the ace http://www.bobdylanisis.com folks are sorting pre orders. The cover looks brill and I’m very pleased that Anne Margaret Daniel is listed as a contributor.
Early talk of Mr Lightfoot set the bar high for today’s listening – but Dylan has matched it, with the 1970 cover of Eric Andersen’s ‘ Thirsty Boots’. A wonderful song that has many of the hallmarks of a Dylan song,so great that Bob did justice to it when he tackled it during epic sessions at the end of his 20s…
Have a great day.
Dave
Christy's reply
“Hot Press” has survived all challenges and changes. I well remember its emergence into our lives all those years ago. It has undergone many facelifts to survive….and has provided us with some historic journalism along the way..well done to Niall & Crew for keeping the ship afloat
(I got an invite to Bob’s HP 80th but I was tied up putting the finishing touches to Zoz ‘n Zim )
Fair play, Ed – it’s rare to win a spot prize without leaving home!
According to a 2015 gig review of Gordon Lightfoot playing in Michigan – just before the Edmund Fitzgerald disaster in 1975 (it feels like a much older song- GL’s skill, I think)he was working on a song he was putting to an Irish melody. After hearing the news of the ship going down and the loss of 29 lives, he wrote about it,using the melody he already had. Being the brilliant artist he is, I’m guessing he’d have liked the fact that the tune went full circle with ‘Back home in Derry’.
Two superb songs and a spot prize from one tune – win win win.
Have a good day.
Dave
Christy's reply
while Dave remains an-early-bird…Ed ‘s an up-all-night
Ah, spot prizes. I’d associate them with dancehalls and a band leader telling people on the dancefloor ‘the last two seen dancing under the strobe light……Rebeccah was stepping in the right direction however.
R, if you’re anywhere near Allenwood we’ll try and get some turf to take home with us from that power station.
Christy's reply
Lightfoot recalled the story of the song during a Reddit AMA: “The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself,” he said. “And it was quite an undertaking to do that, I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old.” (Thanks to Dave Dagrab)
I knew that the songs the we know and sung by you in the Hearts and Planxty were not written by you. Mind you they became prominent as it were and into the canon of Irish folk music, but not written by you. McIlahatton is a Bobby Sands song. Was Back Home in Derry a Sands song. It is based on a Lighfoot song aint it?
Ah well, to get a spot prize…..
Christy's reply
Derry was Bobby’s lyric ..the tune is Gordon’s ( with variations)
cant vouch for veracity of this:
Gordon was once asked in interview what he thought about his melopdy being used in an Irish Rebel Song….seemingly he replied that he always felt it sounded like an old Irish Air
Janey Mac Christy! Somethings been triggered. If history had of been different could the “Stair na hÉireann” post have read. “He remained with Planxty until 1983, when it evolved into a new band, Crawthumper”! Or am I mis remembering and going to end up with egg on me mush!
I wouldnt describe you as ‘chief song-writer’ to Planxty and Moving Hearts. Surely much of Planxty was traditional arrangements. The Hearts brought an infusion of jazz and rock to some traditional tunes. Did your mother follow your father into politics? And ‘Celtic music’ and rock in Planxty? The idea that one group ‘evolved’ into the other; not so I say.
Christy's reply
ok Ed..I looked thru John Gibb’s post from “Stair na hÉireann” again…
the errors I notice include;
I never wrote anything for Planxty or Moving Hearts..I was merely the guitar-strumming, bodhrán-bashing chanter
“Back Home in Derry” was not based on “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” but utilised the melody….
“They Never Came Home” , to the best of my knowledge, was not released as a single ( perhaps Kieran Kelly might confirm) ( maybe Lar will ask him )
there were other inaccuracies in the piece but you just needed one to gain your spot prize..first up,best dressed…
your mega prize will be delivered to you asap ( how wide is your hall door ?)
Dear Christy,
I think the only error in the life history post ,that i could spot, was that instead of saying ‘moore was born OTD in 45’
there was no mention of the fact that when he hits the stage he performs like he is still 45.
Anyway this past week i was privileged ,along with my mucker Stevie the Freedom Fifer, to meet Matt McGinn for a cuppa outside in the Mournes, fab just to have a chat in the tranquility of his back yard….he is a rare talent as i know you agree, but also just a thoroughly decent human.
Then for Stevie and i to have a great time in Derry’s CoolDiscs swapping recommendations with the owner who sent us off with a few LPs and CDs to enjoy, and am particularly taken by Glen Hansard’s album This Wild Willing ( which closes with a beautiful track Leave A Light).
All roads lead to music.
Stay well
Rory
Hello Christy and All,
Is that a quiz I spy at the end of John Gibbs’ post?
Here’s a couple of stabs from me
There’s no high energy rock fused into Planxty.
Paddy on the Road was released in London, not Ireland.
Its a lament on the harp written around 1657 for Pieris Ferriteur {very sorry for any mangling of his name}.
Harp by itself, its the first time I’ve let it out without a vocal comfort blanket.
Hi Christy
Back to ‘Live in Dublin’… ‘Hey Sandy’ – a fine opener. Harvey Andrews was a powerful voice in the 70s and there’s a good piece on the song at http://www.antiwarsongs.org (along with much more of interest to guestbookers, I hope). Neil Young’s ‘Ohio’ was the post Kent State anthem, but ‘Sandy’ seems to paint a bigger picture, somehow. I’ve never seen Harvey Andrews but am guessing that your paths might have crossed somewhere around Brum…
Thanks for the info about ‘Little Mother’ – bitter/sweet memories, I guess, but one of those songs that’ll always be linked to a time and place for you. The power of music, for sure – all part of your collecting, thankfully.
‘Clyde’s Bonnie Banks’ is brilliant and, in many ways, a glance into the future as I can ‘hear’ you playing it now in an identical way… what a fascinating process this music lark can be!
Dave
Arty McGlynn played beautifully on that album as did Liam Óg Ó’Flynn…both departed,
good memories of that recording…in the main twas Donal Lunny,Arty and Myself as well as Liam there were contributions from Noel Bridgeman (RIP),Tony Molloy,Andy Irvine, Enya and Anto Drennan, it took place in Nicky Ryan’s studio 36 years ago, and it still reverberates getting the odd airplay …
I may have mentioned it before but Arty’s album “Botera” is a classic..
Hello Christy and All,
I started collecting vinyl when the early years album came out. The white album? The white vinyl would not be resisted.
Anyway, I was sifting through them all last night and found an album called just Christy Moore. The black album? The first song on it is Dalesman’s litany and its crammed with other fab songs too. Lovely album.
I think you’d started to settle into a singing style by this album?
So I was listening and I realised I sing a differently shaped tune to you for Dalesman’s Litany. Weird, because I think you’re the only other person I’ve listened to singing it. I love both tunes, but they aren’t the same.
Tunes have a life of their own, I guess, and I’m like a road they’re on…?
Rebecca
Dave Burland recorded it too… and a few others whom I cant recall just now..Dave ran a great club in Barnsley….good singer and player
that album was made in 1975….I recall Barney McKenna and Michéal Ó Dómhnaill contributing, also Donal Lunny, Kevin Burke, Jimmy Faulkner,Declan McNelis and Robbie Brennan..only Donal and Kevin survive…
Mornin’ Christy
Launching Zoz and Zim into the world will be a great part of Dylan @ 80 events. Greatly anticipated – as is the LP.
Have a good day.
Dave
I always thought Gordon Lightfoot would be a great name for a dancer. Then I found out that there was actually a British athlete called Ricky Lightfoot. That got me thinking about names and professions. Robbie Fowler and Marc de Mann were both professional footballers. Dave Bird was Head of Conservation at Birdwatch Ireland before handing the position over to Mark Robbins. When I was growing up in Sligo there was a firm of solicitors on Teeling Street called Argue and Phibbs! And who could forget the former the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Sin. Arrah now, lads!
are the Bombardes getting to you Joe..I was there with Planxty 50 years ago.. between the Bombardes and Pastis I came away a Basquet case…..got a bad crepes in Brest at feeding time
Nice one Lar and Kieran….. keeper of the archive….I can still see the exhibition in the Royal Spa during the Gathering.
Which takes me on to the NCH gig ….we watched again and again , so much there that only hits true on the 2nd or 3rd watch…. Gasun is special Indeed and it brought back memories of a chat some of us had that weekend in Lisdoon as Tom Touhy sang the funny songs at the seisun….. us talking of the talent that he had and how he could indeed write songs of a different nature.
Where would we be without the songs and music….
I enjoyed the Q & A ….the Wally gig…..listening to the after session from my room upstairs…the Doherty Hospitality…the Royal Spa….seeing Gerry Brady…his Bones Solo…being in Lisdoonvarna…a perfect match
OK, I think we have it…….’They Never Came Home’ was a B-Side on the ‘Ordinary Man’ single release and also a B-Side on the ‘Delirium Tremens’ single…When The Ordinary Man LP and single were recalled and then re-released, both the LP and singles included ‘Another Song Is Born’ with the song on the B-Side on the B-Side. The DT’s was recalled also because it had ‘They Never Came Home’ on the B-Side, it was also re-released with ‘Another Song Is Born’ on the B-Side….and we have the photographic evidence…there was a bit of shed searchin, but we got there…so two versions of Ordinary Man single and two versions of Delirium Tremens single.The DT singles are two slightly different shades of blue…the Kieran Kelly knows his shhhtuff alright…a quick 5 minute phone call turned into 90 minutes, but that’s what it’s all about..he got a wave from Cassius Clay too… 😉
Not heard from KK for a while…Ye fairly sorted out that single query….reminds me of all the vinyl singles that were released back 30-40 years ago..some with memorable sleeves….
ps just found a great youtube version of John Denver singing ‘Thirsty Boots’… notes say that Eric Andersen wrote it after friends had been on Civil Rights marches. He left the song unfinished for quite awhile, but was urged to finish writing it by Phil Ochs… more good work by Mr O – fair play to him.RIP. D
Hi Christy /bobcats
Good news that the excellent ‘ Hot Press’ people are publishing a Dylan/80th special c end of May… hard to find HP here, sadly ,but the ace http://www.bobdylanisis.com folks are sorting pre orders. The cover looks brill and I’m very pleased that Anne Margaret Daniel is listed as a contributor.
Early talk of Mr Lightfoot set the bar high for today’s listening – but Dylan has matched it, with the 1970 cover of Eric Andersen’s ‘ Thirsty Boots’. A wonderful song that has many of the hallmarks of a Dylan song,so great that Bob did justice to it when he tackled it during epic sessions at the end of his 20s…
Have a great day.
Dave
“Hot Press” has survived all challenges and changes. I well remember its emergence into our lives all those years ago. It has undergone many facelifts to survive….and has provided us with some historic journalism along the way..well done to Niall & Crew for keeping the ship afloat
(I got an invite to Bob’s HP 80th but I was tied up putting the finishing touches to Zoz ‘n Zim )
There’s nothing like a hands on demonstration to really understand something.
Good lad:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/from-the-archives-1.626726
If the spot prize could be a floor spot I’d have worked a lot harder on it. Even if everyone else was 50 yards away behind glass.
They installed a huge glass panel across the front of the public gallery in the house of commons to stop people lobbing things at the MPs.
So the protesters decided to involve the glass in their protests and started glueing themselves to it.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/01/semi-naked-climate-protesters-disrupt-brexit-debate
Most interesting day in Parliament for ages. Ed, I’ll bring a truck for the turf.
Rebecca
it was Butch (Frank) Roche from Wexford who provided a sample of CS gas to the House of Commons….an old friend, Butch died in 1993…
Mornin’ Christy/ all
Fair play, Ed – it’s rare to win a spot prize without leaving home!
According to a 2015 gig review of Gordon Lightfoot playing in Michigan – just before the Edmund Fitzgerald disaster in 1975 (it feels like a much older song- GL’s skill, I think)he was working on a song he was putting to an Irish melody. After hearing the news of the ship going down and the loss of 29 lives, he wrote about it,using the melody he already had. Being the brilliant artist he is, I’m guessing he’d have liked the fact that the tune went full circle with ‘Back home in Derry’.
Two superb songs and a spot prize from one tune – win win win.
Have a good day.
Dave
while Dave remains an-early-bird…Ed ‘s an up-all-night
Ah, spot prizes. I’d associate them with dancehalls and a band leader telling people on the dancefloor ‘the last two seen dancing under the strobe light……Rebeccah was stepping in the right direction however.
R, if you’re anywhere near Allenwood we’ll try and get some turf to take home with us from that power station.
Lightfoot recalled the story of the song during a Reddit AMA: “The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself,” he said. “And it was quite an undertaking to do that, I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old.” (Thanks to Dave Dagrab)
I knew that the songs the we know and sung by you in the Hearts and Planxty were not written by you. Mind you they became prominent as it were and into the canon of Irish folk music, but not written by you. McIlahatton is a Bobby Sands song. Was Back Home in Derry a Sands song. It is based on a Lighfoot song aint it?
Ah well, to get a spot prize…..
Derry was Bobby’s lyric ..the tune is Gordon’s ( with variations)
cant vouch for veracity of this:
Gordon was once asked in interview what he thought about his melopdy being used in an Irish Rebel Song….seemingly he replied that he always felt it sounded like an old Irish Air
Janey Mac Christy! Somethings been triggered. If history had of been different could the “Stair na hÉireann” post have read. “He remained with Planxty until 1983, when it evolved into a new band, Crawthumper”! Or am I mis remembering and going to end up with egg on me mush!
I’ve no idea about what you are remembering
Did I get them all wrong for the spot prize?
correct
I wouldnt describe you as ‘chief song-writer’ to Planxty and Moving Hearts. Surely much of Planxty was traditional arrangements. The Hearts brought an infusion of jazz and rock to some traditional tunes. Did your mother follow your father into politics? And ‘Celtic music’ and rock in Planxty? The idea that one group ‘evolved’ into the other; not so I say.
ok Ed..I looked thru John Gibb’s post from “Stair na hÉireann” again…
the errors I notice include;
I never wrote anything for Planxty or Moving Hearts..I was merely the guitar-strumming, bodhrán-bashing chanter
“Back Home in Derry” was not based on “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” but utilised the melody….
“They Never Came Home” , to the best of my knowledge, was not released as a single ( perhaps Kieran Kelly might confirm) ( maybe Lar will ask him )
there were other inaccuracies in the piece but you just needed one to gain your spot prize..first up,best dressed…
your mega prize will be delivered to you asap ( how wide is your hall door ?)
Allenwood.
And begob you made it there and back, nary a sod of turf to be got.
I might come looking for one of those spot prizes.
I look forward to that…there is only one spot prize
It should be spelt like this
PIARAS FERITÉIR
Dear Christy,
I think the only error in the life history post ,that i could spot, was that instead of saying ‘moore was born OTD in 45’
there was no mention of the fact that when he hits the stage he performs like he is still 45.
Anyway this past week i was privileged ,along with my mucker Stevie the Freedom Fifer, to meet Matt McGinn for a cuppa outside in the Mournes, fab just to have a chat in the tranquility of his back yard….he is a rare talent as i know you agree, but also just a thoroughly decent human.
Then for Stevie and i to have a great time in Derry’s CoolDiscs swapping recommendations with the owner who sent us off with a few LPs and CDs to enjoy, and am particularly taken by Glen Hansard’s album This Wild Willing ( which closes with a beautiful track Leave A Light).
All roads lead to music.
Stay well
Rory
Hello Christy and All,
Is that a quiz I spy at the end of John Gibbs’ post?
Here’s a couple of stabs from me
There’s no high energy rock fused into Planxty.
Paddy on the Road was released in London, not Ireland.
Here is a little recording I made yesterday
https://youtu.be/eCDDLn159BM
Its a lament on the harp written around 1657 for Pieris Ferriteur {very sorry for any mangling of his name}.
Harp by itself, its the first time I’ve let it out without a vocal comfort blanket.
Rebecca