This 37-minute film from 1965 captures the Dubliners in their native habitat, O’Donoghue’s Pub in Dublin. According to the Irish Film Institute’s website, O’Donoghue’s Opera was the first Irish musical film. The plot loosely follows the trad tune, ‘The Night Before Larry Was Stretched’. Lyrics are below the fold.

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Here’s a fun little artifact from the Where You Been So Long sessions: a version of the Leaving of Liverpool (MP3) without vocals.

When we record our tunes, we usually do the instrumental tracks as a group, and then overdub vocals. We had done this song a few times at Irish gigs and in our usual loud bar environments, and I had gotten in the habit of belting out the lead vocal Clancy Brothers style. It worked fine then, but when it came time to record the vocal in the studio, though, I became acutely aware of just how horrible I sounded.

We did it in ‘A’ because that’s the key it was in on the Dubliners record I learned it from¹. But it’s below my range. And there were other problems beyond that. The big ‘F’ sound on the first word of the song (’Farewell’) was causing me to lose all my breath pressure. By the time I got to the second big ‘F’ (on ‘far away’), I was sounding like a bagpipe that had been run over by a semi truck.

I did about a dozen takes that day, each significantly worse than the one before, and then gave up. We contemplated redoing it in a different key, or having someone else do the lead. In the end, though, we had Mike do this Karaoke mix of the tune for me to practice to. You can still hear a faint remnant of my original guide vocal, but, otherwise, it’s just the instrumental backing tracks and some of the solos.

In our next session, I tried a completely different approach, doing the verses as quietly as I could muster. We did the choruses en masse, with Ryan, Billy, and me around a single mic, and then double-tracked it. The two tracks were panned hard to either side, giving a pleasant big vocal sound. We also lopped out part of the first solo section, as the song had gotten too long.

The result seems to have been acceptable. I will always be immensely proud of the fact that it was played on RTE. Anyway, grab a bottle of Jameson’s and sing along.

The Leaving of Liverpool (Karaoke mix) MP3

¹ Egads, that’s a lot of prepositions in one sentence… four counting the one that ends it. I am appalled.

Here’s another great old Dubliners clip, from what appears to be a German television program. The song is a rousing rebel song, delivered with conviction by the inimitable Ronnie Drew. Also, behold the majesty that is Luke Kelly’s celt-fro.

Some men fight for silver
And some men fight for gold
But the IRA is fighting for
The land that England stole

This is the earliest clip I’ve ever seen of the Dubliners, back when they still went by the moniker of the Ronnie Drew Folk Group. I’ve written about McAlpine’s Fusiliers in an earlier post, you can refer to that if you want to know a bit more of the history of Sir Robert McAlpine. The lead vocal is by the great Ronnie Drew. Ronnie, sadly, is apparently in ill health, and receiving treatment for cancer.

In what appears to be a wee bit of censorship, Drew changes the last line of the song from:

If you pride your life
don’t join by Christ
with McAlpine’s Fusiliers

to:

If you pride your life
don’t join by God
with McAlpine’s Fusiliers

Sir Robert McAlpine was, and is, a major construction concern in England, and a voracious consumer of cheap Irish labor. Dominic Behan (Brendan’s brother) captured the cruelty of the construction trade beautifully with this song.

I remember the day that the Bear O’Shea fell into a concrete stair,
What Horseface said, when he saw him dead, well it wasn’t what the rich call prayers.
“I’m a navvy short,” was his one retort that reached unto my ears,
When the going is rough, well you must be tough, with McAlpine’s Fusiliers.

The Digital Tradition has lyrics and music for the tune.

The lead vocal is by Ronnie Drew.

The first three Dubliners records (The Dubliners with Luke Kelly, Finnegan’s Wakes, and The Dubliners in Concert) are among the finest records I’ve heard. I’ve listened to them countless dozens of times, and they never wear out their welcome. I never cease to be astonished at the power of their music.

A labor song for labor day, about one of the most famous labor leaders in American history. This isn’t so much a video, just a Dubliners recording set to a still photograph of singer Luke Kelly. It’s a great performance, though, one of the best you’ll hear of this standard.

This is a great vocal performance from the late, great Luke Kelly. It’s utterly fearless. Although the Pogues recorded a brilliant version of this on Rum Sodomy and the Lash, one would be hard pressed to find a better sung version of Ewan MacColl’s classic song than this.

On an unrelated note, Dubliner Barney McKenna is a brilliant banjo player, but man oh man is that thing loud.

Previous Dubliners posts

This is one of the catchiest songs about infanticide you’ll ever hear. It’s from a 1973 appearance on Swedish television. Ronnie Drew takes the lead vocal.