I grew up with that song and many more on a few LPs that I began by enjoying at my grandparents' house in the Bronx in the 1970s, then later took from there after they'd passed.
Cut to only a year or two ago, when I was talking with my uncle, their son, then approaching 70.
"I still have all of Grandpa's old Clancy Brothers records in a box somewhere."
"You thought they were his records?!?"
I'd spent my life thinking they were my grandfather's, and represented a grown man's fixed identity and a wistful regard for the awld country. All the while they'd been my uncle's, and they represented a young boomer's search for identity, and an attachment to what he probably thought of as folk music more than anything else. Suddenly they went from the Quiet Man file in my brain to the A Mighty Wind category.
I grew up with that song and many more on a few LPs that I began by enjoying at my grandparents' house in the Bronx in the 1970s, then later took from there after they'd passed.
Cut to only a year or two ago, when I was talking with my uncle, their son, then approaching 70.
"I still have all of Grandpa's old Clancy Brothers records in a box somewhere."
"You thought they were his records?!?"
I'd spent my life thinking they were my grandfather's, and represented a grown man's fixed identity and a wistful regard for the awld country. All the while they'd been my uncle's, and they represented a young boomer's search for identity, and an attachment to what he probably thought of as folk music more than anything else. Suddenly they went from the Quiet Man file in my brain to the A Mighty Wind category.
But still I love 'em. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgh4JuOJrg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Iw_drPFAM
Ah, you gotta love The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Great stuff.