Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Wotcha
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 11:22 PM

It is very tempting to yell, after the line "I heard a young girl calling" .... MICHAEL !!!! ... After a few pints down the pub ... who wouldn't ...?
Cheers,
Brian

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: alison
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 09:06 PM

and then there is the techno version that they play in the clubs....... which I now own...... brilliant after you get over the shock!!!! lol

a dance floor full of people singing the fields of athenry and pogo-ing is a bit bizarre.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: vindelis
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 08:12 PM

If you go to Clifden, Connemara, you will certainly hear a more up-tempo version of F o A. I suppose it is more 'Country'; as opposed to the slower 'Folk' versions, that 'traditionalists' are used to. - But then how slow is 'slow'?

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: GUEST,Paddy(1)
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 07:21 PM

Don't know what version you are referring to but one Brush Sheilds does a rock version of F o A which is interesting.
I think it is on a recording somewhere . . . .

Paddy(1)

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 05:42 PM

Gee, ya know,

I think that my inadvertant mdification is kinda nice. - Removes the whole Scot/Irish mixture.

I've got Wild Rover on 9 different albums, including:

Clancy Bros. & Tommy Makem - Reunion
Clancy Bros. & Tommy Makem - Greatest Irish Hits
Clancy Bros. & Robbie O'Connell - Tunes & Tales of Ireland
Clancy Bros. & Louis Killen - Live on St. Patrick's Day
The Tommy Makem Songbag
Dubliners - Wild Rover

Not that it's a big deal, but has anyone else heard the upbeat version of Athenry?

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 05:32 PM

oops.

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Moleskin Joe
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 02:45 PM

It's not "rise" up your kilt. It's "right" up. Good Luck, Ian M.

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Matt_R
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 02:39 PM

Irish music? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!

I have 2 Clancys albums, with well over 50 songs on them...no Wild Rover.

When I read what you wrote that the yell was, I almost died laughing! (read it again!)

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: sophocleese
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 02:39 PM

Blackcatter, I think "up your klit!" is a wonderful thing to yell in Wild Rover and one day I may have the nerve to do so. Until then I'll probably be boring and simply yell, "Up your Kilt!"

Sophocleese, sniggering quietly to herself.

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 02:15 PM

I sang a song in a singaround last year, which I'd never heard sung. I picked up the words/music in the local music library. Someone told me later that it's more usually sung at a fast lick. Shan't change my version, as it went down well, anyway.

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 02:08 PM

Good Lord Matt,

You don't get out much do you? (just joking - is there any Irish music available where you live? - Pick up a Clancy Brother's Album or two. Wild Rover has to be in the Irish Top 40.)

And I agree to some extent about the ruination of some of the fun songs. I still don't get the "Rise up yer klit" yell in Wild Rover. I thought it was fine with the clapping. I'm guess I don't know what humorous kilts need to be doing in the song - especially a bitter-sweet song like Wild Rover.

On the other side - I love the version of "Wild Colonial Boy that'd I heard years ago to a Reggae rhythm, with the first line: "There was a wild Rastafarian boy . . ."

pax yall

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 01:14 PM

Well, then you get people like me. I've never heard Streets of London performed (I sing it, but learned it from a MIDI). I know the words to Wild Rover, but I've never actually heard it. I don't even know how the tune goes.

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:58 PM

I ought to point out that The Fields of Athenry is a regular 'anthem' type song in Dublin and so it gets this anthem-type treatment. I've heard the song far too many times myself, I don't care how they do it as long as they get it over with quickly. It's a shame that this happens to songs like the Wild Rover, which might have been a good song once. Even Streets of London (one of the finest-crafted songs written) can jar after the first five hundred times you hear it.

Susan - doing familiar musical stuff in an unfamiliar way can be great fun. I remember the time we took St Anne's Reel and played it as a waltz, jig, cha-cha, tango...

Les

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:39 PM

UB Ed, too late!

O, Dem Golden Slippers (and I Come to the Garden Alone)-- as lovely, slow fiddle waltzes! (Golden Slippers has a nice little yodeling part now too! O (dee-lo) Dem Gol-den Slippers...) So in my head they are dancing in a heavenly garden and they are ALL wearing their golden slippers... it's very pretty! (THAT's the dance band I wanna be in!)

I prayed for this ability, but now-- uh oh!

Seriously, I am pretty talented in the area of rhythm, but I am also talented in the area of absorbing soungs as I have heard them... mimic ability, down to the twangs and tricks various singers are prone to. These abilities clashed whenever I tried to re-fashion a song to another rhythmic style. Now the walls between these two abilities have fallen down, and maybe I DO need to lie down!

It will be interesting to see what happens at our Saturday Night Service this week...

Thanks, I think!

("Preacher and the Bear" as a slow, prayerful blues piece... very funny!)

~Susan

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:32 PM

It's 'Hey Baby, watch the free birds fly'

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: UB Ed
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:18 PM

Previous Thread

Susan, you may want to lie down a bit...

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:18 PM

I can't remember what my friend said they were saying - It was after the thing about the birds flying - they audience yell something to the effect of "Fly birds, fly!"

It's odd to me because there are plenty of upbeat songs to sing.

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:17 PM

I just got an image of me beloved Pogues singing it!

FAR! LIE! THE FIELDS OF ATHENRY!

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:15 PM

Omigod! Now I am hearing this in my head as a bluegrass tune! (Mindcreep, not thread creep!)

I am more accustomed to hearing things that are usually done upbeat, slowed down for a new mood.

Oh dear. Now I am hearing Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior done as a mountain wail.

~S~

Subject: RE: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: UB Ed
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:14 PM

Yeah, I've heard it twice with an upbeat; no yelling though (What could one possibly yell?). Maybe that's what folks were referring to on a previous thread (Been adpoted by some football team?).

I think I favor the traditional, slower version.

Subject: Fields of Athenry - performed upbeat?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:10 PM

Hi all

A good friend of mine spent a couple nights in Dublin recently and was surprised that it appears that the way "Fields of Athenry" is commonly performed is as an up-beat sing-a-long almost like "Wild Rover" with even comments yelled from the audience during the chorus and such. He heard the song performed this way in at least 3 different pubs.

This confused him to some extent. We're used to it being performed fairly solemnly as typically befits a sad song. He and I are all in favor of interpretations of songs, but this was quite surprising.

Has anyone else experienced this?

pax yall