Carrickfergus

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: Maryrrf
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 02:59 PM

I think to sing something like "Carrickfergus" you have to have "been around the block" a few times. You've got to have experienced life a bit, in order to convey the sentiments contained in that song. It's the ramblings of a dying, not very coherent alcoholic babbling on about a homeland he's not going to see again. How could a 15 or 16 year old girl have any inkling of that kind of feeling of nostalgia? I haven't heard her version but it doesn't sound like the right kind of song for someone her age.

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: The Pooka
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:38 PM

Maryrrf, agree. This song needs a broken-down grown-up. I'm available. / MediocreShepherd: LOL, "Jeannie in the Bottle" indeed. And here I always thought she was just plain old Nancy Whiskey. Re your stories, here's mine of right place, wrong song. When I was a young man in me prime I went into a pub in Dungarvan, made new acquaintances, and after some number of pints, proposed a particular rebel song. Now I'll be damned if I'm sure which one it was any more (this was 25 years ago OK?), but whichever, I was quietly & firmly advised by one of my new buddies---"Benny O'Brien From Belfast" was his name, he said---that "No, ye don't want to be singin' that one in here." Puzzled, I relented. I *think* it was a question of the Free-State Treaty Troubles: which side are you on, which side are you on? My song, doubtless from the de Valera republican side of the civil war (and meself with NO idea what the Hell I was singin' about), evidently wasn't quite right for the venue. So naive (and American) of me. Thank God fer Benny O'Brien From Belfast, he saved my ignorant arse. Better I should have sung Carrickfergus. (Benny's repertoire ran heavily to Al Jolson btw!) But I'll sing no more, till I get a drink.

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: Alice
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:12 PM

Don, I agree with you completely. I think Church's voice was pretty much on the way to ruin after the first year or so of popularity. The last couple of times I've seen her on tv, it was painful to watch and listen to. Her jaw is so tense, it jumps up and down constantly in a tremor while she is singing. What a sad waste of what could have been a good talent. aaaaarrrgh. Brightman is a new-age angelic guru - way too pretentious along with the sticky sweet overdose, she has a stage act floating her around like she is astral projecting or something. GAG!

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: GUEST,Annraoi
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 10:11 PM

Mryrrf
I think that if you go to the archives and read through the very comprehensive correspondence arising from *original* research, you will find that there's a lot more to "Carrickfergus" than the ".... ramblings of a dying, not very coherent alcoholic babbling on about a homeland he's not going to see again."
Annraoi

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From:
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 10:27 PM

HEre are three other threads on Carrick Fergus

Carrick Fergus 1
Carrick Fergus 2
Carrick Fergus 3

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: harpmaker
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 01:59 PM

HERE is a short clip of the ending of Carrickfergus, taken from the "OXYTICIN" CD. It goes down a storm wherever we play it!! For best results, right click on Carrick' then click on "save target as" then save the file to your desktop. Download time is just over 1 minuet. (56k modem)

Subject: Carrickfergus
From: Big Phil
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 03:50 PM

Been to see the Dubliners recently, its their 40 years together tour.....Ronnie and Jim were back, helping out it seems.Jim sang Carrickfergus, not the version he sang back in the the 1975 period with the Dubs, but a version with 3 or 4 more verses in the middle[ my boyhood friends and my own relations, have all passed on now, like melted snow etc]My question is, is the short version the original,or is the long version with extra verses the correct one..........Phil*

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: GUEST,maryrrf
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 03:54 PM

Good question. I'm wondering the same thing.

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 05:25 PM

not a good question! what is the "correct" version of a song that old??
see thread origins of Carrickfergus
though in the thread Carrickfergus (full version?) Annraoi assserts that the macaronic (bi-lingual)is the real traditional version.

In the English-only version that verse about "childhood friends and fond relations" is my favourite.

Subject: RE: Carrickfergus
From: Big Phil
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 02:54 PM

Thanks Philippa for your info..........Phil*