Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry

Subject: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Mike Cahill
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 04:20 PM

I heard a splendid send up of the field of Athenry (spelling?) the chorus went :- Oh, no! not the fields of Athenry, If I hear it one more time I think I'll die.

Does anyone know the rest of the words?

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From:
Date: 06 Jul 99 - 05:20 PM

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Philippa
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 11:37 AM

refresh
How does the parody go?

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: John Wood
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 12:10 PM

I've heard a version of this!
I can't say I was particularly amused.
But then this song(the proper version!)has a rather spesial meaning to certain people here in Norway.

John.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 12:33 PM

Certain songs should be parody free. This is one. I heard a parody of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, also, quite forgetable.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Freddie Fox
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 12:48 PM

I have to agree. I know that a lot of folk musicians get a bit tired of being asked to play it, but we have to remember that people probably don't here it as often as a working band does. It is a special and very poignant song, and one of my personal favourites.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Micca
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 01:37 PM

Forgive me for inserting my 2p's($.02)worth but even if one does not particularly enjoy a parody, making restriction on what can be parodied is a dangerous route that leads to Censorship (My natural enemy)and Fascism and Sacred Cowism, Nothing is that Sacred I hope. I have heard the song referred to and laughed and sung along ,it does not detract from my enjoyment of the original. I think the second line is "if I hear it one more time I think Ill cry". But finally the criteria for judgement as for any song should be , Does it work, does it make you think, and in the case of parodies, does it make you laugh, Do I like it. If the answer to any of these is no, don't listen to it or sing it.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Melbert
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 01:46 PM

Micca - I think the parody that has THAT second line may be the "Willy McBride" one.

That said, I totally agree with everything else you say. There are limits as I think there are with any form of humour. On cable TV we get re-runs of old programs featuring stand-up comics and it's interesting to note how some of the gags which made us laugh maybe 15-20 years ago now grate on the nerves because of their racist or sexual content. I'm not sure whether that implies that I'm now more considerate to the feelings of my fellow man than I was back then, or whether I'm just harder to amuse these days.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 02:02 PM

I'm intrigued by the Fields of Athenry having a special meaning in Norway. Tell us more John Wood?

I don't think there are songs that should be parody free zones. But there are some lousy parodies, and if the parodies lousy it's even worse when it's a parody of a great song.

But I think people like the Kippers and Les Barker have demonstrated that parodying a song you love doesn't take anything away from it.If you don't love a song you haven't the right to parody it in my view.

One song you'd think should be parody-free is No Man's Land (or The Green Fields of France, or Willie McBride, whatever you call it - Digital Tradition follows Eric Bogle's preference for No Man's Land). But I heard a parody of that at the fleadsh in Clonmel a couple of years back which was both very funny, and had a serious pointy to it, about the way people sing the song without thinking what it means. (And I've just seen that it's on Digital tradition as No Man's Land (3)

- by Crawford Howard and Fintan Valaly)

Kevin

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Blackcat2
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 02:39 PM

Once again, everything biols down to a matter of taste (or for those people who's taste you disagree with - lack of taste).

I really agree with the sentiment by Freddie Fox reminding performers that the audience members usually hear songs a good deal less frequently than we do. I'd like to take that one step further - There are frequently people in my audience who haven't ever heard many of the songs I sing - It is such a joy to share the ones I fell in love with years ago to new people.

Parody is Free Speech and just like a tv program I don't like, I can chose to not view or listen to a parody I find offensive. Trust me, much of my life would be/is offensive to Christian Fundamentalists, yet I'm damn well going to continue living my life.

pax

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Blackcat2
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 02:42 PM

hi again

I do have to admit I'm tired of all the parodies that speak to the "Gee if one more person asks me to sing [INSERT TITLE HERE] song again, I'm gonna puke." Few are original enough to be worthy of mention.

pax

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: John Wood
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 04:38 PM

OK.....I'll give an explanation about Norway and The Fields of Athenry!
The``Story´´concerns a friend of mine,'though the whole of Norway knows about it, because it was featured in a prime time TV programm.
So Mudcatters......if your sitting comfortably......then I'll begin!

About four years ago my friends son was on a school class trip in the mountains.They got caught in an avalanche!
The others got out safly......Knut didn't!!
Knut was mad about Irish music,and his favorite song was ....The Fields of Athenry by Paddy Riley.
Three years running, Bjarne Sveen ,(Knuts father)had a sort of garden concert for Knuts friends,teachers,neighbours ect.
with Irish music.........Thats where I came in.
A television programm leader got to hear about this and decided to make a program.NRK.....the Norwigian Television,took Bjarne and his other son,Morten,over to Ireland.
They took them to several different sessions ect.and a trip to see ``the fields of Athenry´´.
Back at the hotel,the program leader said,``If you turn round there's someone who'd like to meet you´´.
Bjarne turns round and there is John Sheehan from The Dubliners!
He took them round to Paddy Rileys house and there they met the rest of the Dubliners.In the back garden,they then sung The Fields of Athenry.......Bjarne couldn't hold back the tears!

When they showed the programm on TV, Bjarne was in the studio and was presented with a World ticket to The Dubliners concerts.

There is also a sad sequel to this,but I wouldn't like to spoil your day.......

That's why I don't appreciate parodies of this particular song!!

John from Norway.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Mike Cahill
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 04:51 PM

Like all music a parody either hits the spot and is in tune with your thoughts or mood at that moment. I was at Whitby FF and having a really good time when I heard this parody. It reminds me of a good time, that is why I want the words, nothing deep or cultural

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 06:58 PM

Thanks for the story John.

As I said, there are parodies which come out of love for a song, and parodies that take the piss.

On another thread recebntly I asked if anyone knew of a version of The Mountains of Mourne in which Mary writes back to her young man acidly commenting on the fact that he seems to spend a lot of his time looking at the ladies he's telling her not to copy.

Noone came back with the song so far - but the point is, that is a parody growing out of and respecting the original song.

And I tend to share Blackcat2 impatience with performers sneering at the people who ask for a familiar song - and that is what can be implied in the type of "Don't ask me to sing" song, and is very often implied in the way singers react to a request for a "hackneyed" song.

Mind Enda Kenny's song "Don't ask me to sing the Wild Rover" isn't actually doing that. (And I know there was a thread about this recently.)It's about moving on and accepting change. And not letting feelings of nostalgia and homesickness get in the way of living in the present.

Kevin

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Melbert
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 07:10 PM

I've sometimes been offended by the reaction of an artiste who's been upset through being asked to play a "hackneyed" song. Surely many of these songs have lasted so long, handed down generation to generation, simply because of their popularity!

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: McKnees
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 08:33 PM

I could have said Oh no not the field of Athenry, if I had known what it was, but my introduction to this song was 3 weeks ago, at a 40th birthday party. There was this great Irish band playing at the party which was in a chapel hall. In the Ibrox area of Glasgow. The implications of this will become clear later in the story. The band started playing this song which had a greater significance than some of you may be aware. The result of this song being played was a group of the local youths threw concrete blocks, bricks and anything else they could lay their hands on over the fence onto the cars in the carpark, They must have a good aim one piece went directly though the sunroof of my car. Great end to a really great party. So if any of you fancy singing this song be careful of where, when and in front of whom you play it. Ibrox is the home of Glasgow Rangers Football team, supported by the Billy bhoys as opposed to the Celtic with their irish tricolour. Protestant against catholic, the oldest foes in this part of the world.

Subject: Lyr Add: FIELDS OF ATHENRY (parody)
From: fleetwood
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 11:07 PM

Here are the words of the alternative version that is sung in Fleetwood, UK

288 FIELDS OF ATHENRY (alternative version)

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
Michael they are singing it again
If I hear it one more time, I think I'll loose my mind
I'm so fed up with the Fields of Athenry

Oh no the Fields of Athenry
If I hear it one more time, I think I'll die
It's such a boring song it goes on and on and on
I'm so fed up with the Fields of Athenry

From within the prison wall I heard a young man calling
Mary why do you think I'm here
In here we all agree transportation'll set us free
Free from the Fields of Athenry

By a lonely harbour wall, I saw the last star falling
As the prison ship sailed out against the tide
Hold on that girl did say I'm coming with you to Botany Bay
To escape from the Fields of Athenry

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Daithi O Callahan
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 11:25 PM

I'm sorry, folks, but I just have to laugh at some of these parodies, especially when I HAVE heard the song being macked over... and over... and over. I don't appreciate the source song any less; it just makes me understand why the song is being sent up in the first place. On the other side of the fence, I'm not fond of people who have a condescending attitude toward those who request songs THEY'VE heard over and over... I've been on the receiving end of that at an 'open' session in Phoenix, and seen my friends get it in the teeth as well, from some supposedly professional musicians with decidedly unprofessional attitudes... luckily these were not local or permanent members of the Wednesday sessions, and when they left there was a bit more tolerance. In a similar vein, the band often at the center of these sessions, the Clare Voyants, has come up with a blistering response to Danny Boy. We all think it hilarious, but they've been asked not to sing it at one particular Irish pub because they offended a friend of the owner... The Sacred Cows strike again. Lastly, John, I can understand why you and your friends find Fields of Athenry an especially moving piece. I sorrow with you for your loss, and I understand that you don't particularly want to hear it parodied. I beg you, though, please don't think less of those of us who enjoy the send-up.

Daithi

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Barry Finn
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 11:54 PM

Some songs I guess mean different things to different people. Eric Bogle belives at least one parody of his "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a great song written by a friend of his but he doesn't sing it himself.

"The songs that I write I don't sing them no more
They're tiring old songs from a tiring old bore
And the young people ask what did he write them for
And I ask myself the same question"

"Yes I left a wife & a sweetheart behind
When the she wife she found out she near lost her mind"
When these first came out I was hanging out with a bunch of singers, musicains & dancers at an Irish bar & these songs would get airplay maybe 2 or 3 times a night, night after night, year in year out. The barmen, the waitresses & the regulars started to develop spasms & limps &gaging could be heard through out the place when these songs got started up. It got so bad that at one point the cook was found trying to poison the patrons requesting these songs & she eventually was found swinging from the rafters by the neck, with a note, asking that some one write a song about the cause of her demise. Pretty soon out of respect for the dead & from fear of the living, the musicians would only sing the parodies until finally no one could remembered the original songs & why they had become so popular in the first place. And now in low whispers, from the corners of the bar you can hear the younger ones asking the ancient wise ones "hey man, what's a band that plays Waltzing Matilda"? And a reply is heard "it's a lonely group that's outstanding in Henry's field".
Please, I sometimes can't help myself so can I beg forgiveness & ask if anyone could spare a spud. Barry

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From:
Date: 30 Oct 99 - 04:57 AM

The original parody was written by Malcom Austin anyone wanting the words contact me at above. The words already printed here are from a second parody written by Ron Baxter of Fleetwood club. No offence is ever intended towards anyone you either like it or you don't.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: dulcimer
Date: 30 Oct 99 - 09:33 AM

I think it is a statement aobut the appeal, meaningfulness, durability, and perhaps quality of a song or tune when it gets parodied and/or others adapt it to their own situations and circumstances. In a way a song or tune reaches a certain status when other start making up parodies. I think Daithi has an excellent point about sensitivity when performing parodies--picking the time and place.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 30 Oct 99 - 12:26 PM

Firstly, this would be the BEST new (to me) song I've
heard around the folk places for years, and I've made a point
of learning it.
Secondly, I love all clever parodies, regardless of the
songs from which they take the mickey.
Shimbo

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Oct 99 - 03:05 PM

What is all this fuss about parodies - they have been around since the handwritten word, and possibly before. There is an excellent book published by Faber and Faber, called 'Parodies' and although it parodies literature rather than song, it pokes fun at, and incidentally throws a different insight into the originals, which include such worthies as Pepys, Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

Besides, the late lamented Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjamin himself was a great fan of the parody - look out for a poem called 'We plough the fields and scatter the poison on the land'. If he cannot take himself seriously, why should anyone else??

Liz the Squeak.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Grubby
Date: 30 Oct 99 - 08:37 PM

Having been in the pub game for thirty odd years and also involved with celtic bands and session playing I have experianced both sides of the argument on many occasions regarding bands not wanting to play the same old requested song such as Fields of Athenry (Dirty Old Town and Danny Boy are another two). But if you look it as a purely business deal, pubs hire bands to entertain the public. If customers want to hear their favorite songs, I believe it's up to the band playing on the night to accommodate them. Sure the bands sick of singing them, but the customer probably doesn't hear it very often. If you don't want to play the "hoary old chestnuts" don't take on the gig". There's'this fine line isn't there, between the musicians playing in a pub for their own personal gratification and one of an obligation to the publican that hires them to work for the night. Now singing the same old song week after week in a session ,well thats another story that could be expanded but I will deal with this particular subject first

Regards Grubby

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Phil Taylor
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 08:28 AM

It has long been an ambition of mine that I could write a song which would become sufficiently well known for someone to write a parody of it.
Only great songs attract parodies.

Phil

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 09:23 AM

Hi [e-mail]---

Could you please eithe post the parody here,
or E-mail it to [e-mail]?

Thanx.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 12:16 PM

Hi McKnees, hope your car is feeling better. A silly question: I can understand why a lot of songs might inflame the sectarian passions and end up causing reactions and grief, but why this one? Is it because the British are the bad guys here? (I'm assuming that Trevelyan is English) Who got mad..the Celtic or Rangers fans?

I got proper shit (plus a lot of laughs) when I used to sing the Clancy's parody of Galway Bay.

Rick

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 02:02 PM

"British" doesn't really come into it. The one thing that will unite Rangers type Protestant Scots and Celtic type largely Irish descended Catholic Scots for a short spell will be backing Scotland to knock England out of the World Cup in a few days.And they won't be standing to attention when the band plays God Save the Queen, which theoretically is the "British" national anthem.

The Fields of Athenry has come to be a tribal Anthem for Celtic supporters, that's enough reason for Rangers fans to see red (or maybe orange) when it's sung. The words don't have much to do with it.
Not unusual, when you think of it. I mean what have the words of Dixie or Waltzing Matilda got to do with the emotions they link to?

And when it comes to Football... there are places you could get kicked to death for singing "I'm for ever blowing bubbles".

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 02:34 PM

Thank you McGrath. That's the info I was looking for. Now it makes sense.

Rick

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: paddymac
Date: 31 Oct 99 - 03:14 PM

I recall from a previous thread on this song that the song which is so popular these days is itself a "parody" (some might call it a rip-off) of a song first published in 1888 by Devlin, in Dublin, under the title "Fields of Athenry, A New Song". I haven't yet learned how to do the blue clicket thing, but go to You can probably also get there through the mudcat links.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Nov 99 - 12:50 PM

Phil - you know you've made it when the parody gets parodied - Les Barker is one of the few who has a) done this and b) had it done to him!!

Liz the Squeak

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: GUEST,Roger O'K ( newbie calling on webmaster, Sp
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 03:32 PM

Trevelyan was the head of the UK treasury and dragged his heels in spite of pressure even from the prime Minister Peel to introduce famine relief ("indian corn", i.e. maize) because he thought it was dangerous to disrupt the operation of the free market. I think he also subscribed to the view that the famine was God's way of solving the "overpopulation" problem in Ireland.

The resulting folk memory explains why even to this day people in Ireland are not to enthusiastic about Thatcherism

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: ciarili
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:13 PM

F of A was requested the other night, so I had to sing it, only to discover that the reason these goobers requested it was so they could shout during the chorus! If only I'd had this little jewel, I could've turned the tables....

ciarili

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:22 PM

I was at a weekend gathering a few weeks back, and started singing Roddy McCorly, and was amazed at the looks I got in some quarters. Why can't a song be just a song
I'm a Glaswegian, and was brought up with all this silly sectarian shite. I think that The fields of Athenry is a great song, and a valid history lesson for those that care to listen, and maybe learn too. Take it from me folks until we are able to sing any song, original version or parody, anywhere, anytime, then freedom is just a concept, and one that most of us pay only lip service to!!! Rant Rant Rant
Giok

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: GUEST,Simon
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 11:30 AM

I'm English and I love the Fields of Athenry. I don't feel any guilt because I was just not responsible. Trevelyan sounds Welsh or Cornish to me; Can anyone back this up?

Perhaps the parody was written by a Rangers fan? A proddy parody.

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: GUEST,Simon
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 11:36 AM

As a footnote, there's a "dance" version on this website. http://www.celticfanatic.tk/

Subject: RE: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 01:26 PM

Malcolm Austen and his lady , Mora Craig, were at a festival and when
someone started Fields of Athenry at Dirge speed for the third time that week end Mora whispered to Malc'Oh No ,NOT the fields of Athenry'
Malc immediately wrote his parody.I 'do' F o A myself and cosider a very pleasant piece of music when done at a sensible tempo,and with a bit of a lilt.Lie most songs , it is diabolical when done TOO slowly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Dani
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 08:08 AM

It's all a matter of the wisdom of perspective, isn't it? I have friends who love and are moved by songs of the 60's some of which annoy me no END to have to listen to. Overplayed original versions are the worst (PP&M, Dylan, etc.) To me. But covers are almost as bad. To me.

But let someone make fun of the music I LOVE. THAT'S a different story. JUST LET my husband mock Odetta, or Pete, and I throw things at him. How DARE you!!

Usually a parody is not necessary, or found funny, until the song itself has been so abused that it has it coming. So it's the abuse that's to blame. Let's work on THAT! Why would anyone drag out a hackneyed version of an overplayed song? If you can't give it some dimension and depth to make people get it and appreciate it, don't play the damn thing!

Barry, I choked on my toast reading your post. My restaurant hosts an Old Time jam every week or so. Sometimes the folks who play don't realize how many of the tunes sound alike, and that the group who played the week before played the same ones, and sometimes they think HARD before they play the next one.... that sounds just like the one before it... and I have to tell my staff "Be NICE. Cut that OUT. What if they SEE you?!"

Mind, this doesn't happen with all the groups. Just the ones who get in a narrow rut.

But we've all been in a situation where something that is hackneyed to everyone else is new and different to us, and we don't realize we've stepped in it 'til later. So parody away, but maybe explain the joke to be kind??

Dani

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: GUEST,Joe A
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 05:44 PM

Does anybody know the origins of the other version of the Fileds of Athenry.
First Verse,
Down by the Clarin's mossy banks
One evening I did stray
To while away those leisure hours
Before the break of day
My mind it starts its rambles
Of the days now long gone by
When I roved as free as the wild arch winds
Around the fields of athenry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 06:04 PM

Not a "version", but a completely different song. Also modern, written by John Flanagan in 1983, and called Down by the Clarin's Mossy Banks. Posted, with some background information, in an earlier discussion:

Lyr Add: The other fields of Athenry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Reiver 2
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 08:12 PM

I generally like a parody that's well written and well done, although a parody of something like The Green Fields Of France is a little hard to imagine. I'm also much more upset by attempts to censor than I am by attempts to poke fun. I think the Fields of Athenry parody is well written and is done in a gentle manner. I wouldn't sing it in public just because I like the actual song very much and would prefer to sing that. When the wife and I were in Ireland two years ago (actually we arrived exactly two years ago today, Sept. 11, 2001!) I made it a point to stay one night at a B&B on the edge of Athenry just so I could say I'd been there. We were able to wander around the town for a couple of hours, but in the morning it was so foggy that we couldn't see much of the fields!

When John Wood speaks of "... The Fields of Athenry by Paddy Riley", I'm assuming he meant as sung by Paddy Riley and not written by him, as it was written by Eric Bogle. That had me wondering for a minute.

I had intended to mention the "Danny Boy" parody that the Phoenix, AZ, group the Clare Voyants do, but Daithi O Callahan beat me to it. (Hi, Daithi - glad to know there's another Arizonian here on the Mudcat!) I hadn't heard that it had been banned from one of the Irish pubs in Phoenix, though. The parody was witten by the Clare Voyants' lead singer, Shay Veno, and isn't to the tune of Danny Boy, and isn't really a parody of the song itself, but pokes fun at the ostentacious efforts of some people to "affect being Irish." (into the pub one night walks a stranger who "... had a claddagh on each finger and a shamrock on each shoe, and when he said 'top o' the morning' my heart was filled with dread, and when he said his name was 'Danny Boy', I shot him in the head." The chorus goes on with "...too-ra-loo, too-ra-lay, I thought I might drop him in Galway Bay, Too-ra-loo, Too-ra-lie, But I buried Danny Boy beneath the fields of Athenry.") I think the song is a hoot (despite the violence involved!)

My favorite Irish group in the Phoenix area is a threesome called Seanachie. Dennis McMorrow of that group does a slightly bawdy parody of "Black Velvet Band". I can't recall the words but it's a fun number and catches listeners off guard when he starts a familiar tune with unexpected new lyrics.

Reiver 2

Subject: Re: Author Attribution: The field of Athenry
From:
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 09:29 PM

written by Eric Bogle

Do you not mean Pete St. John? I am assuming you are talking about the Fields of Athenry itself.

BTW, note for next update of DT, Fields of Athenry doesn't have author's name included. Or one of the parodies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Reiver 2
Date: 15 Sep 03 - 06:35 PM

All I know about the songwriter is that in several different places I've seen Eric Bogle listed as the author.

If any one want's the words to the Clare Voyants' "Danny Boy, RIP", I have them and would be happy to post them. I don't have the words to the parody of "Black Velvet Band" but I think I could get them. I'll try.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Joybell
Date: 15 Sep 03 - 06:51 PM

I've always thought that a good song can take it,and parody doesn't hurt it permanantly. Parodies wear out quickly while good songs don't generally. A friend of mine often inserts nonsence lines here and there into oft requested songs AND nobody has ever noticed. Not for an audience of singers though. For years he sang "Starry, starry night, tigers sing and monkeys bite."

Subject: Lyr Add: DANNY BOY (R.I.P.) (Shay Veno)
From: Reiver 2
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 06:54 PM

Well, here it is anyway. (It's too much fun to pass up.)

DANNY BOY (R.I.P.) by Shay Veno from the CD "Pass It On..." by the Clare Voyants.

(Andante)I met him in a pub one night
In a crowd of well-to-do's.
He had a claddagh on each finger
And a shamrock on each shoe.
And when he said, "Top o' the morning"
My heart was filled with dread.....
(allegro) When he said his name was Danny Boy
I shot him him in the head.

CHO: Raise up a cheer and lift your pints
    And raise them up on high.
    And sing this song of tragedy
    Beneath the Irish sky.
    From the glens the pipes are calling,
    But he never will reply,
    'Cause I buried Danny Boy
    Beneath the fields of Athenry.
    Too-ra-loo, too-ra-lay
    I thought I might drop him in Galway Bay.
    Too-ra-loo, too-ra-lie
    But I buried Danny Boy
    Beneath the fields of Athenry.

(Andante) Well the Garda, they came upon me
And they took away my gun,
And a hush fell o'er the crowd
When they saw what I had done.
Said the Garda, "God forgive me,
For I'm sure in Hell to burn....."
(Allegro) Then he shot poor Danny once again
To make sure he won't return.

CHO:

(Andante) Now some call me a hero
And some call me a fiend,
But they still sing his sad ould song
While drinking beer dyed toxic green.
But my sentence was commuted;
It seems I'm off scot-free....
(Allegro) So I think I'll have another pint
And wait for Michael Flatley!

CHO:

The first time I heard it, I was rather put off by the violence (and by the fact that I like all the songs mentioned and even enjoy Riverdance!). But it's a rousing good tune, and I can't help but enjoy it now.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 08:19 PM

There's a very good parody of "Fields of Athenry" by Andy McKean of Falkirk, which says more about some of the people who try to sing it (Celtic football supporters?) If he doesn't get in on this thread and post it himself, I'll put it on in the next day or 2.
On a serious note, I also hate the idea that you can't sing songs you like without checking out which colours the punters are wearing first.
Tattie B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh no not the field of Athenry
From: GUEST,Rowan Golightly
Date: 15 Jan 05 - 04:40 PM

On the subject of different words to "Black Velvet Band" - we do a song we learned from the Bedlam Bards called "Black Leather Band" which turns it into a very funny and really bawdy S and M song. We have to look around whenever we sing it to make sure there's no kids around!

Rowan
www.queens-gambit.com