Obit: Liam Clancy RIP (1935-2009)

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 02:22 AM

Ha! great alliteration in that line ," poems about poisonings, perhpas" !well, that's not exactly what I'm writing about- though Dylan Thomas did take his final swigs of drink at the White Horse. So, yes, perhpas one poem about poisoning. I'm in a poetry seminar at Monmouth University. We had to pick a topic to research and write a series of poems about during the semester. I choose the White Horse as a two-part homage- 1)to my uncle who owns the bar (and was friends with the Clancy bros. and 2)to the many great performers, artists, and writers ( Anais Nin, Norman Mailer, Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac, Helen Weaver, Allen Ginsberg, Dan Wakefield, Delmore Schwartz, Michael Harrington, Dorothy Day, and of course the Clancy Bro's... many more... the waitresses, the regulars, and the history are included in the poems) - who spent their nights there.

The portfolio is due tomorrow.. but as I sit here at 2a.m. still writing and researching with multiple unwritten poems on my mind- I am certain I will continue this work throughout the summer. So, if you sir, or anyone has stories (or photos) please send them my way!

Thank you!

Truly,
Chelsea
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 10:57 PM

Poems about poisonings, perhaps?

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 10:03 PM

This message is to the gentleman who hung at the White Horse. I am writing a series of poems on the White Horse. Would you be willing to share any other antedotes you recall of those days, my friend?

please email me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Sourdough
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 10:20 AM

Arrgh - I lost my cookie and didn't notice until after I'd posted the above message.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 11:49 PM

The stark message title on Cyberpluckers, "Rest in peace, liam clancy" was the first I learned of the death of one of my favorite performers, someone for whom you could be forgiven for trotting out the cliche, "It's the end of an era."

In the early Sixties, while a college student, I was also stage managing the Living Theatre's off-Broadway production, "The Connection". We'd close the theater around eleven or eleven thirty each evening. That was too early to go to go home so I'd often head for the White Horse Tavern. I'd started going there because it was a kind of literary hangout. Brendan Behan (who I nearly had to physically eject from a Living Theater audience one night because he'd insisted on bringing his cigar in with him) was a regular there. Another writer, Dylan Thomas had also been an habitue. Thomas, a heavy drinker, actually had his last whiskey there. At a tavern table, he'd fallen into a coma from which he'd never recovered and had died not long after.

I always looked forward to the singing at the White Horse bar, people just breaking into song. The best was when a quartet whom I soon gathered were professionals and actually had made paid appearances around town, were there. I really enjoyed them. Even so, there was a woman upstairs who used to complain about the noise late in the evening when these guys were hitting their stride with vigorous renditions of Belle of Belfast City, Brennan on the Moor and the like. We all got to join in the choruses so it could get pretty boisterous. Of course, the quartet was the three Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

I was lucky enough to be at a number of these informal performances. I remember vividly sitting just a few feet from Tommy Makem when he pulled out a bar stool, sat down, and sang "The Cobbler". He was so intense. His miming of the cobbler at work at his bench seemed perfect. It was more than a song, it was a moving theatrical experience.

Standing so close, I could hear the banter between the four of them. It was witty, really funny. I think it was out of these sessions that many bits that started extemporaneously later were honed and became a part of their act.

My favorite episode though had nothing to do with their music, at least not directly. The woman upstairs who had called repeatedly over the past months again called one evening when the Clancys were singing. Instead of complaining, though, she had a question. "Are they the men who were on the Ed Sullivan Show last Sunday?" The bartender told her that they were. That was the last time she called!

Over the past four decades since that time, I have been an unabashed Clancy fan. I've bought their records, then their CDs, I've leaped at the chance to go to any of their performances and I've learned many of their songs. I've been nurtured by the vitality of their music. I feel a deep disappointment that now I can never hear any of them again.

This afternoon when I was leaving to play at a river festival here in Petaluma, I decided to wear my Aran sweater and with feelings of Gaelic gaiety mixed with the sadness of the finality signified by Liam Clancy's death, I sang two of my favorite Clancy songs, Belle of Belfast City and William Bloat.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 08:59 PM

Muireann NicAmhlaoibhs words said it all.

R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 07:36 AM

Jorox, how has you intended to get through ?? I can't put up my own e-address ???

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 06:58 AM

Here's The Guardian one anyway:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/04/liam-clancy-dies-obituary

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:53 PM

I assume that Tommy's nephew Tom would have been Tom Sweeney of Barley Bree.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Fidjit
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 05:06 PM

I'm sure the Clancy's with Tommy Maken influenced a lot of us from the Fiffty's onwards.

Chas

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Gavin Paterson
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 11:46 AM

Beachcomber, I'll message you.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 11:24 AM

Jorrox, you mean to tell me that I was "rubbing shoulders" with you all unbeknowing last Monday evening. Of course if you only arrived after midnight I didn't stay much longer. My "ride home" had a Christmas Art & Craft Fair in their shop which required an early start the next morning.
Was that Tommy Makem's nephew with the broad brimmed hat, playing a tenor banjo then ?
The sessions were great, did you play too ?
[I thought I heard a "bum note" once or twice :-)]

beachcomber.

(Hoping other readers will forgive me for personal remarks)

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 11:00 AM

Just thought you might want to know that there's in item on the late Liam Clancy on the 'Last Word' on BBC Radio 4 today at 4pm. If you miss it you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 03:49 PM

The four broadsheet newspapers in the UK have published obituaries:
The Times www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/
Daily Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/
The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/tone/obituaries
The Independent www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/
but I can't do the blue clicky thing ...
Derek

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Gavin Paterson
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 08:13 AM

Beachcomber - I was in the Mooney's Session. At the height of it, there were three sessions on the go at the same time!

As you say, it was great to have some Makem there too. Rory, Tommy's son and Tom, his nephew (playing tin whistle and a Vega) helped to make it full-on.

Subject: Obit: Liam Clancy
From: Fidjit
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 04:41 AM

Commiserations!

last week Liam Clancy died. He played the English Concertina.
I met Liam in Oslo, Oh, must be 10 years ago or so. Great man. Glad I met at least one of the Clancy's. Hero's!

Chas

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: black walnut
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 04:47 PM

Red is the rose....it doesn't get better than this. Clancy was top 'o the ladder.

~b.w.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: gnu
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 03:55 PM

beachcomber... tears to my eyes.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 01:57 PM

Thanks Beachcomber for a brilliant account, appreciated by mise.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 11:59 AM

Yesterday I attended Liam's funeral. Shay Healy's eulogy was perfect , I have never heard one better, he caught the essence of Liam ,and all the Clancy brothers and their era, very well indeed. Later, as we all stood around Liam's last resting place a full, bright rainbow formed above his grave, arching across the sky . Everyone was delighted and we sang "The Parting Glass" and Donal shouted "Have ye any homes to go to ?" and we dispersed.
But not to our homes, because the music in Mooney's Pub nearby, went on long into the night. It was lovely to see a son of Tommy Makem's there singing his heart out, among all of Liam and Kim's talented brood as well as the sisters and the cousins and the aunts. My only regret is that I'm too old and feeble now to last the pace with these vigourous young people.
God bless them all, they could well be still singing for all I know.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,George Henderson
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 07:10 AM

Martin Ryan, I remember that night so well Martin. But it was crowned by the informal session we had the following afternoon. What a character. He hyrnotised the entire crowd that came into Derek browne's that day. A brilliant performer aadded to by very intelligent and observant comments. Geat company to be in. See my comments under memotires of Liam Clancy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Barbara
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 11:52 PM

"Isn't it grand, boys, to be bloody well dead?
Let's not have a sniffle, let's have a bloody good cry,
And always remember the longer you live,
The sooner you bloody well die."

They pulled me into the world of folk and Irish song back in the 60s, Irish songs I am singing today as we perform an Irish revel here in Portland Oregon.
Thanks for it all, good night and God be with you all.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,Tiger
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 08:50 AM

Yes, very sad. Now, they're all gone.

I've had the delight of a number of their performances, and will treasure my recordings.

The thing I will remember most about Liam was his wonderful poetry readings. It was always riveting when he got into one of these - he put you immediately into the scene, to be part of the feeling and the emotion.

Of these, my favorite was from his 1992 performances at the Olympia theater in Dublin. He read Patrick Kavanaugh's "Pegasus", a great work even without Liam, but his reading simply blows me away.

"Pegasus" by Patrick Kavanaugh

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 06:59 AM

2009 has been a bloody awful year, hasn't it, for deaths of folkies ?

RIP, Liam - the world is a sadder, gloomier place today.

There was time, before I learned that there is such a thing as English folk song, when I would sing the Clancys' recorded canon. Not that I'm denigrating the latter, you understand.

Without the Clancys and Tommy Makem, it is conceivable that the likes of the Chieftains, Planxty, Boys of the Lough, etc. might have had a harder time.

The Clancys and Tommy Makem laid the foundations, as it were.

Please let this sad passing be the last one for 2009.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 05:55 AM

Sorry try this from You Tube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayOVvGZjZu8&feature=PlayList&p=C42125735B446733&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=60

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 05:53 AM

Liam at his poetic best in thid beautiful Irish song,

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Gweltas
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 03:06 AM

To Sandy Mc Lean:
Thanks for posting the link, Sandy. I didn't know this film existed till now and I am about to go find myself a copy !
Best regards,
Anne XX

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Hrothgar
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 02:15 AM

I have always admired the work he did solo and with Tommy Makem, but somehow the loss of the last of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem is what takes away a part of my youth.

Rest in peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 11:11 PM

The Legend

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 09:57 PM

How did I miss this? That means they are all dead, now! Aaargh!

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 12:32 PM

About ten years ago How My Heart Sings, a biography of jazz pianist Bill Evans, contained a story by English jazz fan and promoter, Brian Hennessy, about his first encounter with Evans, in spring 1962 in New York.


…. The Village Vanguard was offering the Bill Evans Trio that week and, not long after checking into the hotel, I took a cab to Greenwich Village. On arrival outside the Vanguard, I observed a long queue waiting to get in and soon discovered that it mostly consisted of Irish Americans who were there to hear the main act of the evening, the Clancy Brothers. To them, the Bill Evans Trio was merely an interval filler. After the Clancys first set, the audience evaporated (the beer was cheaper around the corner) but huddled around the piano in what appeared to be a state of worship were a dozen studious devotees….

Parallel worlds, I guess.

Regards

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 12:06 PM

I remember my delight on seeing the names of famous performers like Pete Seeger, Bruce Langhorn and Frank Hamilton as "side men" on those Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem LPs of the 60s. It seemed to confirm , for me anyway, that Irish songs were "acceptable" in the wider international folk-revival that had begun. I rem too the pride I felt on hearing Irish music and song , (Incl some popularised by Liam and co.) so highly acclaimed in places like Cecil Sharpe House.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Stringsinger
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 11:08 AM

Some called them the "lads". We called them the "boys". They sang their hearts out wherever they went. I followed them around and even had them to dinner in Chicago, one night.
I remember making a table to serve them out of a door from the hardware store.

One party in Madison Park where I lived, they were singing lively with beer in hand sans shirts. Severin Darden, the enfant terrible of the Second City Comedy Club was there and slinked off into a corner when a couple emerged together from the shower wrapped in bath towels. Severin couldn't follow that act, but the Clancys could and did.

We did an album together at the Gate of Horn. I was accompanist with one of my favorite guitarists, Bruce Langhorne and the now-forgotten lovely bass player, Bill Lee (Spike's father). "Hearty and Hellish" was the album.

Bill Lee graced Odetta's recordings as well.

The "lads" or the "boys" will not be forgotten and Liam sang his way into our hearts.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 10:00 AM

Please don't flame this thread!

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: bubblyrat
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 09:52 AM

A great loss indeed,and I always liked him,as a singer,the best.And The Clancy Brothers were a great source of inspiration to many of us back in the early 'sixties ; such a great shame that some of their musical activities in New York might ( I say might) have been to raise money for terrorists ( the IRA ),if indeed they were.....there were certainly rumours.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 09:38 AM

If a tear was not already in my eye Jerrox's tribute would have placed one there!
My singing idols grow fewer and fewer on this Earth and Liam was a giant among them! Rest in peace, wild rover!

Wild Rover

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Mick Tems
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 08:58 AM

I'll gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

Rest in peace, Liam.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: stallion
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 06:04 AM

The Clancy brothers music informed my early teenage years, I remember sitting in my room with Jim McF, the Clancy brothers LP's on the Dansette, sloshed on cider and singing our heads off with the records. Apart from me, Liam was the last one left of our "group". I would liked to have thanked everyone who inspired me to do what I do but it would be a tall ask and the list is still growing but if I were to ask myself how it all started it was in that room with Jim McF, the dansette and the Clancy brothers, thank you. RIP
Pete

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Jim Lad
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 12:41 AM

R.I.P. Liam!

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: michaelr
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 10:07 PM

He was a giant among men
We will not see his like again

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: gnu
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 07:57 PM

ard.... indeed... many are sorry for his going away. Good night and joy be with Liam.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: akenaton
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 07:35 PM

Liam was a wonderful singer and communicator.
I treasure the DVD you sent me ard mhacha, of Liam and a group of young musicians performing the "Loch Tay Boatsong".

I think his version of "The Dutchman" was my favourite for its beauty and emotional content.
I wish all Liams family well.....Ake

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:58 PM

The parting glass for a true legend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:57 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1se8_-fcxZs

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: ard mhacha
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:56 PM

Surely this will be sung at Liam`s funeral, very appropriate,

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Gweltas
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:54 PM

Apologies.... the "GUEST" that posted on Dec 4th at 9.06 pm was ME , minus my cookie. I hadn't realised that I'd "mislaid" my cookie, till I was looking at subsequent posts tonight. Thanks for not deleting me!!
Anne XX

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: GUEST,jeffncarol--fla
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:45 PM

so sorry to learn of Liam..our condolences to the fam..

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 03:44 PM

Sad indeed. RIP, Liam.
But I prefer to look on the bright side:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem Reunited! Again!

Seamus

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 02:05 PM

So sorry to hear this sad news.

Subject: RE: Obit: Liam Clancy RIP 4 Dec 2009
From: Stringsinger
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 01:46 PM

One of the best songs he did was "Lang A-Growin'".