Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 30 Dec 18 - 12:39 PM

I first hear Arthur McBride in the early 70's when Erik Frandsen toured through the campus coffee house in Auburn New York. As I recall Erik's version was quite remarkable but I don't recall an alt tuning. Erik is a great guitarist and singer as well.   I found a video of Paul Brady doing Arthur McBride and was taken first by the style and knew it wasn't standard tuning. And then I realized he was playing a Yamaha FG-180 just like mine. Brady's version must be the definitive version by now.

Don Meixner

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Rigby
Date: 27 Dec 18 - 04:58 PM

Thanks -- how odd! They have copied Paul Brady's arrangement quite closely. Are the Swedish lyrics also traditional?

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 18 - 08:00 AM

This is interesting... as far as I can tell, a cover of Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride, but in Swedish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PtvRJ0ET6A

Or have they just set different words to the same tune? Anyone?

----------------

As a Swedish speaker and having had a listen to this song, it's a different song entirely and not a translation of the English-language version.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Dec 18 - 11:53 PM

guest do you use g tuning?

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Dec 18 - 10:13 PM

Lot of fun to play and sing on clawhammer banjo. Lays out easily in the key of "G" capoed or lowered to your pitch ("C" or"D" for me)_ gopherit

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Dec 18 - 01:12 AM

Copying is ok up to a point it should be a stepping stone from a learning point, ideally everyone should develop their own style, but style will always have influences.
I developed my own personal style of song accompaniment on the concertina,[when it comes to playing melody ] based on piedmont guitar style which puts melody notes off and on the beat, a technique used by john hurt, then i dropped the basses and this was an influence that enabled me to develop a personal style on english concertina, there ius no way that my concertina acompaniments sound like, lou killen steve turner or anyone else.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Rigby
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 10:55 AM

This is interesting... as far as I can tell, a cover of Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride, but in Swedish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PtvRJ0ET6A

Or have they just set different words to the same tune? Anyone?

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Dec 15 - 06:43 PM

Ah, good to see a thread resurrected with me and me owld cyber-mucker Michael in it. I bet he doesn't see it though.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 02 Dec 15 - 06:31 PM

Stephen Winick ("Nerd", here) has very complete blog post up at the American Folklife Center (Library of Congress) about Paul Brady's version of "Arthur McBride" from Carrier Drover, of Maine:

Paul Brady, Carrie Grover, Bob Dylan, and "Arthur McBride"

~ Becky in Long Beach

(Cross-posted here: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride)

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 07:06 AM

That is true, but equally it's easy at times to hide behind others in a session setting. I've heard myself in session recordings sounding like I'm blending nicely (even though I wasn't trying to hide), yet when I play the same tune to myself at home I can hear all the flaws. Crap intonation, poor internal rhythm, no drive, dodgy or inconsistent ornamentation, a bit of ego creepin' in... Having said all that, mind you, you do need to be able to hear the flaws. Can be a useful exercise but not worth dwelling on for too long. There are times when I can't hear myself too well in a session. A gob iron too close to strummers, etc...

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 06:37 AM

As a side issue, one of the prerequisites for playing music is that when you hear a recording of yourself (a decent recording, of course) it offers you no surprises. In order to play music you have to be able to hear yourself accurately in real time. Hear your intonation, your timing, your tone etc. You have to be able to hear if you're being boring, hear if you are the volume you want to be in the mix, hear if you are not putting someone off etc.

If you only discover these things after hearing a recording, you are not listening attentively enough to your self

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 05:52 AM

A rotten side-effect of both copying someone else or trying to develop your own "personal style" is that you merely pick up affectations. I think it's a good idea to listen to your own playing using a recording gizmo of some kind. Get out the hair-shirt and get someone else to criticise you too.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 05:39 AM

I don't understand the caveat. I'd say you'd have to make a real effort not have your own personal style, not the other way round. And why wold you want to do that anyway?

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 05:14 AM

I think we're in agreement, Michael. Note my caveat: "if that's what you wanted to do".

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 24 Oct 12 - 03:25 AM

Also, I'm not of the opinion that "forging" a personal style is how you go about it.

I have met people who have taken their style and bashed it into shape with a heavy hammer while it was red hot. But they were never any good.

If you pay no attention to your personal style it will happen quite naturally on its own

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 02:41 PM

Yes, I agree. But I didn't know that then. I suppose you could say that being able to copy is a decent starting point from where to begin playing music

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 12:29 PM

>playing music well has really not much at all to do with copying<

I suppose my point is, without copying, you wouldn't have made that discovery. And with all the technical stuff you picked up in the process, you could then go on to forge your own personal style — if that's what you wanted to do.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 10:02 AM

Of course I learned lots of things about fiddle playing and how to play the fiddle. It was very educational. Lots of technical stuff mostly, but most importantly, that playing music well has really not much at all to do with copying. You have to listen, of course, and be able to follow and react. but even that's not much to do with copying.

I wouldn't say I can play the fiddle now. I'd like to think that I'd never say it.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 09:07 AM

>I remember when I was a kid saying to myself, "When I can play Toss the Feathers like Kevin Burke I'll be able to play the fiddle." Of course, by the time I could play Toss the Feathers like Kevin Burke, I'd long since realised that that was not being able to play the fiddle at all, it's merely being able to play Toss the Feathers like Kevin Burke.<

Michael, are you really saying you learned nothing about fiddle playing by the time you could play Toss The Feathers like Kevin Burke? Nothing at all worth knowing?

If I could play guitar exactly like Martin Carthy, I would. Fortunately for Martin Carthy, I can't.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 09:01 AM

I didn't discover traditional music of any kind until I was nearly 40. By then I'd gone through a horrible phase of having loads of recordings, mostly of classical, and expecting the same perfection (and notes) in live concerts (I went to lots of 'em as I lived handily for the South Bank at the time). Any glitches or straying from the version I had at home had me gritting my teeth. I just couldn't enjoy concerts at all. Someone gave me a good talking to about it in about 1979 and I saw the light. Just in time, before I started playing myself. I am thoroughly averse to "versions" getting enshrined in any way at all. I don't understand how anything can be set in stone when it only actually exists when I'm hearing it.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:33 AM

Fools Of Fortune it was, Brian.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:24 AM

Yes, and The Stones' Little Red Rooster". And who didn't, when they were kids, teach themselves House of the Rising Sun on the guitar.

I remember when I was a kid saying to myself, "When I can play Toss the Feathers like Kevin Burke I'll be able to play the fiddle." Of course, by the time I could play Toss the Feathers like Kevin Burke, I'd long since realised that that was not being able to play the fiddle at all, it's merely being able to play Toss the Feathers like Kevin Burke.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Brian Peters
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:20 AM

"a pop song exists primarily as a recorded performance..."

Which is presumably why so many pop covers are watered-down and disappointing pastiches of the original. Now, here's how to cover a song - three occasions, different each time:

John Cale Heartbreak Hotel 1

John Cale Heartbreak Hotel 2

John Cale Heartbreak Hotel 3

I'm probably with Steve in that a decent attempt at a Brady cover is OK in a session. It's when supposedly talented musicians can't be arsed to exercise a little imagination that I get fed up.

By the by, Brian's Persistence Of Memory lp will set you back £15 quid at Sheffield's Record Collector

My sister-in-law owned up sheepishly to having taken the copy I'd given her twenty-odd years ago to a car boot sale. The good news was, it was the only LP she sold all day.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Brian Peters
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:11 AM

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:04 AM

Elton John once released a single of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, more or less faithfully replicating the Fabs' original arrangement of the song. When reproached for this by pop commentators, he made the interesting point that a pop song exists primarily as a recorded performance (many more people buy records than buy sheet music), and that the instrumental texture and arrangement was therefore felt to be an integral element of the song. Brian hints at this with his pleasing fantasy of Johnny B Goode with highland pipes. Folk songs, on the other hand, historically existed either as texts or as unrepeated performances, so singers tended to take the bare bones of the text and tune and do it in their own way. But as soon as a folk song is enshrined in a recorded performance, that performance potentially becomes definitive, and that's how everyone feels the song to be. How often do we hear reviewers tutting: "Not bad, but it can't live with Dick Gaughan's version" etc.? Once upon a time the folk said: "How does it go?". Now they're more likely to say: "How do you play it?"

By the by, Brian's Persistence Of Memory lp will set you back £15 quid at Sheffield's Record Collector.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 07:32 AM

The dichotomy of "how does it go?" and "how do you play it?" interests me.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 07:20 AM

It's never worked for me!

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 07:20 AM

You couldn't lend me a stylus, could you...

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Brian Peters
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 06:51 AM

Treasure it, Steve, one day it will make you rich...

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 06:26 AM

Well, if someone in our pub session spontaneously launched into a Brady-esque version of the song and did a decent job of it we'd all love him for it. But some git doing the same thing on stage or a CD is a different matter. As with Zim and his Canadee-i-o...

The Tree Inn, Stratton, by the way, Brian, though times have moved on somewhat since I won your vinyl in the raffle! :-)

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Brian Peters
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 06:02 AM

"What's the harm in performing a song like someone else if that's the way you personally like it?"

Which is of course what all of us do, when we introduce 'Johnny B. Goode' with Chuck Berry's guitar riff, rather than a moody chord sequence on church organ or a stentorian burst of highland pipes. On the other hand, as a listener I think I'd prefer to hear a singer try and do their own thing with 'Arthur' rather than what is almost inevitably going to be a poor imitation of Paul Brady. The demand here for 'authentic' guitar tunings and tabs rather argues against the idea that an attempted Brady impression is likely to evolve into something new and creatively exciting.

"it may be safe to look for an Ulster source for Brady's version"

The origins of the song in Carrie Grover's Nova Scotia collection has already been discussed in some deatil on this other Arthur McBride thread. Ms Grover claimed English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish ancestry, so it's still quite possible the song had Ulster origins.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 05:37 AM

That would be good, I agree. But you don't need tab to do it.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 05:34 AM

>"Chords?" What a twat.<

But did he say it? It's a legend, apparently.

But I wonder if we're not placing too much of a premium on "originality" and "making a song your own". What's the harm in performing a song like someone else if that's the way you personally like it? The fact is, unless you can do a perfect Paul Brady impression (I wish!), it would come out sounding different to the ur-version anyway. And you then might find yourself changing bits, adding bits, dropping bits, out of pure caprice or because something cool just occurred to you. You'll end up making it your own by accident. And in the process, you'll have learned something very interesting and valuable about how Paul Brady does what he does. Everyone wins!

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 08:52 PM

"Chords?" What a twat.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Ballyholme
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 08:25 PM

Legend has it that when Dylan played at Slane Castle in Ireland many years back, the great and the good of Irish music (various members of U2, etc) where there to seek an audience with the Great One.

Eventualy he asked for Paul Brady. Upon entering Dylan's trailer, Bob handed Paul his guitar and said: "Show me the chords to Arthur McBride."

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 06:01 PM

I heard Paul Brady singing this at The Plough in Torrington, must have been 12 or more years ago. His guitar playing on the song then represented a big evolution from his playing on the infamous record (I can't spell "seminal"). Still recognisable as the same species but considerably different. If even he doesn't stand still with it, then asking for tab looks even sillier.

And don't forget what happened when the charlatan Dylan nicked Nic Jones's arrangement of Canadee-i-o.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,michael gill
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 05:28 PM

I have to agree with Jerry Simon.

Brady's version is only definitive it that it has never been bettered. And to try to copy it is silly. I'd say it's the difference between "folk" musicians and musicians. Folk musicians, from Dylan with his Guthry impersonations to people here begging for Brady's tabs, are irrelevant.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 02:22 PM

I'm picking this old thread simply because it has the most posts...

Here is Tiernan McBride's 1977 film of Paul Brady's song 'Arthur McBride' on YouTube.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Jerry Simon
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 04:31 AM

As an unaccompanied singer I find it very odd how so very many of the comments here are mostly about tunings and tablature! And how many speak of "playing" the song - I always think more of SINGING a song.
Forgive me, I don't want to sound at all like I'm doing a put-down here - but why on earth would anyone want to play the accompaniment to this song as Paul Brady played it?
Surely you'd rather want to find a key that suits YOUR voice, and to select your own choice of chords to harmonise in a new way, to forget about his vocal phrasing altogether & take the words and use them to re-tell the story in YOUR own way? I mean, he's recorded a truly wonderful presentation of the song - copying what he does is always going to be less effective than what you're copying, so why try? I really don't get it.
But let me agree that Paul Brady's performance of it is just superb - and I mean that predominantly in terms of the way he SINGS the song, which is just utterly staggering. I imagine he could have sung it with the same impact (on me at least) without guitar accompaniment at all. Many people forget that old songs like this would almost NEVER have been sung with instrumental accompaniment until the folk revival.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 12:50 PM

I haven't gone through this thread but it's worth mentioning Arthur McBride appears in Patrick Weston Joyce's 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs'. Pretty much the version Andy Irvine used with Planxty.

Joyce notes he learned both the song and air as a youth, which would be during the 1830s-early 1840s. He notes there's a different version, from Donegal, in Stanford-Petrie. And also notes he is disposed to think the song on the whole belongs to Donegal.

Based on that it may be safe to look for an Ulster source for Brady's version.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Amos
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 12:35 PM

Lyrics as sung (Paul Brady 1977)


Oh, me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride
As we went a-walking down by the seaside
Now, mark what followed and what did betide
For it being on Christmas morning...
Out for recreation, we went on a tramp
And we met Sergeant Napper and Corporal Vamp
And a little wee drummer, intending to camp
For the day being pleasant and charming.

"Good morning ! Good morning!" the sergeant did cry
"And the same to you gentlemen!" we did reply ,
Intending no harm but meant to pass by
For it being on Christmas morning.
But says he, "My fine fellows if you will enlist,
It's ten guineas in gold I will slip in your fist
And a crown in the bargain for to kick up the dust
And drink the King's health in the morning.

For a soldier he leads a very fine life
And he always is blessed with a charming young wife
And he pays all his debts without sorrow or strife
And always lives pleasant and charming...
And a soldier he always is decent and clean
In the finest of clothing he's constantly seen
While other poor fellows go dirty and mean
And sup on thin gruel in the morning."

"But", says Arthur, "I wouldn't be proud of your clothes
For you've only the lend of them as I suppose
And you dare not change them one night, for you know
If you do you'll be flogged in the morning.
And although that we are single and free
we take great delight in our own company
And we have no desire strange faces to see
Although that your offers are charming
And we have no desire to take your advance
All hazards and dangers we barter on chance
For you would have no scruples for to send us to France
Where we would get shot without warning"

"Oh now!", says the sergeant "I'll have no such chat
And I neither will take it from spalpeen or brat
For if you insult me with one other word
I'll cut off your heads in the morning"
And then Arthur and I we soon drew our hods
And we scarce gave them time for to draw their own blades
When a trusty shillelagh came over their heads
And bade them take that as fair warning

And their old rusty rapiers that hung by their side
We flung them as far as we could in the tide
"Now take them out, Divils!", cried Arthur McBride
"And temper their edge in the morning".
And the little wee drummer we flattened his pow
And we made a football of his rowdeydowdow
Threw it in the tide for to rock and to row
And bade it a tedious returning

And we having no money, paid them off in cracks
And we paid no respect to their two bloody backs
For we lathered them there like a pair of wet sacks
And left them for dead in the morning.
And so to conclude and to finish disputes
We obligingly asked if they wanted recruits
For we were the lads who would give them hard clouts
And bid them look sharp in the morning.

Oh me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride
As we went a walkin' down by the seaside,
Now mark what followed and what did betide
For it being on Christmas morning

---

Paul's classic rendition is awe-inspiring and near-perfect, as it strikes me.


A

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 12 May 07 - 04:13 PM

I play a version of Arthur McBride at www.soundclick.com/gerryburke. Please feel free to check it out! I play it in CGDGBD. Believe it or not I used to play it in open E, but I prefer this tuning. Any comments welcome.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Rob King of Carmina
Date: 11 May 07 - 06:23 PM

I haven't heard PB's version of this song, although the song itself was very formative for me when I was in the process of starting Carmina. Do any of you know this following version - it's much simpler, and seems to fit the tune better, as far as I am concerned - but I suspect it's an English version, imperfectly recalled! This song has always interested me because the tune needs two ballad quatrains - ie the 4-3-4-3 stress verse pattern - for its completion - and at the end of this version, three quatrains are joined to make the finale, which I like. This is the same with 'Lakes of Ponchartrain', and a host of other ballads - the tune needs two stanzas (or quatrains) for its completion. The only song I can think of right now (but there must be others) whose tune completes in four lines, rather than eight, is 'Blackwaterside'. Sorry to sound so academic, but I find ballads fascinating, and they have have formed the basis of my professional musical life! Anyway - here is the version, that I took down in a folk club in Gloucester, ages ago:

I once knew a fellow called Arthur McBride
He and I went a-walking down by the sea-side
A-looking for pleasure, and what may betide
And the weather was pleasant and charming
And pleasant and gallant we went on our tramp
And met Sergeant Harper and Corporal Cramp
And a jolly young fellow, who called up the camp
With his 'Row de dow dow' in the morning

Ah well, says this sergeant, if ye will enlist
Five guineas in gold I will stick in your fist
Besides the fine shilling to kick up the dust
And drink the king's health in the morning
Ah well, says McBride, if we take your advice
'Tis right bloody slender would be our poor chance
For the king wouldn't scruple to send us to France
And get us both shot in the morning

And ye needn't go bragging about your fine pay
As ye go a-marching and tramping away
For all that you get is one shilling a day
To get you some gruel in the evening
And ye needn't go bragging about your fine clothes
For they're only borrowed, or so I suppose
And ye durst not sell them, in spite of your nose
Or you would get flogged in the morning

Ah well, says this sergeant, if you say one more word
I swear by the herrings I'll draw out me sword
And I'll run you both through, if me strength will afford
So now ye young buckos, take warning
We beat that bold drummer as flat as a shoe
And made a foot-ball of his 'Row de dow dow'
And as for the others, we beat them the two
Yes we were the boys in that morning
And as for the weapons that hung by their side
We took them and flung them far into the tide
'May the Devil go with you' says Arthur McBride
'For delaying our walk this fine morning'.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Brendy
Date: 05 May 07 - 12:09 PM

There are a number of references as to what tuning Paul uses, Don, both in this thread, and at the top-left of the link you (and others) have provided.

B.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:42 PM

http://www.paulbrady.com/tablature/am.asp

Here is the address to the TAB posted on Paul Bray's site for "Arthur Mc Bride." It covers tuning which I believe is not DADGAD.
My memory says it is similar but maybe D A D F# A D or the like.

Don

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 May 07 - 01:48 PM

You don't need to play the way Brady does - he is a plectrum based guitarist - and his approach to guitar playing is very similar to the 'church picking' style of rambling Jack Eliot. Not very popular in England - where we tend to be finger pickers. It calls for a very stiff plectrum and a delicacy and flexiblity of wrist movement.

another consequence of his devotion to the pick is that he segues into a style of guitar playing I have only seen rock players use - where several strings are muted to give a percussive effect. Sometimes he uses a the sixth string tuned down to C, with the rest like a normal Spanish G GBDGBD>

However the actual notes are mostly down the shallow end.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,cmt49
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:22 AM

I play a version of Arthur McBride in DADGAD. Works very well, and saves having to reach the notes only Brady can.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: PoppaGator
Date: 03 May 07 - 12:21 PM

Declan,

The DVD "Out of Ireland: From a Whisper to a Scream" has footage from every decade since the 50s, or maybe even the 40s, but I understand what you mean about "the 60s not happening until the 70s" in Ireland. Even in much of America, between the east and west coasts, many of us felt that our local communities were a couple of years behind the times, if not a full decade.

Some of the material in the video, such Van Morrison as a member of Them and also at the time of such early solo efforts as "Astral Weeks," really does predate 1970.

WLD,

I can't find an earlier reference in this thread to a video called "Echoes and Extracts," but I'll try to look it up and, if readily available, watch it.

(Perhaps in deference to Brady's version of this lyric, I should address you as "LWD" [;^)].)

...........

Incidentally, since the last time this thread popped up, we bought a copy of "Whisper to a Scream." And we very rarely buy DVDs ~ never movies (which rarely merit re-watching) and only rarely music. Well, we do own "The Last Waltz," which came out as a theatrical film, but it's a movie of a concert...

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 03 May 07 - 05:28 AM

The video (Echoes and Extracts) with all the rock stuff on is fascinating - showing Paul's develpoment.

Its strange to reflect on the different directions various /singersongwriters took from the 70's.

Paul going rather in the direction of Van Morrison. Christy sticking with folk but expanding the horizons - becoming the Irish Pete Seeger. Johnny MacEvoy throwing in his lot with the Country and Irish scene.

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Declan
Date: 03 May 07 - 02:50 AM

PoopaGator,

Most of that stuff on the video would have happened in the early seventies rather than the 60s, but it has often been said that the 60's didn't happen in Ireland until the 70s. I was around the tail end of that scene in Dublin from about 1978 onwards. (I was too young for pubs (legally at least) before then) and it was indeed a magical time. I was there in time for the (first) Planxty reunion in early '79 which was brilliant. I first saw Planxty (original line up) when they came to play a gig in our school in around 1973. I was already listening to a bit of Irish music, but this was definitely a life changing moment.

A word of warning for those considering going to see Paul now, that he has considerably changed his musical direction since those days. Still good but very different. I think he still performs Arthur in his set from time to time. There was a time when he was so fed up of being pestered to sing the song all through his set that he refused to sing it at all for quite a long time.