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