Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)

Subject: RE: Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 20 - 03:09 PM

The whole song is about the Irish in the U.S. being disposable workers. He is talking about having to work laying the railroad. How they’re only Paddies, so they are worthless and replaced easily, so don’t dig the graves too deep to save strength to work. The song is a love song about missing his wife, because this is the only work he can find to take care of her and at the end of the song he is dying and dreaming of her while he lays in a pissed stained gutter.

Subject: RE: Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 10:36 PM

It should be 'piss-stained old gutter.' Piss is urine, and the gutter has been stained by it.   

It means he won't smell his sweetheart (She must smell nice, probably of sweet soap or perfume.) Instead he will smell the gutter in which he is lying, a ruined man.

The words 'Never again, will I smell your sweet dream' do not actually make sense. No one can smell a dream.

I guess 'where your lips used to be' means that his head in the gutter. She used to kiss his head - lips, cheek, etc.

I think that's what it means. Maybe there is some sexual or drug-related content here that I am missing.

Subject: RE: Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)
From: Zaba
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:52 PM

Thank you :-). And could anybody explain me what these words mean?

Never again, will I smell your sweet dream
But a pissed stained ol' gutter where…
You lips used to be

The first and the third line I do understand, I've found words of line two in my dictionary, but all together it doesn't make sense to me... I'm afraid it isn't anything nice, but I want to understand it. Thank you all for your help.

Subject: RE: Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)
From: Amergin
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:13 PM

It is a Flogging Molly original....it was written by the frontman Dave King.

Subject: RE: Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)
From: mayomick
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:02 PM

A dying hobo in a pissed stained old gutter remembering his dream ? It sounds to me like it was written fairly recently .

Subject: Origins: Far Away, Boys (Flogging Molly)
From: Zaba
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:03 AM

Please, does anybody know origin of this song sung by Flogging Molly? Is it a traditional or have they written it? And my second question - not being a native English speaker, I can't understand the last verse (especially the second part of it), can somebody help and explain it? Thanks

Far Away Boys
Flogging Molly
Swagger (2000)


Well I worked on the railroad
For t'pence a day
Drank down one penny
The other I'd save
I hammered and I hammered
For God knows how long
Well into madness, with each setting sun
I put my head down and I dreamt you were here
With me by the ol' tree, where no one could care

Far Away Boys, Far Away Boys
Away from ya now
I'm lyin' with my sweetheart
In her arms I'll be found

Then the sun belched upon me
You were no longer here
Lyin' in your place was my hammer and my gear
So I stamped out the fire that kept us both warm
The ashes were fallin'
Like the snow drops of old
We came to a mountain
Dynamite and she'll blow
A big hole in that rock
Like the one in my soul

Far Away Boys, Far Away Boys
Away from ya now
I'm lyin' with my sweetheart
In her arms I'll be found

We buried four workmen
They dug themselves well
>From four empty coffins, to four early graves
They're only paddys, just paddys
Don't dig them too deep
You'll need all your strength boys
And they're replaced easily
With the heat I was melting
Into your sweet lips
Ah, your kiss takes me back
Takes me back from all this

Far Away Boys, Far Away Boys
Away from ya now
I'm lyin' with my sweetheart
In her arms I'll be found

Someone said it was Christmas
But not a tree was in sight
The only thing growin' was my will to die
Till the gaffer said 'men, your work here is done'
I said 'I'll see you in Hell, on that train we died for'
Never again, will I smell your sweet dream
But a pissed stained ol' gutter where…
You lips used to be

Far Away Boys, Far Away Boys
Away from ya now
I'm lyin' with my sweetheart
In her arms I'll be found