20 Best Irish Trad Songs

Subject: HELP TO CHOOSE 20 MOST POPULAR IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 01:45 PM

Hi There,

I am looking for help in choosing 20 of the most popular Irish Trad songs for a CD i am compiling. I have a list below.

Please suggest if i should add or remove songs from my list.


My list of Irish Trad songs are as follows

1 A JAR OF PORTER
2. Botany Bay
3. Dicey Riley
4. Home boys home
5. Raglan road
6. She moved through the fair
7. Take me up to Monto
8. The Galway shawl
9. The holy ground
10. The kerry recruit
11. The leavin' of liverpool
12. The Offaly rover
13. The parting glass
14. The raggle taggle gypsy
15. The snowy breasted pearl
16. The star of the county down
17. The wild rover
18. Whiskey on a Sunday
19. Whiskey in the jar
20. zooligical gardens.


Thanking you, slainte, Ray.

7

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Amos
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 01:51 PM

Good list, Ray!

The Jackets Green, Risin' O'The Moon, Foggie Dew, Finnegan's Wake, Bally James' Bluff -- seem conspicuous in their absence -- too recent?

A

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: allanwill
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 02:05 PM

Spanish Lady as done by the Dubliners would be high on my list.

Allan

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 02:26 PM

What do you mean by trad? Some of those listed below are composed songs; ignore them if you want the "real" thing.

In the States, "The Bard of Armagh" (tune for "Streets of Laredo").
Black Velvet band (too well-known?)
Broad Black Brimmer
Come By The Hills
Dawning of the Day
Green Grow the Laurels
I Had a Hat When I Came In
Isn't It Grand, Boys (new, but a rouser of a chestnut)
Los San Patricios (Cris Pace)
Mingulay Boat Song
Mountains of Mourne
Sally Gardens
Shule Aroon
Spancil Hill

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: radriano
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 05:38 PM

Jaysus, another fecking list. Why are so many people walking around listless?

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 07:29 PM

So, "GUEST"; are you just compiling a CD for your own use, or as a commercial proposition? If the latter, then you need to get proper information, as some of the songs you mention are not Irish, and a few are modern and probably still in copyright.

The Mingulay Boat Song, mentioned by GUEST Q, is of course Scottish, not Irish; the lyric is modern, and still in copyright.

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Brakn
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 07:56 PM

Jaysus, another fecking list. Why are so many people walking around listless? Amen

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: GUEST,curmudgeon(on a cookie free url)
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 08:05 PM

As amendment to Malcolm's post, the following are also not Irish:

The Leaving of Liverpool -- Collected in NY by Doerflinger, this song is English. As John Roberts once remarked, "The only traditional English song to be collected in America."

The Wraggle Taggle Gypsy - (Child 200} The Gypsie Laddie, originally Scottish, Wraggle Taggle is the English version. For Irish, sing "The Gypsy Rover," still under copyright.

The Wild Rover - English. I had this from a recording by John Runge over forty years ago. When I first met Lou Killen, he prefaced his singing of this great song, bemoaning that he had ever taught to "some friends." They gave it the clap.

And, Radriano, this is most assuredly a port list -- Tom

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: weerover
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:54 AM

"Mingulay Boat Song" is definitely Scottish, not Irish. How about "Slievenamon", "Carrickfergus"? Two of the songs previously posted I'm not familiar with - "Offaly Rover" and "I Had a Hat When I Came In". Any chance of posting lyrics /tunes?

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: IanC
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 05:21 AM

Well, some of these songs which people are claiming as English or Scottish could just as well be Irish - either by origin or usage ... Raggle Taggle Gypsies, for example, can't be accurately traced to just one place. It all depends, though, if you want songs you can say are peculiarly Irish. If you are just looking at "songs sung in Ireland" so well and good, but if you want peculiarly Irish songs, well ... here's a few more you might not want on your original list:

"Whisky on a Sunday" - English, composed (probably still in copyright).

"Home Boys Home" and "Botany Bay" are normally thought to originate from England and "A Parting Glass" from Scotland.

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Mr Happy
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 06:09 AM

if songs aren't composed-where do they come from?

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 06:20 AM

G'day Ray,

Botany Bay is from the 1885 London Music Hall play Little Jack Shepherd ... and is a sort of parody/rewrite of the equally London-based Farewell to you Judges and Juries - set around Old Bailey ... as is Botany Bay. This play was produced by Charles Mayhew, the pioneer sociologist of some 25-35 years before, with his chronicles of the London poor / working people / underworld.

Of course, it is just as likely that the sentenced pickpocket could have been Irish as English ... but I wouldn't make any strong claims, either way.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: IanC
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 06:22 AM

If it gives you pleasure, MrH.

Whisky on a Sunday (Seth Davey) is correctly attributed to Glyn Hughes in DT. See this thread for further info. I had hoped not to waste too much time on it, particularly as the line "In 1905, Seth Davey died" might be held to indicate that it was of recent origin.

:-(

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Mr Happy
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 06:29 AM

guest q

'What do you mean by trad? Some of those listed below are Bold and Italicscomposed songs; ignore them if you want the "real" thing.'

if 'trad?' songs aren't composed-where do they come from?






ps ianc- whisky pleases me anytime-not just sunday

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Fiolar
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:59 AM

Nothing by Sean McCarthy a true Irish composer? Try "John O'Halloran"; Red-Haired Mary" and of course "Shanagolden." Also "The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee"; "The Kerry Dances" and "The Valley of Knockanure" as well as "The Lonely Banna Strand." You have a multiplicity of choices enough for 50 CDs I would think.

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 09:22 AM

There are very few places where 'best' is really objectively
meaningful, and songs and music is definitely not one of them.
The more in your personal list of 'best', the less likely that
anyone else is going to agree in toto with you. With 10, probably
no one will agree with you.

Subject: RE: 10 BEST IRSH TRAD SONGS
From: Declan
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:54 AM

The Mingulay boat song is indeed Scottish. An Irish group recorded a song a good few years back called "The Dingle Bay boat song" which bore an amazing similarity. Localisation of songs is part of the Folk Process.