N.Y. pub bans ‘Danny Boy’ on St. Patrick’s

[Feadan]

This only goes to show you that not all good ideas receive universal acceptance. I did find this vintage recording to demonstrate what I had in mind. Yes, I know, the flute player is pretty bad, but you get the idea anyway. Irish Eyes

Sorry, Doug, but I figured you had to be making a bad joke with that suggestion since "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" is from the same ilk of music hall (IMHO) dreck as the lyrics to "Danny Boy". Written by three Americans back in 1912, I regard it about as Irish as green-lager or corned beef & cabbage (a friend of mine from County Tipperary wonders why Americans eat Jewish food on St. Patrick's Day). Alas, there's no accounting for...

Cheers,
Feadan

[flanum]

i know yer man clancy that owns the pub in NY.
he used to own the "derragarra inn" in cavan, when his family owned it, they turned it into this parody of "oirishness". they even had a fake donkey with a basket of turf on the roof. its where all the tourists used to go. if ever there was a paddywackery pub in ireland, it was clancys!

[Redwolf]

i know yer man clancy that owns the pub in NY.
he used to own the "derragarra inn" in cavan, when his family owned it, they turned it into this parody of "oirishness". they even had a fake donkey with a basket of turf on the roof. its where all the tourists used to go. if ever there was a paddywackery pub in ireland, it was clancys!

See...even the former owner of the most "oirish" pub in Ireland can't stand "Danny Boy"! I rest my case!

Redwolf

[talasiga]

A people are entitled to have as one of their patron saints someone who was not born in their country and who was brought there as a slave.

A people are entitled to love and own a song set to an ancient air of their tradition albeit the lyrics of the song be written by someone who has never set foot on their soil.

A publican is entiteld to ban a song from his establishment if he does not like it or if he finds the common or predominant renditions of it distasteful.
(Noting that a woman is entitled to be a publican and my choice of "he" was a short cut only - of no avail alas as demonstrated by this very qualifiaction).

However, people are not entitled to promote their tastes and choices on the basis of false reasonings. That does not mean it does not happen. It just means we are entitled to challenge it (false reasonings) whereas, a naked statement of personal taste cannot attract that entitlement to challenge.

One nexus between St Patrick and Danny Boy is that the Irish majority love and own them as their own despite their "foreign" origins. We do not visit France for to see the Statue of Liberty.

[TonyHiggins]

I'm playing at a corned-beef/cabbage affair next week at a school fund raiser. Danny Boy has already been pre-requested by a number of people. We will play it. I will cajole my band members into going along with the fun. I've done it as an instrumental and audience members have sung along as they can. And yes, I ham it up ever so slightly just to harass the other musicians. And I've been warmly and genuinely thanked for playing it (not by the musicians- no sense of humor).

My mom, who grew up in Dublin expects me to play it. And she has mentioned that other Irish immigrants in the audience expressed a hope I would play it. AND, I like the melody.

Now, the tunes I really don't like (and won't play) are Irish Eyes and Toora Loora. I tell people up front that I hate them and won't learn them. I'm embarrassed to do the thing from the Titanic movie, and won't. Besides, I don't think it works as an instrumental with no lyrics.
Tony

[taity]

well done yer maw tis a lovely tune

[Denny]

Danny Boy -- the Irish 'Freebird'

[Nanohedron]

My mom, who grew up in Dublin expects me to play it. And she has mentioned that other Irish immigrants in the audience expressed a hope I would play it. AND, I like the melody.

Now, the tunes I really don't like (and won't play) are Irish Eyes and Toora Loora. I tell people up front that I hate them and won't learn them. I'm embarrassed to do the thing from the Titanic movie, and won't. Besides, I don't think it works as an instrumental with no lyrics.
Tony

Danny Boy (or, if you like, Fonn Dhoire. I can't help disliking "Londonderry" and get squirmy when I utter "Derry Aire" ) is a tune very dear to many. If you (not you, Tony) can't give it the dignity, if not freshness, your audience expect and hope from it - even for just once a year - then there's a problem, and it's not with the song/tune. One band I'm in got around it all by reinterpreting it altogether. It works, and we're not bored.

But here's a confession, Mr. Higgins: the same band does "Irish Eyes", now. At first I went into it seriously kicking and screaming, but we dipped deep into the mawk-pot and made it into a conscious parody of itself complete with music-hall shmaltz (surprisingly, banjo contributes well to that besides being a further offense), painfully overdrawn pauses, and the whistler - brilliant fellow - making sweet twittery birdnoises. It would make your arteries harden to hear it, it's so overdone and gooey. And you know what? People still love it. Maybe it's because they get the joke. I dunno. And for those who miss the joke, they love it, too. Everyone wins; we make them sing along, poor puppets, and they do so with gusto. Could be the beer. Anyway, our rendition has become something of a guilty pleasure for me. At least I get to please the public and sadistically abuse a rented mule at the same time.

I think I'll continue to put my foot down on Toora Loora, though. We've done enough damage as it is.

[pipersgrip]

I played Danny Boy on the whistle today at the pub, and the local treasure, Brendan Nolan sang it with the guitar.

[talasiga]

A people are entitled to have as one of their patron saints someone who was not born in their country and who was brought there as a slave.

A people are entitled to love and own a song set to an ancient air of their tradition albeit the lyrics of the song be written by someone who has never set foot on their soil.

A publican is entiteld to ban a song from his establishment if he does not like it or if he finds the common or predominant renditions of it distasteful.
(Noting that a woman is entitled to be a publican and my choice of "he" was a short cut only - of no avail alas as demonstrated by this very qualifiaction).

However, people are not entitled to promote their tastes and choices on the basis of false reasonings. That does not mean it does not happen. It just means we are entitled to challenge it (false reasonings) whereas, a naked statement of personal taste cannot attract that entitlement to challenge.

One nexus between St Patrick and Danny Boy is that the Irish majority love and own them as their own despite their "foreign" origins. We do not visit France for to see the Statue of Liberty.

A friend of mine who hails from Dublin reads this topic with interest and says,

"My understanding of the Danny Boy lyric is that it is the forlorn cry of Mother Ireland as Irish culture is under oppression and dying and she is expressing her hopes to her "son" for a return and rejuvenation of Ireland. The air itself is the stuff of ancient, pre colonial Ireland.

It doesn't matter to me that Weatherly was not born in Ireland. For all I know his mother or grandmother or other relative may have been from Ireland. And what about about all the descendants who are in the Irish diaspora, are they not entitled to share in the Irish ethos or have claim to it?"

[Cork]

The one time I was ever asked to sing "Danny Boy," I politely replied that I don't sing that song...but that I know other lovely songs of emmigration and loss, and that, if they would let me choose one, I could give them a real tear-jerker (Airde Cuan). They loved it.

Redwolf

Oh, please.

Never mind its history, or otherwise, but just as a piece of music, which works its way to a crescendo, doesn't that high b find your heart, at all?

BTW, I was taught this tune by a long time flute teacher from Dublin, of all places.

;-)

[Redwolf]

The one time I was ever asked to sing "Danny Boy," I politely replied that I don't sing that song...but that I know other lovely songs of emmigration and loss, and that, if they would let me choose one, I could give them a real tear-jerker (Airde Cuan). They loved it.

Redwolf

Oh, please.

Never mind its history, or otherwise, but just as a piece of music, which works its way to a crescendo, doesn't that high b find your heart, at all?

BTW, I was taught this tune by a long time flute teacher from Dublin, of all places.

Nope. Not a bit.

Redwolf

[Nanohedron]

I know one fellow who for the longest time wouldn't play it unless the person making the request had someone close to him or her die recently. Almost a bit ghoulish, if you think about it: "Yesss. Give me your dead, and I will play it." *shudder*

[Nanohedron]

The one time I was ever asked to sing "Danny Boy," I politely replied that I don't sing that song...but that I know other lovely songs of emmigration and loss, and that, if they would let me choose one, I could give them a real tear-jerker (Airde Cuan). They loved it.

Redwolf

Oh, please.

Never mind its history, or otherwise, but just as a piece of music, which works its way to a crescendo, doesn't that high b find your heart, at all?

BTW, I was taught this tune by a long time flute teacher from Dublin, of all places.

Nope. Not a bit.

Redwolf

Yeah, despite what I posted earlier, there are plenty of airs directly out of the main of the tradition that fill the bill just as well or far better than Danny Boy; it's understandable to want to keep it at the margins it came from. That's my first instinct, too, and I'd far rather play something else that doesn't have the stamp of the Music Hall on it.

But it's just so hard to say "no" when an Irish person or a little old lady asks for it, you know? For me, anyway.