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Concert review Shaking out the Sheets: Dirty Linen Classics
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The Dubliners
From: Dirty Linen #60 October/N ovember 1995 |
By: Steve Winick |
The Dubliners Original Dubliners |
EMI CDEM 1480 (1993) |
In the history of Irish music, no group has created and maintained their
niche as effectively as the Dubliners. At the beginning of "the ballad
boom," that heady time in the early 60s when the Clancy Brothers made
"folk songs" a meaningful category that ordinary people could
relate to and take pride in, the Dubliners began their own career. Whereas
the Clancys were well-scrubbed returned Yanks from rural Tipperary, decked
out in matching white Aran sweaters, the Dubliners were hard drinking backstreet
Dublin scrappers with unkempt hair and bushy beards, whose gigs seemed to
happen by accident in between fistfights. But their street credibility,
their undeniable talent and their honest love of the music has kept them
going and made them some of the most famous Irishmen in the world. For those
who want a peek at their early career, EMI has released Original Dubliners,
a two CD set featuring the Dubliners' first four albums for EMI, recorded
between 1967 and 1969.
It should be said that, contrary to what the sleeve notes claim, these were
not the first albums the Dubliners recorded. But they were among the albums
that put them in the international arena, and they included some of the
songs most associated with the Dubliners' name. "Seven Drunken Nights,"
the title song of their first EMI outing, was the track that made them a
household word in Britain and Ireland. One of the most popular folksongs
in the English language (included by Child in his book of British ballads
as #273, Our Goodman, and collected all over the world, including from rural
black laborers in the American south and from black youth in Philadelphia),
the song is so bawdy that rarely is it recorded or published intact. The
Dubliners' version, which only reaches five nights, was originally recorded
for a 1967 album called The New Dubliners on the Major Minor
label. It was released as a single, but when the official media banned it
for obscenity it looked like it would languish in obscurity for good. Luckily
for the Dubliners (and for the world), it was picked up the pirate station
Radio Caroline and given saturation airplay. As a result, it shot to number
five on the British Pop charts, launching the Dubliners to stardom.
"Seven Drunken Nights" set the stage for their later LPs and singles,
but it was the talent and attitude of the band that made those records work.
The Dubliners had everything: Ronnie Drew, whose gravelly, booming voice
and guitar playing still fronts the band today, was offset by Luke Kelly,
a serious, introspective man who played five-string banjo and sang with
a soaring triumphant voice. Ciaran Bourke, their third vocalist and second
guitarist, also added songs in Irish and exuberant tin whistle playing.
John Sheahan's fiddle and Barney McKenna's tenor banjo were influential
on a whole generation of performers, and added a dimension to the group
that the Clancy clones never had: jigs, reels and hornpipes. In fact, The
Dubliners were among the first groups to combine the ballad group sound
with traditional instrumentals. In this they anticipated later groups like
Sweeney's Men, the Johnstons, and ultimately Planxty, yet the Dubliners
are often overlooked when those three bands are mentioned. Ironically, I
think this is partly due to The Dubliners' success and longevity. Sweeney's
Men, The Johnstons and Planxty had members who became successful solo artists
(Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Paul Brady, and Mick Moloney) as well as future
members of The Bothy Band, Steeleye Span, The Woods Band, De Danann, Patrick
Street, Moving Hearts and The Pogues. This creates the impression that the
Irish music scene was spawned from those three groups. The Dubliners, on
the other hand, never broke up, so they never contributed musicians to later
seminal bands. They have always been the Dubliners, and will always be among
the spiritual grandfathers of most of the Irish traditional and folk groups
playing today.
What is offered on Original Dubliners is the band's first four
albums after their initial success, entitled Seven Drunken Nights,
Seven Deadly Sins, More of the Hard Stuff, and
Whiskey on a Sunday. It was these albums that established the
Dubliners as an enduring presence and not a one-hit wonder. They include
memorable and influential interpretations of many great songs, including
Kelly's renditions of traditional songs like "Whiskey in the Jar,"
"The Rising of the Moon," "Black Velvet Band," "Poor
Paddy on the Railway," "A Nation Once Again," and "Gentleman
Soldier." Kelly also sings three songs by his friend and mentor Ewan
MacColl, "The Traveling People," "Shoals of Herring,"
and "Net Hauling Song," as well as many Scottish songs that he
picked up during his years in Britain. For his part, Drew contributes some
of the racier, bawdier, boozier material: "Seven Drunken Nights,"
"Poor Old Dicey Riley," "Quare Bungle Rye," "Whiskey
on a Sunday," "The Parting Glass" and "A Pub With No
Beer" are all supplied by him. Bourke sings a few, as well, though
his voice was weaker and creakier than those of his bandmates. "Darby
O'Leary," "All For Me Grog," "Drink it Up, Men,"
"Mrs. McGrath," (a pastiche of the traditional song based on his
own life) and "The Limerick Rake" are all sung by Bourke. Many
sets of tunes, including a memorable version of "O'Carolan's Concerto,"
are led by McKenna and/or Sheahan. All of these are classic tracks that
would irrevocably change the way the world saw Irish music.
These albums are certainly historical documents. In 1974, Bourke suffered
a brain aneurysm that left him unable to play or sing. He passed away in
1988. Luke Kelly passed on in 1984, after two operations for brain cancer.
The Dubliners continue, with Sean Cannon and Eamonn Campbell added to the
core of Drew, McKenna and Sheahan, but there will never by any more Dubliners
albums quite like these. And yet, it's surprising how fresh, vital and listenable
they remain to this day. Far from being a mere historical oddity, or a even
a trip down memory lane, Original Dubliners is imbued with
that spark of life that first made me love Irish music, and that still makes
me love it today. My tastes, like the tastes of many, have changed. Groups
like Altan and Arcady are touring the world. But in every Irish music lover's
collection, there will always be room for these albums, albums that in may
ways started it all.