Elizabeth Platt ([email protected])
Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:28:24 -0700 (PDT)
On Sun, 13 Sep 1998, "Caroline Wright" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Okay, so I'm taking this class called Irish America (I'm not of Irish
> descendcy like most of my classmates, but I've always had a thing for
> the country --I mean, not only do I love U2, but then there's Guiness,
> and I've always been greatly attracted to redheads (sorry to be
> stereotypical there)). Anyway, so I have to write a research paper --not
> much, only 12 pages including bibliography and footnotes and a bare
> minimun of 3 sources-- on any topic of my choosing dealing with Irish
> America. So now, all my roommates (who are tired of the cds, and videos,
> and posters, but love me anyhow) are suggesting that the topic should
> naturally be of some U2 relation. Which is where WIRE comes in.
> The only thoughts I've had thus far are stemming from an interview
> where the person being interviewed (I think it could possibly have been
> Bono, but it also could have been the Pope for all I remember) made a
> remark that blues music (an american music style which I also have a
> fairly extensive knowledge of thanks to my dad) is not based on the
> African slave songs and hymns, but many of the rhythyms and indeed the
> traditional blues instrument, the guitar, comes from Irish music in that
> many of the slave masters on the plantations were in fact, Irish.
Whoa--don't let the Hollywood version of the Old South, "Gone with the
Wind" and Miss Katie Scarlet O'Hara lead you astray! There weren't all
that many Irish/Catholic plantation owners in the South, from all I've
heard and read. A fair number of them might have worked as "management"
(e.g., overseers), but you'd probably find as many working as indentured
house servants in the antebellum period. Generally, the Irish immigrants
in America were regarded as a lower caste of humanity, especially if they
were Catholic; the slur "white trash" was apparently a code phrase meaning
someone poor and of Irish or other Celtic (e.g., non-English) origin.
Since both Irish and Africans alike were seen as "outsiders", it wasn't
uncommon for their settlements to be near each other, e.g., in New York
City in the first half of the 19th Century, there were Irish and free
black settlements located near the fringes of the city. I imagine that
there was a certain amount of cultural interaction, and inter-marriage,
but increasing immgration from Ireland, and increased competition for
jobs, plus conscription for the Civil War, sparked some of the most ugly
and violent race riots in US history in New York. You could find this
social dynamic repeating itself in most urban areas in the US, albeit on a
less bloody scale, and it has a lot to do with some aspects of race
relations to this day. I assume this situation had its parallels in the
South. (You might check out the novel "The Banished Children of Eve" for
more background on the Draft Riots in New York, or for nonfiction, "How
the Irish Became White". Sorry, I'm blanking on the authors' names right
now!)
As for that remark about the Irish influence on the blues, I actually
think that the remark was made by Van Morrison, or was it Bono talking
about Van Morrison? Anyways, there perhaps might be some Irish/Celtic
influence on blues music, though I would still regard the blues, along
with jazz and gospel music, as being a distinctly African-American music
forms. (Oh, and the guitar is Spanish in origin, not Irish!) There _is_
the traditional Irish music form called _sean nos_ ("old style") which is
unaccompanied singing that relies on the singer's vocal skills to supply
rhythm, cadence, and a "droning" effect. There's also the "mouth music",
a more percussive form of singing, also unaccompanied. Sean nos lends
itself to laments, while mouth music is more uptempo, and lends itself to
dancing. (For an interesting modern twist on sean nos, check out a CD
called "The Seven Steps to Mercy" [Seacht gCoisceim na Trocaire] by Iarla
O Lionaird, which was issued on the Real World label that Peter Gabriel
and his WOMAD project set up. The CD was produced by Michael Brook, yep,
the "infinity guitar" fella who worked with The Edge on the "Captive"
soundtrack years ago.) (Oh, and the Ellipsis Arts label issued a CD/book
called "Mouth Music", which features samples of that style from all the
Celtic nations.)
--> The Real World web site is http://realworld.on.net/rwr
And that was an interesting digression! Maybe I should have eaten
breakfast today! ;-)
> And
> that might possibly go into how the Irish immigrants lended their
> influence into other very traditionally American styles in music and art
> and whatever else would fit in.
I wish you could find a copy of the _book_ "Bringing It All Back Home",
which was written to accompany the BBC series of the same name! It gave a
good overview of the influences that Irish immgrants had on American
music. I have a copy buried in my storage unit somewhere, where it does
no one any good... :(
As far as rock and roll goes, there is a definite Irish connection through
the influence that folk and country music had on the genre. A lot of
American folk music, particularly that stuff we now call "bluegrass", has
deep roots in the music of Ireland, especially Ulster (and yes, I'm
counting all nine counties here, not six...) Many early Irish emigrants,
e.g., those who arrived in the 1700s, came from the north of Ireland, and
many of them headed for the Appalachians (as did emigrants from Scotland
and Wales, who also no doubt had a cultural influence). And, contrary to
a lot of St. Patrick's day stereotypes, many of the early Irish emigrants
were Protestants--in fact, the term "hillbilly" is believed to be derived
from "billy-boy", meaning a "Williamite" or Protestant (from William of
Orange).
The mountains kept this music fairly isolated and unchanged for
generations, but as people moved to the flatlands for work, they brought
this music with them, where it influenced folk and country music, and
evolved into bluegrass. It's not surprising that a lot of American
musical idioms--country, folk, bluegrass, jazz, blues, and finally rock
and roll--emerged from urban areas along the Mississippi river system:
New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, St. Louis.
Probably more info than you needed to know...
I'd like to see more consideration of the effect Irish music had on
popular music in America; I'm afraid that there's a bit too much
Anglophilia present in both American and European music criticism and
writing (and bonus points to those of you who shouted "Dave Marsh"! right
now...) ;-) No doubt this is due the dominance that Britain had in rock
music in the 60s and 70s, when a lot of current fans and writers shaped
their views. It would have been quite easy for them to pick up on the
British media's attitude towards all things Irish, with sniggers of "sham
rock" and caricatures of "Oirish" bands like Thin Lizzy, and the
assumption that any Irish musician of any worth was going to move to
England and deny their identity in order to succeed. And even to this
day, when an Irish musician plays anything that smacks of "traditional"
music, the British rock press dismiss it as "raggle-taggle" (from the song
"Raggle-Taggle Gypsy"). When an English band gets folky, they're playing
"roots music". :P
I think some attitude adjustment is needed here...
Slan,
Elizabeth Platt
[email protected]
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