Elizabeth Platt ([email protected])
Wed, 2 Dec 1998 19:54:07 -0800 (PST)
> Then "M. Teresa Doherty" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Dirty Old Town was written by a Scotsman, I believe, but may be best
> > known to a lot of us via the cover by The Pogues in the 80s.
>
> Yeah, the Pogues did cover it; you can find it (live) on the "Live for
> Ireland" album (the "Self-Aid" concert in 1986), and also on a 12" the
> Pogues released on Stiff--I can't say I've ever seen it re-released on any
> of their full-length albums or compilations, but then, my Pogues
> collection is in disarray right now...Also, I'm going to dig up a post I
> sent to the ONE list about "Dirty Old Town", that gives a bit more info on
> the song, and post it to Wire after this one.
Annnnnd...whatever the heck I posted to ONE is no longer in my archives.
Oh well, I'll have to ad lib. More's the pity, since I was able to quote
from the liner notes from a collection called "Black and White", featuring
the songs of Ewan MacColl. Yes, MacColl wrote "Dirty Old Town", and
contrary to popular assumptions, it _wasn't_ written about Dublin, rather
it was written about an industrial town/suburb near Manchester...MacColl
was Scottish by birth, lived in England for much of his life, and
origially wrote "Dirty Old Town" as part of a theatrical work. I've
always assumed that it became an "Irish" song, because of common
references to "dear, dirty old Dublin" (etc.) and the song's popularity
with Irish folk performers.
Interesting U2 connection (and a tip o' the hat to the Notorious G.I.B.,
aka DJ Gibigiane): MacColl's daughter by his second marriage, Kirsty
MacColl, is an established singer/songwriter, and she's also married
to...Steve Lillywhite! She's done several albums of solo work, and has
also done duets with the Pogues ("Fairytale of New York", an _excellent_
song for the coming holidays) and Robert Plant, etc. Another (slight) U2
connection: After MacColl divorced his second wife, he married...Peggy
Seger, who wrote "Springhill Mining Disaster", which was, natch, covered
by U2 back on the 1987 tour...
Yeah, small world!
Speaking of "Springhill Mining Disaster", U2 first performed it live on
the "Late Late Show" tribute to the Dubliners, which aired in early 1987
_or_ (maybe) late 1986. This show was being sold on video for a while,
but I think it may have only been available on the PAL format (I watched
it in an Irish bar that had a multi-standard video system). And yep, I'm
quite certain that the Dubliners have done their own version of "Dirty Old
Town"...On the other hand, there's no truth to the rumor that the
Dubliners were all the Pogues' fathers...! =:)
Anyways, as to videos--once upon a time, I found an RTE Website that
listed videos for sale, in both NTSC and/or PAL format (it seemed to vary
from show to show). No luck finding it lately, but any Wireling with a
better browser than me (that would be 99% of you, by the way) might want
to see what's out there...
Slan,
Elizabeth Platt
[email protected]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Wed Dec 02 1998 - 20:04:14 PST