Friday Afternoon Jukebox
Since it’s Opposite Week still, at least nominally, I figured today is as good as any to post my favorite explicitly pro-socialist anthem of all time. Larry Kirwan’s voice has a tendency to be pretty polarizing, which combined with his outspoken political lyrics is probably why Black 47’s appeal has always been limited, but dammit count me amongst the group’s fans.
Black 47 - James Connolly
And while we’re on the subject of Irish singers, I don’t think it’s possible to pass up an opportunity for a Pogues song (though Fairy Tale of New York right now would be a bit too obvious, methinks):
the Pogues - Body of an american
Dude, Black 47 is like in my Top 5, and “James Connolly” makes me weep every time I hear it. To get a Republican to weep for a Socialist, well, that’s some damn fine art.
Up steps our citizen leader and roars out to the sky
My name is James Connolly – I didn’t come here to die
But to fight for the rights of the working man
And the small farmer too
Protect the proletariat from the bosses and their screws
So hold on to your rifles, boys, and don’t give up your dream
Of a Republic for the workin’ class, economic liberty!
Oh Lillie, I don’t want to die, we’ve got so much to live for
And I know we’re all goin’ out to get slaughtered, but I just can’t take any more
Just the sight of one more child screamin’ from hunger in a Dublin slum
Or his mother slavin’ 14 hours a day for the scum
Who exploit her and take her youth and throw it on a factory floor
Oh Lillie, I just can’t take any more
They’ve locked us out, they’ve banned our unions,
they even treat their animals better than us
No! It’s far better to die like a man on your feet
than to live forever like some slave on your knees, Lillie
But don’t let them wrap any green flag around me
And for God’s sake, don’t let them bury me in some field full of harps and shamrocks
And whatever you do, don’t let them make a martyr out of me
No! Rather raise the Starry Plough on high, sing a song of freedom
Here’s to you, Lillie, the rights of man and international revolution!
Goosebumps, just cutting & pasting the lyric. Hell, it makes me want to go shoot a capitalist meself.
WD, & thx, MarkT. Finest kind.
[Ran across an original lyric & chord sheet. How impossibly cool…
http://www.thereelbook.com/groups/Black47/charts/JamesConnolly.pdfReport
Thanks, Tom. I’ve been trying to find a convenient excuse to put Black 47, especially James Connolly, on the Jukebox for, oh…. how long as this site been around again?
You may or may not know this, but Larry Kirwan has a two or three hour show on XM every Saturday morning where he plays a decent amount of Black 47 in addition to plenty of other Irish music.Report
Dang, MarkT, I don’t get XM. Met Larry Kirwan once, taught him an opera singer’s trick how to hold the “eee” sound on “dreeeeeeeeeeeeam” in James Connolly. I got the feeling he thinks he does it fine. But he doesn’t, which you alluded to about his “polarizing” voice.
Love him anywayz, though.
[Next time, “Maria’s Wedding,” eh?]Report
Sure’n I didn’t know you were Irish TomReport
Aye, Mr. Smith. Me sainted mother was 100% pure Irish.
I love these Irish songs of rebellion: two verses of big talk, then in the third, they get creamed by the British.Report
Ahh, me mother’s not sainted yet (praise be) but is also 100%. So we’re twin sons of different mothers now eh?Report