A sweet song. A song of love and longing. Should we dissect it? Should we explain it? Or maybe we should just listen to it and let the moods of the song wash over us as our private thoughts and memories rise to the surface like fish feeding under the willows in the gloaming of a summer's day... There are two versions for you to enjoy by Jim McCann and Charlotte Church or why not follow the lyrics below and sing along...
Carrickfergus
I wish I was in CarrickfergusOnly for nights in Ballygrant
I would swim over the deepest ocean
The deepest ocean, my love to find
But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over
And neither have I wings to fly
If I could find me a handsome boatman
To ferry me over my love and I.
My childhood days bring back sweet reflections
The happy times I spent so long ago
My boyhood friends and kind relations
Have all passed on now like melting snow
I'll spend my days an endless rover
Soft is the grass and sure, my bed is free
Oh but to be back, in Carrickfergus
To strike that lonely road, down by the sea.
And in Kilkenny it is reported
On marble stone there as black as ink
With gold and silver I would support her
But I'll sing no more now till I get a drink
For I'm drunk today and I'm seldom sober
A handsome rover from town to town
Ah but I'm sick now my days are numbered
Come all ye young men and lay me down.
Charlottes and the Clancy Brothers version every time.
ReplyDeleteBut Jim McCann's singing voice is almost as fine as my own!
DeleteWhat about van the man's version YP? I thought your comment about him on my blog post yesterday was hilarious. I was asked what I was laughing about?
DeleteWould you care to be more explicit about the private thoughts that wash over you and rise to the surface like fish feeding under the willows when you sing along with Charlotte Church?
ReplyDeleteCharlotte would feel I was breaking a confidence we share...so sorry!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteYou mean the American fellow behind the blog, "Shadows and Light"? He never blogged about it. Perhaps he is ashamed of his past,
DeleteI was only repeating exactly what is on Wikipedia.
DeleteI was just jesting Tasker. There's more than one Stephen Reed around.
DeleteI tried to listen, but it isn't matching my mood right now, so I'll come back tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI hope you like it in the end.
DeleteIt's quite slow and I generally like my music a bit faster, but it was very nice to listen to.
DeleteEnglish and Irish folk music is largely new to me, it never really played on this side of the pond. I have been to Kilkenny.
ReplyDeleteBob Dylan was well aware of Irish bars and musicians when her first arrived in New York City.
DeleteDon’t analyse it, just enjoy it xx
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
Delete