It’s that time of the week.
Last Friday, we asked you, our witty, urbane commentariat, to outline your favourite song, of any genre, of Irish extraction, to play on Paddy’s Day several days after Paddy’s Day.
In fact, we asked you to complete the following sentence.
“If I could hear only one song
on March 17any point early next week, please make it_________________________because______________________”
At stake was a handsome, well-lit and gentlemanly voucher to the tune of twenty-five beans, redeemable at any of 14 Golden Discs locations around the country.
There could only be one winner, though, as ever…
Smith, with a classic from the People’s Republic of Cork:
If I could hear only one song on March 17, please make it Where’s Me Jumper by The Sultans of Ping FC. An anarchic tune with brilliant and sometimes nonsensical lyrics, and a class guitar riff. Nothing to do with Paddy’s Day but more Irish.
Other hoolies from the running:
Shane: “It has to be Thousands are Sailing by The Pogues. The lines “We stepped hand in hand on Broadway/like the first man on the moon”; and “When I got back to my empty room/I suppose I must have cried” just capture the Irish experience! All irony and innocence intended.”
Pat Walsh: “If I could hear only one song on March 17th, please make it Microdisney’s Town To Town. It’s got a great vocal from Cathal Coughlan as well as a simple but imaginative music video.”
RealPolithicks: “If I could hear only one song on March 17 please make it Raggle Taggle Gypsy Oh, because it’s a quintessentially Irish song by one of the greatest Irish bands of all time. I give you, Planxty.”
Johnny Keenan: “If I could listen to only one song on Paddy’s night it would have to be
RíRá’s Front Bar. I saw him live in Barcelona 2011 on Paddy’s Night. He was supporting Method Man. Just watch the video and you will feel so proud to be Irish. Once you realise and feel, that someone with so much passion, doesn’t need to be known by anyone or anywhere, in order to have maximum impact, on first hearing seeing and meeting… that’s true Irish!”
Scottser: “If I could only hear one song on March 17, please make it Come Out Ye Black and Tans because it has everything – pointless nationalism, a killer chorus and and a ‘come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’ attitude that would make a Millwall fan jealous. I always fancy that come the revolution, Come out Ye Black and Tans will be the soundtrack.”
Liam Deliverance: “Oh, the halcyon days of the summer of 1990 and a World Cup in Italy. A simpler time when Irishmen and Irishwomen were justifiably proud of our little country and the long strange trip that we had traveled together. Put ‘Em Under Pressure. Produced by Larry Mullen, Moya Brennan of Clannad does the intro, timeless Jack Charlton vocals and a melody from a tune called O’Neills March, itself a tribute to the great Hugh O’Neill.
Steph Pinker: “If I could hear only one song on March 17, please make it The Waterboys’ version of William Butler Yeats’ poem, The Stolen Child, because as a Faery Queen in a former life I had to relinquish my crown due to my Earthly fondness of a music God called Bowie, and Dana didn’t like it; henceforth, in the twinkling, but myopic eyes of my Tuatha brethren, I will forever be known as a chchchchangeling.”
Thanks all
