The Steel Guitar Forum

Found this article on CNN this morning.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/06/danny. ... index.html

Clancy offers a free Guinness to patrons who sing any other song at karaoke night

Danny Boy is depressing...

Not, it's not. But then again, some of the people who try to sing it, are!

Next to Happy Birthday and The Star-Spangled Banner, it's easily the most "butchered" song ever written.

Yeah exactly!
I could care less about lyrics as long as it's got a good delivery...

As Simon would say:
"I thought it was absolutely dreadful! I felt it was too caberet, there was no originality, absolutely zero chance of you ever, ever having a sucessful career..."
Wait, wrong thread...

It's depressing,

Duh! So is Tristan & Isolde at the end when they die.

and its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil.

Maybe if he had been to Ireland, he wouldn't have written it.
And maybe Wagner couldn't have written the most moving love scene if he had ever loved anyone. There may be cynics and hypocrites in the creative arts (a shallow trench, a narrow hallway of money and greed where pimps and thieves run free and good men are left to die like dogs).

Not depressing?

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling.
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,
For I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
But if you come, and all the flowers are dying
And if I'm dead, as dead I might well be.
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And o'er my grave shall warmer, sweeter be,
And if you bow and tell me that you love me,
Then I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

But then again, there's "Together Again," which SOUNDS depressing, unless you read the words:

"Together again
My tears have stopped falling
The long lonely nights
Are now at an end

The key to my heart
You hold in your hand
And nothing else matters
We're together again

Together again
The gray skies are gone
Your back in my arms
Now where you belong

The love that I knew
Is living again
And nothing else matters
We're together again

And nothing else matters
We're together again"

What do you expect of a song whose real title is London Derriere?

KP

This story is getting big play here in NYC (yawn).
Bottom line---there are a dozen Irish Pubs within a 3 mile radius that have folks singing Danny Boy. Nobody is writing news stories about them. 'nuff said. (yawn). Man bites Irish Setter.

I'm waiting for a law which mandates that only happy music shall be played in public places. Songs must not contain disturbing, depressing, or cynical thoughts of any kind. If you don't care about yourself, think of the children. Do you really want children to be unhappy?

I see Danny Boy as a father speaking to his son, trying to tell him how he loves him. Those are things not easily said to a son, with such depth and feeling.

Danny Boy? i liked it when Julian Tharpe did it with just pedals, then i liked it when Reece did it.....

the pipes are calling

This always confused me, my dad was a plumber.

Ray Minich wrote:

the pipes are calling

This always confused me, my dad was a plumber.

Easily the best line of the day!