Planxty
Noel Hill
(Jem Finer)
 The
great 18th century Irish harpist Turlough
O'Carolan (1670-1738) used the word "planxty" in
numerous compositions. It is thought to derive from some
Latin root, but no one is quite sure what exactly he meant
by the term. It has come to be used as a mild form of salute
or honorific in song titles, something akin to "cheers to."
It is also the name of the influential Irish traditional
band whose members included such luminaries of the
contemporary trad scene as Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Andy
Irvine, and John Moynihan (the last two of whom, prior to
joining forces with Christy Moore, played with Terry Woods
in Sweeney's Men, another influential traditional band in
the 1960s). Noel Hill played in the version of Planxty that
released "The Girl I Loved So Well" (1980).
Hill, from County Clare in Ireland but now based out of
Dublin, is a renowned trad concertina player. He was also an
early critic of the Pogues and their attitude to the
traditional material. On the first Pogues tour of Ireland,
some of the boys and Hill participated in a panel discussion
on Irish radio, during the course of which Hill described
the music of the Pogues as a "terrible abortion" (the
incident is described in and the quote is taken from
The
Lost Decade.) Given the political reality of
Ireland, this is a pretty damning critique, inasmuch as
abortion was (and continues to be) illegal in Ireland and
thus an affront to both civil and eccelisiastical teaching.
So the use of "Planxty" and the tune in general is more a
tongue-in-cheek dig at Mr. Hill than an honorific.
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London
Girl
(Shane MacGowan)
"The devil moon took me through the
alley
Down by the Kardomah and the
Centrale..."
"Old Devil Moon" is a jazz standard, recorded by the
likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland,and Tony Bennet (click
here
to open a window with the full lyric). It first appeared in
the Broadway musical "Finian's
Rainbow" (1947) and was subsequently recorded by Petula
Clark in the1968 movie remake of the play. The 20 year gap
between the stage and screen versions can be partially
explained by the fact that the play was just that much ahead
of its time. While it involves leprechauns, a pot of gold,
and the granting of wishes, the real theme is anti-racism. A
southern Senator is trying to push through a dam-building
project that will wipe out a small town of mostly black
residents. In a confrontation, Finian's daughter
inadvertantly uses one of the pot of gold's wishes to turn
the Senator into a black man so he can experience firsthand
the injustice of Jim Crow and racial prejudice. Hollywood
and Broadway being what they are, everything works out in
the end. The Senator realizes the error of his ways and the
last wish is used to transform him back into a white
man.
The Centrale is a famous old cheap pasta café at
16 Moor Street, in the south-east corner of Soho. You bring
your own bottle, and often have to share a table (thanks
Pete).
Elvis Costello produced this one and to my ears it has
always sounded like it could have come off of his "Get
Happy" lp.
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Body of an
American
The melody used to open this tune sounds very close to
the one Shane used in "Song with No Name," and that one
sounds an awful lot like "The Homes of Donegal," a trad tune
that The Bucks (a short-lived post-Pogues project of Terry
Woods and Ron Kavana) performed on their cd "Dancin' to the
Ceili Band" (it's the lead tune in a medley on the track
entitled "Old Time Waltzes"). Then again, I could be hearing
things.
"The cadillac stood by the
house
And the yanks they were within
And the tinker boys they hissed advice
'Hot wire her with a pin'..."
The itinerant population of Ireland -- the "Travelling
Community" -- were frequently referred to as tinkers, so
the "tinker boys" would probably refer to youths from that
group. They are a distinct ethnic group within Ireland with
their own customs and language -- shelta -- which might help
explain the "hiss" reference (Sinbad -- thanks! -- writes
that the speech has a hiss-like quality to it). Their name
derives from what was one of their main occupations --
tinkers fixed pots and pans. The "settled" part of the
community generally looks down on the itinerant population
and the Tinkers have been the object of discrimination on a
variety of social contexts. They are generally looked on as
unsavory, and the advice the boys offer here -- on how to
steal the car -- would do little to quell that image.
"We turned and shook as we had
a look
In the room where the dead man lay
So big Jim Dwyer made his last trip
To the home where his fathers laid"
The scene unfolding in this and in the next verse
describes a typical funeral ritual: the funeral ceremony
followed by the wake. I've never been to an official Irish
funeral or wake, but when my grandfather died I couldn't
keep this song out of my head as it was pretty much dead on
(pardon the pun) to the events. It was the first time I
attended an "Irish" funeral and it was a bit jarring to see
folks drinking and enjoying themselves a bit. Not quite good
craic, but not bad for a funeral.
"He fought the champ in
Pittsburgh
And he slashed him to the ground
He took on Tiny Tartanella
And it only went one round..."
Another reason I thought of this song during my
grandfather's funeral is that, like Jim Dwyer, my
grandfather was a boxer (never made the big time, mostly
fought in the northeastern U.S. as "Bugs" Moran -- some ten
years before the gangster in Chicago made the moniker more
recognizable). I had been holding off adding this song to
the page until I could identify either Dwyer or Tiny
Tartanella, but have had no luck whatsoever. To the best of
my ability to determine, no "Tiny Tartanellas" or "Jim
Dwyers" were fighting in the U.S. at about the time frame
when this song is set (see below).
"He never had no time for
reds
For drink or dice or whores
And he never threw a fight
Unless the fight was right
So the sent him to the war..."
I always took the "reds" in the first line to refer to
communists (in U.S. slang, those just sympathetic to the
cause were generally referred to as "pinkos," whereas the
dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying commies were the reds). In
part because that read and the last line help set the
timeline for the song a bit in that communism or socialism
have never had much success here in the States except for
two periods, bookended by the two World Wars. The "red
scare" period of U.S. history ran from 1918 until about
1921 (the link takes you to a site full of pictoral
representations of the period; it's pretty interesting). In
the election of 1912 here, Eugene Debs led the Socialist
Party to 6 percent of the popular vote and elected over a
thousand candidates at the local level (including 80
mayors). It opposed U.S. involvement in World War I, and the
party made even further inroads in the 1916 election. With
the successful Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, the
powers that be here in the States began a major crackdown on
groups affiliated with the Marxist left in this country. The
second period of socialist/communist momemtum occured during
the Great Depression, when it looked like capitalism was
indeed a failure and time was ripe for change. So in saying
that Dwyer had no time for "reds" we're basically being told
that he was safely in the mainstream politically, and, from
the next line, probably pretty conservative (shunning
alcohol, gambling, and ladies of easy leisure). Then again,
I teach political science so I generally hear/read
everything with a political angle.
So, that being said, another viable read is that "reds"
refers to drug use, usually a barbiturate (Seconal or
secobarbital); i.e., a depressant. If that's the case, the
line still makes sense, with Jim Dwyer now passing up drugs,
drink, gambling, and loose women. Thanks to John for passing
along that read. I think the historical setting of the song
remains unchanged. While I'm unsure when Seconal
(secobarbital is the generic name) hit the market, it was
developed by Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals, a company that's
been around since 1876 (founded in Indianapolis, Indiana).
The active agent in barbiturates were first developed by
Adolph von Baeyer (the founder of what became Bayer Chemical
Company) in 1864. Barbiturates proper weren't syntehsized
until 1903 and refined in the years preceding World War
I.
To "throw a fight" is to intentionally lose or at least
allow the opponent to win. Makes me wonder about the Tiny
Tartanella bout... did it only go one round cuz Dwyer threw
it or was it so short because Dwyer thumped him? Anyway, as
indicated above, I haven't been able to identify any
fighters active in the U.S. with either name, nor am I aware
of any fictional sources for these characters.
"Fare thee well gone away
There's nothing left to say
With a sláinte Joe and an Erin go
My love's in Amerikay
The calling of the rosary
Spanish wine from far away
I'm a free born man of the USA..."
"Sláinte" is gaelic for "health" and is a
traditionally used as a toast (like "cheers" in english).
"Erin go" is short for "Erin go brách" a gaelic
phrase meaning "Ireland Forever."
In Roman Catholicism, a rosary is basically a beaded
necklace with a crucifix attached. "Calling the Rosary" is a
fairly complicated ritual to the uninitiated and the lapsed
(ahem), but here goes: you start at the cross and say the
"Lord's
Prayer" ("Our father, who art in heaven...") then three
"Hail Marys" ("Hail Mary, full of grace...") followed by a
"Glory Be" ("glory be to the father, son, and holy
ghost..."). Then you move to another "Lord's Prayer,"
followed by ten (10!) "Hail Marys" and another "Glory Be"
(at each bead) and work your way around the necklace that
way. I think it takes five sets of ten prayers to complete
the cycle.
The Ireland Anthology (edited by Sean Dunne,
introduction by George O'Brien, ISBN 0-312-18429-8)
introduced "Body of an American" with the following:
"Spanish Wine', a staple of smugglers on the south-west
coast of Ireland for generations, was also code for Spanish
military assistance, so much so that it became pretty much
cliche, like other catch-phrases - 'Erin go bragh', for
instance." Thanks to Tom for passing that along.
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The
White House (for those of you outside the United States) is
the primary residence of the President of the US of A and is
located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
(keep that last bit in mind for when you're sitting on the
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" hotseat). The Kremlin is
located in Moscow (in a section of what was known back in
the good old days as "Red Square") and has been the seat of
government for both Soviet and post-Soviet leaders. In 1969,
U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong planted the American flag on
the moon. It is encased in glass and was artificially made
up to appear as though it were billowing in the moon wind,
of which of course there is none. The pic on the left is of
astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Each of the six subsequent Apollo
moon missions planted American flags.
