The Pogues (might be Shane MacGowan and the Popes, not sure, it’s on a live Popes CD but they play a lot of Pogues songs in concert) song in question is Rock n Roll Paddy.
When I first heard that song, I thought, I’ve heard this before. I was going to ask you guys what traditional Irish song used that tune, but then it hit me. Unfortunately I don’t have the CD with the Barnyards of Delgaty on it… I believe it was a Clancy Brothers CD. So I can’t compare the two.
The “stick another record in the record machine” line does not fit into the Barnyards tune as far as I can tell.
I hope this isn’t too obscure for you.
Oh, and can anyone name the song about the IRA which includes the words “We’re all off to Dublin in the green”? I’ve only heard it a couple times, at my friend’s house, and when I asked what it was called they had lost the CD case and therefore could not name it.
I can’t help you with your Pogues/Popes/Clancy Bros. question. But I do know that the song you’re looking for has a bunch of different titles.
*I am a merry ploughboy and I plough the fields all day
Till a sudden thought came to me head that I should roam away
For I am sick and tired of slavery since the day I was born
And I am off to join the I.R.A. and I am off tomorrow morn.
And we’re all off to Dublin in the green, in the green
Where the helmets glisten in the sun
Where the bay’nets flash and the rifles crash
To the rattle of a Thompson gun.*
I’m pretty sure that’s the song you’re looking for. It can usually be found as “The Merry Ploughboy” or “Off to Dublin in the Green.”
Hmmm, not sure what your question actually is. If you think it’s the same tune then it probably is. I can’t say I have heard either song, but melodies get hijacked for use with new lyrics all the time. The way things are with Irish music it would probably be hard to get more firm confirmation than you/your friends/some musicians to listen close and decide whether you think it is the same melody or not. Then have long and pleasant arguments in the pub with anyone who disagrees whilst drinking a few pints.
Furthermore, the concept of “is the same tune as” can get a bit vague in oral (oral-ish nowadays) traditions like Irish music.
Say if someone plays a jig, next person learns it off him but mishears a note, next person on learns the jig with the one note different and makes a deliberate improvement of her own but doesn’t tell the next person who learns it and so on. Musical Chinese Whispers so to speak.
As opposed to for instance, classical music, there isn’t one score to point to so you can say this person has the right version and that person has the wrong version. There are all what you’d call “settings” of the same tune, or even whole new tunes if they get different enough. It’s the same thing with song melodies, so what you also might have is two melodies with a common ancestor.
Sorry to give such a ranting answer, but this happens to be one of my pet topics coming up for once, so please indulge me.
Well, I see that the “Merry Ploughboy” bit has been answered. Now, my little computer does not much like music, but I’ll try to find a link to the “Rock and Roll Paddy” song, which I don’t know, and sort of sing Barnyards of Delgaty" to m yself, and see how they fit. If that’s any use!
btw = you know the Barnyards song is not Irish but Scottish? (for all the difference it makes!)
Old Blind Dogs do a good live version of Delgaty. It’s very common for Irish rock bands to use snippets of trad tunes in their work. **The Pogues ** made a living doing it, but the way was paved by Horslips, Christy Moore, and Alan Stivell. The Rights of Man, The Rocky Road to Dublin, The Gold Ring, and *The King of the Fairies * are just a few of the other very popular tunes that have been used in the Celtic rock revival since the late 70s.
