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posted by
davidt
on Tuesday March 27 2007, @09:00AM
crumlin bruiser writes:
Tuned into a new radio show last Sunday night on Irish radio station Newstalk 106FM called 'The Snug'. Pleasantly surprised to discover that How Soon Is Now? was the theme tune. Appropriate in all sorts of ways, really. The show's hosted by Roger Green and Ulick O'Connor, two legends of the Irish literary landscape. O'Connor in particular is an interesting figure. He was a contemporary of Brendan Behan, Flann O'Brien, JP Donleavy, Oliver St John Gogarty, Patrick Kavanagh and others. The show's format involves O'Connor expounding on a different subject each week, which of course allows for liberal name-dropping. Anyway, I thought it was most appropriate that How Soon Is Now? should be the theme tune for this show given all of the Smiths' Irish backgrounds, and Morrissey in particular's peculiarly Irish take on the world. Moz's wordplay and impish mindset is of a piece with the greats of the Irish literary pantheon. The Smiths' and Morrissey's Irishness is a huge and unacknowledged side to the band, and to Morrissey's lyrics; the melodies, the words, everything... Listen to some of the great maudlin or jaunty Irish ballads of the past (Danny Boy, On Raglan Road, The Rose of Tralee; The Crack Was Ninety; The Black Velvet Band; Tell Me Ma; My Irish Molly; anything sung by the great John McCormack) read Wilde; read Inishkeen Road by Kavanagh; read Yeats; read Joyce; read Shaw – allow it all to seep in and let it change your whole perception of the Smiths and Morrissey. In many ways the Smiths were much more an Irish band than an English one. Pure-bred English artists tend to be wet, over-earnest and po-faced. The great so-called British bands and artists of the past, the most subversive ones, the ones that really made a difference, that had a sense of humour, were all Irish: Lennon/McCartney; John Lydon; the Buzzcocks; Elvis Costello; the Pogues; Dexy's Midnight Runners; the Happy Mondays; and of course the Smiths. So much more elegant, crafty, witty, ballsy.
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"How Soon Is Now?" theme tune for Irish literary radio show
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Great (Score:0)
what a load of boring shite (Score:0)
couldn't be arsed.
The Irish are obsessed with identity. (Score:1)
Does it really matter?
The derogatory comments about english bands could almost be classed as racist - it certainly would be the other way round.
All those mentioned in the article were actually english - but who cares? I certainly don't.
By the way, my Dad was irish.
(User #17005 Info)
Ireland for the Irish (Score:1)
Aren't us Irish brilliant Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Move on for gawds sake.
(User #6172 Info)
Irish Waltz (Score:1)
This is a more likely class of associations with Morrissey than a mouthy chef brandishing deadly weapons over sizzling flesh...
“I need some air
And I'm stopped and repeatedly questioned:
"Born and raised ?"
But this is not my country”
- TINYC
(User #12673 Info)
Irish blood, fiddle heart (Score:1)
Every time my roomate listens to the Irish folk songs aired every Saturday on a radio station here, he makes fun of them, puting a voice lyric such as : "oh, I fell of the ship and my pony drawned". But in fact, what it feels to me, even though I don't know zip about Irish music or culture, is that the gloom infused with liveliness is something present not only in the Irish lyrical veins, but in the way "fiddle music" is played too.
That explains why goinghome has such an arsenal of jokes
(User #14157 Info)
The Song Remains the Same (Score:1)
Their buffer music? Irish Blood, English Heart, of course.
(User #14203 Info)
What a cock (Score:1)
(User #16324 Info)
Clueless knackers?? (Score:0)
(User #17605 Info)
Morrissey and Ireland (Score:0)
I Love Flann O'Brien; so I'll be searching for a link.
Ireland and Morrisey (Score:0)
I'm an American and many Americans have an obsession with their roots, and while I certainly went through a faze where I was highly interested in my own Irish background I never mistook Dublin for swinging London!
Re:a brief ode to a friend (Score:1)
Come on guys. Stick to the point. (And I'm not being euphemistic.)
(User #18100 Info)
Parent
Re:a brief ode to a friend (Score:0)
You are plainly beyond help. What really distresses me is the fact that this revolting lunacy hasn't been moderated to -1. There's something very fishy going on here.
Sometimes this site make me feel sick.
(User #15812 Info)
Parent