THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.
283-The Dubliners with The Pogues-The Irish Rover.
1987-Number 8 single.
Best Bit-At 3.30. The songs narrator appears to embellish the facts, perhaps he has had one or two many Guinness’.
The Dubliners were an Irish Folk band formed in 1962, in Dublin, Ireland, they were initially called ‘The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group,’ and remained active until 2012. The group was founded by Ronnie Drew, (1934-2008) (vocals, and guitar) Luke Kelly, (1940-1984) (vocals, and banjo) Barney McKenna, (1939-2012) (Irish tenor banjo, mandolin, melodeon, and vocals) and Ciaran Bourke, (1935-1988) (vocals, guitar, and tin whistle) they were joined by John Sheahan in 1964, (fiddle, mandolin, tin whistle, and concertina) and soon after they became ‘The Dubliners.’ In total there were 11 different members come and go during the bands 50 year career, with those five considered the classic line-up. It was after the death of Barney McKenna in 2012 that after 50 years of recording and touring The Dubliners finally disbanded. The Dubliners were by far the leading force in popularising Irish Folk music in Europe, influencing generations of Irish bands such as The Pogues, (see also best songs 35) and the Dropkick Murphys. They are held in the highest regard in Ireland, where their covers of traditional Irish ballads are regarded as the definitive versions.
The discography of The Dubliners includes 17 studio Albums released between 1967-1996, and 23 singles released between 1964-2013, there are also 26 official compilation Albums, and 13 live Albums available. In Ireland on the Republic of Ireland’s ‘Irish Singles Chart,’ The Dubliners have had 17 top 40 hits with four of those tracks including ‘The Irish Rover’ make the Number 1 position, while in the UK, three of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Seven Drunken Nights,’ (1967-Number 7 ) and ‘Black Velvet Band’ (1967-Number 15.) charting 20 years before their final chart entry ‘The Irish Rover.’ Despite their success in Europe, The Dubliners never managed to achieve commercial success in the United States.
‘The Irish Rover’ was the first of three singles released from The Dubliners 14th studio Album ’25 Years Celebration,’ from 1987, and was produced by Eamonn Campbell, (1946-2017) who was also a member of The Dubliners at that time. ’25 Years Celebration,’ has 30 tracks, of which two are collaborations with The Pogues, the other track they recorded together is the traditional Irish Folk song ‘Mountain Dew.’ ‘The Irish Rover’ is also a traditional Irish Folk song, dating back to around the early 1800’s, the authorship is uncertain, but it has been attributed to J.M. Crofts. Others have come to the conclusion that it was probably written by a sailor, as there are nautical references.
The lead vocals on ‘The Irish Rover’ were shared between Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners, and Shane MacGowan (1957-2023) of The Pogues. Ronnie Drew was born Joseph Ronald Drew on September 16th, 1934, in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland, he died of throat cancer on August 16th, 2008, at the age of 73. Nathan Joseph (1939-2005) who was the founder of ‘Transatlantic Records,’ and Folkways Records,’ described Ronald Drew’s voice as being ‘like the sound of coke being crushed under a door.’ Ronnie Drew who was a founding member of The Dubliners left the group in 1974, then rejoined in 1979, but left for good in 1995, though he did reunite with the group in 2002 for a 40th anniversary celebration. From 1995 onwards Ronald Drew pursued a solo career, and also performed live as a solo artist. In total as a solo artist he released 13 Albums between 1975-2008, and three singles within the same time period. His 1995 Album ‘Dirty Rotten Shame’ reached Number 1 in Ireland, and his 1994 single ‘Spanish Lady’ feat Dustin, The Saw Doctors, made Number 1 on the Irish singles chart.
‘The Irish Rover’ is an Irish ‘traditional music’ song, which is also known as ‘Irish trad,’ or ‘Irish folk’ music, it is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. Like all traditional music, Irish folk music has changed slowly, with most folk songs being less than 200 years old. One measure of a songs age is the language used, with most modern Irish songs having being written in English and Irish, whilst most of the oldest songs and tunes are rural in origin, and come from the older Irish language tradition. The lyrics to ‘The Irish Rover’ describe an unrealistically large 27 masted ship carrying a very colourful crew, and various types of cargo in impossible enormous amounts. The probability is that the amount of cargo carried has been exaggerated more and more down the years, for example ‘The Irish Rover’ carries ‘one million bags of the best Sligo rags,’ and travels with ‘five million hogs,’ and six million dogs,’ which I think even ‘Noah’s Ark’ would have been jealous of. After seven years the voyage ends disastrously, when the crew contract measles, the ship loses it’s way in the fog, strikes a rock, and leaves the songs narrator as the only survivor, so there is no one else alive to contradict his tale.
‘On the fourth of July eighteen hundred and six we set sail from the sweet cove of Cork. We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks for the Grand City Hall in New York.’