‘The Foggy Dew’ - The Chieftans with Sinead O’Connor, 1995
The Foggy Dew is an old Irish folk song which I think was written by the same guy that wrote the Irish National Anthem and thats not Phil Coulter. Taken from the album ‘The Long Black Veil ‘ by long running and popular traditional Irish folk band The Chieftans, an album that also featured some great contributing artists such as Van Morrison, Ry Cooder and Mick Jagger.
Like nearly all traditional Irish folk songs, this song has been covered by many artists from Ireland including the likes of Shane McGowan and The Dubliners. The song itself is about the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland and a call to arms for Irishmen instead of going to World War 1 as referenced in this verse.
“Right proudly high over Dublin Town they hung out the flag of war
‘Twas better to die ‘neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud-El-Bar
And from the plains of Royal Meath strong men came hurrying through
While Britannia’s Huns, with their long range guns sailed in through the foggy dew“
Anyhow I don’t want to get bogged down on the context of the song as its not the reason I like it. The reason I like is more for the vocal performance of Sinead O’Connor and the haunting music provided by the Chieftans which includes the tin whistle, Bodhran, Irish Harp along with other instruments. To me it represents how traditional Irish music has evolved down through the years to its current incarnation. Anyway check out the youtube version here and let me know whether you agree or not.
Last 5 posts by Des
- 'Fearless' - Pink Floyd, 1983 - December 30th, 2008
- 'Frankie Teardrop' - Suicide, 1977 - December 19th, 2008
- 'After Midnight' - J J Cale, 1971 - December 17th, 2008
- 'Acid Tongue'- Jenny Lewis, 2008 - December 12th, 2008
- 'Baltimore'- Randy Newman, 1977 - December 9th, 2008
