Update on sources for "Arthur McBride"
Tiernan Henry
Twelve of the 14 songs here are from Brady's "electric" albums -
beginning with 1981's "Hard Station" - and all are remixed,
remastered or revocaled.
The other two songs are completely new recordings: "Arthur McBride"
and "The Lakes of Pontchartrain". These two songs were the staples of
Brady's folk sets and he's still best known in Ireland, anyway, for
what many would say are these definitive readings.
When Dylan played Slane in 1984, he asked to meet Brady. An
astonished Brady later told Hot Press that Dylan wanted to learn
Brady's versions of the two songs. "Arthur McBride" is the
centrepiece of "Andy Irvine & Paul Brady", and "The Lakes of
Pontchartrain" is found on "Welcome Here Kind Stranger".
Both records are available on tape, but only the former is available
on CD. Brady told Hot Press recently that the master tapes for
"Welcome Here... " have been lost.
Brady has penned notes about each song on "Nobody Knows... ", and it
is worth reading what he has to say about this brace.
Arthur McBride
Traditional, arranged by Paul Brady (Hornall Brothers Music/Warner
Chappell Music Inc.)
"I was in Rhode Island in 1973 staying with a singer-songwriter
friend, Patrick Sky. The Johnstons, the group I'd been with since '67
has ground to a halt and I was flat broke. I decided to try and put
together a solo set of songs and get some gigs, anywhere. My set was
bizarre. A Hank Williams song, a Leadbelly song, a Van Morrison song,
a Beatles song, an early gauche version of 'Crazy Dreams', an early
song of mine 'Continental Trailways Bus', from a Johnstons record and
some Irish traditional folk songs and instrumentals. Among these was
a song called 'Arthur McBride'. Appearing in many different versions
on folk records throughout the '60s I was well familiar with it in
most its versions. The one I now sang was one I arranged and adapted
from a printed version I found in a book called 'A Heritage of Songs,
The Songs of Carrie Grover', a Maine woman with Irish and Scottish
ancestry. When I returned to Ireland the following year I first
performed it with the band Planxty at the Carlton Cinema in Dublin.
It kind of captured the imagination of the public at the time and
became one of my most popular songs ever since. This is a new
recording made in 1998. It really hasn't changed much in twenty-five
years."
Paul Brady: acoustic guitar and vocal
Recorded and produced by Paul Brady at Kinine Oct '98. Mixed by
Alasdair McMillan Jan '99.
Brady replaced Christy Moore for the last year of Planxty, and
unfortunately there are no recordings of their last tour, or their
truly astounding, show-ending "Arthur McBride", sung by Brady.
Although Gavin Selerie (in Telegraph 51) admires Brady's live outings
more than his post-81 recordings, there are really only a handful of
songs that capture the spirit of Brady's fluid playing and delivery.
On "Bringing It All Back Home" his retake of his own "Nothing But The
Same Old Story" is truly incendiary, all the more so as it is just
played by Brady on guitar and Donal Lunny on bouzouki. Likewise,
these new recordings raise this 'best of' above the rest.
Selerie writes that "Brady's 1985 version (of Lakes), again solo, has
the chunkier feel which even slower numbers in his repertoire has by
this time: there is a mixture of picking and strumming... The
recording is one of the great moments in Irish music over the past 30
years and it provides a close link with Dylan's version... "
I'd have to disagree with Selerie's evaluation of Brady's 1985 live
version: I find it chunkuy, clunky and leaden.
The new recording soars.
It seems sadder than the original 1978 recording, even though the
arrangement is the same. Brady's delivery is more lived-in (he's 20
years older for a start), and to me it seems to have picked some of
the nuances from Dylan's 1988 version. A nice closing of the circle
there I reckon.
From the liner notes:
The Lakes of Pontchartrain
Traditional, arranged by Paul Brady (Hornall Brothers Music
Ltd./Warner Chappell Music Inc.)
"After the collapse of my previous band The Johnstons I was stuck in
a going-nowhere period in New York City in late '73 when I got a
letter from my friend, the uileann piper Liam O'Flynn asking me to
come home and join Planxty, the great Irish folk band of that era. It
was a complete change of direction for me. Although I had recorded
lots of traditional music and songs in the late '60s/early '70s with
the Johnstons, I was at that time moving in a contemporary
songwriting direction. Arriving home in Ireland the following year,
the Planxty album that was currently in the shops included a song
sung by Christy Moore, 'The Lakes of Pontchartrain'. I loved it. Two
or three years later when the band had broken up and I was touring
with Andy Irvine, I drifted back to the songs and eventually decided
to do my own version when it came to recording my first solo album
'Welcome Here Kind Stranger' in 1978. It quickly became one of my
popular songs and for years later and to the present day people ask
me to sing it. This it a totally new recording as faithful as I can
be to the original."
Paul Brady: acoustic guitar, harmonium, tin whistles and vocal.
Recorded and produced by Paul Brady at Kinine, Dublin 1999.
Additional recording, Philip Begley. Mixed by Alasdair McMillan.
The lyrics, as performed by Paul Brady, are (from paulbrady.com):
Arthur McBride and the Sergeant (Trad arranged and adapted Paul
Brady)
Oh, me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride
As we went a-walking down by the seaside
Now, mark what followed and what did betide
For it being on Christmas morning...
Out for recreation, we went on a tramp
And we met Sergeant Napper and Corporal Vamp
And a little wee drummer, intending to camp
For the day being pleasant and charming.
"Good morning ! Good morning!" the sergeant did cry
"And the same to you gentlemen!" we did reply ,
Intending no harm but meant to pass by
For it being on Christmas morning.
But says he, "My fine fellows if you will enlist,
It's ten guineas in gold I will slip in your fist
And a crown in the bargain for to kick up the dust
And drink the King's health in the morning.
For a soldier he leads a very fine life
And he always is blessed with a charming young wife
And he pays all his debts without sorrow or strife
And always lives pleasant and charming...
And a soldier he always is decent and clean
In the finest of clothing he's constantly seen
While other poor fellows go dirty and mean
And sup on thin gruel in the morning."
"But", says Arthur, "I wouldn't be proud of your clothes For
you've only the lend of them as I suppose And you dare not
change them one night, for you know If you do you'll be
flogged in the morning. And although that we are single and
free we take great delight in our own company And we have no
desire strange faces to see Although that your offers are
charming And we have no desire to take your advance All
hazards and dangers we barter on chance For you would have
no scruples for to send us to France Where we would get shot
without warning"
"Oh now!", says the sergeant "I'll have no such chat
And I neither will take it from spalpeen or brat
For if you insult me with one other word
I'll cut off your heads in the morning
" And then Arthur and I we soon drew our hods
And we scarce gave them time for to draw their own blades
When a trusty shillelagh came over their heads And bade them
take that as fair warning
And their old rusty rapiers that hung by their side
We flung them as far as we could in the tide
"Now take them out, Divils!", cried Arthur McBride
"And temper their edge in the morning".
And the little wee drummer we flattened his pow
And we made a football of his rowdeydowdow
Threw it in the tide for to rock and to row
And bade it a tedious returning
And we having no money, paid them off in cracks
And we paid no respect to their two bloody backs
For we lathered them there like a pair of wet sacks
And left them for dead in the morning.
And so to conclude and to finish disputes
We obligingly asked if they wanted recruits
For we were the lads who would give them hard clouts
And bid them look sharp in the morning.
Oh me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride
As we went a walkin' down by the seaside,
Now mark what followed and what did betide
For it being on Christmas morning.
( From the traditional, adapted by Paul Brady/ Copyright
control)
The Lakes Of Pontchartrain (Trad. arr. Paul Brady)
It was on one bright March morning
I bid New Orleans adieu
And I took the road to Jackson town
My fortune to renew
I cursed all foreign money
No credit could I gain
Which filled my heart with longing
For the lakes of Pontcahrtrain
I stepped on board of a railroad car
Beneath the morning sun
I rode the rods till evening
And I laid me down again
All strangers there, no friends to me
Till a dark girl towards me came
And I fell in love with a Creole girl
By the lakes of Pontchartrain
I said my pretty Creole girl
My money here's no good
And if it weren't for the alligators
I'd sleep out in the wood
"You're welcome here kind stranger
Our house is very plain
But we never turned a stranger out
On the banks of Pontchartrain"
She took me into her mammy's house
And she treated me right well
The hair upon her shoulders
In jet black ringlets fell
To try to paint her beauty
I'm sure 't would be in vain
So handsome was my Creole girl
By the lakes of Pontchartrain
I asked her if she'd marry me
She said that this could never be
For she had got a lover
And he was far at sea
She said that she would wait for him
And true she would remain
Till he'd return to his Creole girl
By the Lakes of Pontchartrain
So fare thee well, my bonny own girl
I never may see you more
But I'll ne'er forget your kindness
In the cottage by the shore
And at each social gathering
A flowing glass I'll drain
And I'll drink a health to my Creole girl
By the lakes of Pontchartrain.
Tiernan
**************************************************
Tiernan Henry
Department of Engineering Hydrology
National University of Ireland, Galway
Galway
IRELAND
PH: +353-91-524411, ext 2619
FAX: +353-91-524913
http://www.nuigalway.ie/hydrology/
*************************************************
Mike Cronin
Mike
Greg Wallace
Moore is goosepimple stuff; Brady's old recording of 'Arthur McBride' is
nearly that good (better than Dylan's IMO).
Tiernan Henry wrote in message <4FB18...@bee.nuigalway.ie>...
Peter Stone Brown
>
> Wonderful post; the Planxty version of 'Pontchartrain' featuring Christy
> Moore is goosepimple stuff; Brady's old recording of 'Arthur McBride' is
> nearly that good (better than Dylan's IMO).
>
Way better than Dylan's.
--
"Where the angels' voices whisper to the souls of previous times."
--Bob Dylan
Peter Stone Brown
e-mail: pet...@erols.com
http://www.tangible-music.com/peterstonebrown/