Ewan MacColl - Dirty Old Town

[JohnInSale]

Best Version Of This Brilliant Song !!!

[PHAOE]

This is fabulous. Thanks so much! And the clarinet, holy nelly, that's grand! Sounds almost like Peanuts Hucko in his fabulous clarinet days. Who is playing that? Fantastic music and song! May the music rise to meet you, and it certainly has!!! Thanks so much!!

[yorkshiretractors]

IT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE CRYING ALL THESE PHOTOS I AM 54 SO ABOUT THE TIME I WAS A KID HERE IN YORKSHIRE AND I AM STILL IN THE SAME TOWN AS I WAS THEN . . WE DINT HAVE MUCH THEN AND WE DONT REALLY HAVE OWT MUCH NOW . THE WORKING MAN WILL NEVER OWT MUCH THATS HOW IT IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE .

[barrystockdale]

there was a girl from huddersfield; who did not want her udders feeled.................

[brosnaboy]

fantastic, thanks a million for uploading it and the photos of salford are brilliant. people like you make youtube really worthwhile.

[MsOneiroi77]

so not an Irish song just because the Pogues did a punk cover version.

[CompleteCanineCare]

@MsOneiroi77 no, not Irish - just like the Pogues who are from London

[washy21]

Love Salford.

[thomascow1]

Cool,Thumbs up

[MrDiggerNigga]

Salford should be nuked.

An absolute dive infested with scum and criminals.

[martinminot]

@MrDiggerNigga My maternal grandparents were born, raised and married in Salford.

[leobluesy]

Great version

[RaisingWar]

I like this...!..

[hetrodoxly]

arosegrowingold.

By far the best version, are you sure this is Peggy Seeger? why i ask is i had a version he did with Kirsty (his daughter) this doesn't half sound like it.

[gaconnochie]

@hetrodoxly It is definitely Peggy Seeger.

[007clooneen]

I also grew up in that region. I went to school in Pendleton and taught for some years in Lower Broughton, Salford in the 60's. The streets were alive with the sound of children playing and the sound of carts on the cobbled streets. One of my fellow students at college was Mick Groves of The Spinners. He popularised this song in Salford long before it ever crossed the sea to Dublin. I believe Ewan's brother in law, Pete Seeger is still alive in America and over 90 years old.

[gaconnochie]

@007clooneen " I believe Ewan's brother in law, Pete Seeger is still alive in America and over 90 years old" Pete is still alive as is Peggy herself. She was filmed singing at a demonstration recently in London. I don't think Ewan and Peggy were ever married though! Could be wrong but I think they lived together.

[supsupese]

@gaconnochie he is 92 and still touring

[cambsgeezer]

@supsupese sadly not - Ewan died in 1988. Peggy's still with us though.

[CanIEditMyUserName]

wow this is amazing, thagt clarinet!!

[stuarthants]

Classic! I forget - is the clarinettist Bruce Turner? Have the compilation buried somewhere, but accessible always on MP3.

[patsyod]

First time I have heard this, fantastic! what a family, RIP Kirsty

[HopeWithPandora]

Charming...

[chrisdcarney]

happy memories of growing up in the 50's and 60's, I can remember a lot of these places now sadly gone. No arguements about where its about its about any industrial town of the era. Just that Ewan new Salford better as his home town

[chrisdcarney]

happy memories of growing up in the 50's and 60's, I can remember a lot of these places now sadly gone. No arguements about where its about its about any industrial town of the era. Just that Ewan new Salford better as his home town

[gaconnochie]

when a member of the audience suggested he was singng the song all wrong and that it was a traditional Irish song and was actualy titled Shores of Erin! It must be nice to know that your sings slip into the repetiore but weird to have some guy insist they knew it as a child etc :-)

[GolliwoggMusic]

Golliwogg APPROVES of this song.

[alberts1985]

Smoke in chalice

[stevecrosby99]

The best

[yorkshiretractors]

i like this sung by a northern English man . but by hell this is good . it just shows how original songs can be so different from the versions we know .

[seerauberjohnny]

@yorkshiretractors Ewan was a Northern Englishman!

[yorkshiretractors]

@seerauberjohnny int that what i said

[MsOneiroi77]

@seerauberjohnny his parents were Scottish but a salford man too hence where this song is set. Its not 100% Irish regarless what they say just because the Pogues did a cover version.

[gaconnochie]

@MsOneiroi77 Most of the people playing on the Pogues version are British. Shane the singer was born in London of Irish parentage and defines himself as Irish. Cate was born abroad and is half Scots half Irish. The rest of the band on their various Facebook/Myspace pages describe themselves as English or British.

[MsOneiroi77]

@gaconnochie dispite that people around the world somehow think its Irish even claim its an old song or the "Old Dublin Town Anthem" and sing it as part of an Irishesque identity. People in America who usually who say they hate the Brits one minute then sing a British song the next. Ive even heard people claim the Dubliners way of singing and the public sing the chorus back or along is somehow an Irish style, again they seem to have forgotten its nothing more than Victorian Vaudeville music.

[gaconnochie]

@MsOneiroi77 I think in the 60s the Irish folk musicians had picked up influences from the British folk revival whihc of course went the other way too. The Corries for instance didn't just sing Scottish songs. Ewan Maccoll was the father of the British folk hence some of his songs got picked up by the Irish. Then like you say people who perhaps hear these songs through that channel then presume the songs are Irish. I read that one time he was playing Shoals Of Herring at an Irish folk club

[MsOneiroi77]

@gaconnochie true in the 60's the Irish were influenced by British folk, even instruments like the Greeks with their bazuki, which in Irish circles is termed the Irish Bazuki. The Corries though sang Childe ballads which are Scoittish and English and English bands like Steeleye Span sung "Cam Ye O'er Frae France" you may recognise the tune it was adapted by an English English music hall performer in 1850's and the Irish changed the words and beat to the "Rocky Road to Dublin" lol.

[fluffycheep]

never heard this tempo - its brilliant

[clivehope1966]

classic.............

[katymagnets]

'Salford of tomorrow: Will it be "one of Europe's finest shopping centres"?' Hell no.

[CatorsCinema]

Thank Christ for Manchester ...

Love much from Dublin.

[zzausel]

Esther Ofarim did an awful good job on it, but now I know what's up with that song.

[TonyTheDriver100]

I have this version on vinyl but I'm not sure it is the one I like best. It seems too "happy" for the words of the song.

Ewan McColl was, in my humble opinion, a genius. Some of his lyrics are absolute masterpieces (see the Manchester Rambler or many of his songs about mining).

The next time you are in a music shop look for the "Essential Ewan McColl Songbook". It is huge and shows the amazing versatility and brilliance of the man. Peggy Seeger is the natural balance to Ewan's voice.

[gaconnochie]

@TonyTheDriver100 I particularly like "Nobody Knew She Was There" about how society often treats older women as if they are invisible.

[charleshhooper]

first time ive heard this version,the best ever thank you.

[agingfolky]

The song is about Salford and was written by Ewan Mc'coll

I guess these must be the correct words.

Anybody else's version is a copy and altered words are theirs not Ewan's.

A great singer songwriter  sadly missed

[jimporter1947]

Never heard this version before. Heard Ewan and Peggy sing it live at the old Singing Jenny Folk club in Huddersfield have it on a Topic Record as well but this one is the best

[arosegrowingold]

@jimporter1947 That's quite something! I wish I'd been around to hear him myself....And I bet it fitted Huddersfield pretty well!

[jmpmcd]

@jimporter1947 in your version jim do the lyrics say, salford wind ,or smokey wind?

[jimporter1947]

@jmpmcd Definately "Smelt the spring on the Salford wind" and I' m sure that in the Topic Records version it is gasworks gate as well

[catsascatscan]

Thank you so much !!! (from Paris) for posting that one, at last...

[seerauberjohnny]

Oh my gosh Salford of tomorrow looks like a seventies nightmare!

[seerauberjohnny]

Every single cover ever made of this song changes the meter to make it more 'regular'

and therefore more 'commercial' I suppose.Ewan and Peggy's originals remain the best of course!

[sewitt60]

It can't believe I just found this! I remember growing up listening this in,where else, Salford!!

[paronomeister]

"Will it be one of Europe's finest shopping centres?" all we were expected to aspire-to! Bread and circuses the world over.

[arosegrowingold]

My pleasure - couldn't believe it wasn't on YT!

[Owlor]

SO hard to find a good version of this, thank you!