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From: peteg856
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  • idiot, really its about Salford Manchester written by an English folk singer who's parents were Scottish. Its about as Irish as a Nigerian folksong!!!

  • @hihellohowareyou1000

    I used to think it was a pouges song ive since learned i was wrong.

    That'll happen when your sad enough to reply to a comment months old

  • Ewan MacColl was not Irish. He was Scottish.

    There's all sorts of good versions of this song, I see no reason to choose one over any other. His songs were written to be sung...so it's all good...so many good songs he wrote. The First Time Ever I saw Your face? What a love song..one of his, written for Peggy Seeger... Shoals o Herring.. great stuff. Nice version Rod.

  • Nice version, BUT there is only ONE Shane MacGowan! Sorry!

  • Really nice version,, Rod never fail

  • This song is about Salford. Rod's version is "smelled the smoke on the Salford wind" where Ewan MacColl's is "smelled the spring on the smoky wind". Ewan was pressured to change the lyrics from Salford, but anyone who knew Salford would prefer the "Salford Wind" line. Thye song is about any factory town...Salford, Manchester, Birmingham or Hamilton (my home town but me mom's from Newton Heath)

  • Comment removed

  • @lsynno Excepting if anything it is the other way round. Stewart recorded the song years before anyone ever heard of the Pogues!

  • Luke Kelly!

  • "MacColl as an Irish folk singer!"

    OMG wtf Rod hes about as Irish as you are and 50% more Scots as both his parens where Scottish. He was an Anglo-Scot the same as you.

  • only a poof could think of that title

  • thank god for Shane. shame on you rod.

  • Actually Ewan MacColl who wrote and sung it,. and later Rod Paterson (Easy Club)

  • Plus point for Stewart is that he sings the first line correctly. That is "I met my love by the gas works croft" and also yes I know it is less uptempo than the Pogues version (which I've already said I prefer) but it is closer to the tempo of the original McColl version. Stewart of course recorded this song way before the Pogues did so it is possible to prefer the Pogues but still enjoy the gentler version too!

  • really understand the theme of the song either. He suggests it is about global warming - but it isn't. McColl is writing about how people, even in urban deprived areas like Salford, still find love and beauty and have hope - and he ties that in with the post-war British idea that the ills will be gone with massive urban regeneration. He wants to knock the slum areas down like 'an old dead tree' and rebuild - not knock the factories etcthemselves down.

  • I didn't know that Rod Stewart can suck that much...

  • Comment removed

  • Listen to Shane do it.

  • Hey hello,

    "Dirty Old Town" is a song written by Ewan MacColl. 25 January 1915 - 22 October 1989) was a British folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was the father of singer/songwriter Kirsty MacColl. MacColl was born as James Henry Miller in Broughton, Salford, Lancashire. Relocated to Stratford London.

  • Jesus Christ, I could do better version of this song. As already suggested, go listen to the Pogues' version.

  • @tml4873 thanks for your insightful, and obviously absolute, opinions. If indeed this is the worst performance of this song you have heard ... move the FUCK ON. Why waste your time?

    To equate Rod Stewart to Beiber shows your:

    A) Total Bias

    B) Total Lack of Music Knowledge

    C) Total Lack of Class

    You like Pogues' version better, so be it. You like the Pogues, so be it.

    In his introduction, Rod does more than enough to explain why he chose to sing it. So FUKK right off.

  • @jinx21fan I'm sorry I offended you. I hope you are not still crying. Ironically, you commit all the offenses you accuse me of... lack of "Music Knowledge", "Lack of Class" (why are these capitalised?), bias...? I didn't compare Stewart to Beiber, which you'd know if you could read or had a functioning brain. I was merely illustrating that popularity has nothing to do with quality. I can't help if you can't tell the difference. I suggest you go back to wanking off to your Rod Stewart CD.

  • @jinx21fan Personally I prefer the Pogues version too but you are right there is no need to argue over that. Rod's introduction to the song simply shows up his own lack of musical knowledge though. As he is himself an English born son of a Scot you'd think he'd know that Ewan McColl was also an English born son of Scottish parents and not "an Irish folk singer" as he claims! McColl was the father of the British folk revival so we are not talking about an obscure figure. Rod doesn't seem to

  • Ewan Macoll was British not Irish!

  • ENGLISH SONG NOT IRISH!

  • @goodier100 he had scottish parents so its not horrifically english...what is english...a mancunian is different to a stockbroker from the surrey downs lol

  • Rod does a good job but he sings it to smooth

  • ewan mccoll is english

  • @conordoolan or scottish , not irish though many of his songs have been adopted into irish folk singers repertoire, this isn't all that bad, he needs ronnie wood to kick him up the hole

  • very sad, some things should be left unsung. Great song but absolutley butchered in the most neo insip mincy way what a fag.....

  • This guy has no business playing this song nor singing it like THAT. YEUCH

  • Sorry Guys ... I'm a Frenchie girl :x BUT the best is the original with all the feelings from an Irishman !

    I love you Irish people : you are the proudest people I know !

    I never forget this song and the horror of the Bloody days you had to suffer ...

  • @Paradocksx I can sing it to ye with more passion than Rod he's a scot anyway! There still coming to terms with the bag-pipes we gave them centuries ago as a joke ;-) I'm proud but not arrogant, I love France and the Frenchie girls are not bad either ;-)

  • @sherp2u1 : I would like hearing ya with a lot of pleasure . In any way, Im a music addict, also you know where you can write me ;-)

    Free and Freedom !!!

  • @Paradocksx Would ye now? Actually how other than on here? It's a bit public and impersonal ;-\

  • @sherp2u1 shut up you twat rod has passion and heart sa for the pipes if you can play them then well then diss them if u can shut the frek up tou twazuk

  • @Paradocksx Hello, Maybe it is not worth making the point but the writer of this song was born in Salford Lancashire. It is about Salford in Lancashire, England. Does it really matter where you come from? I would have thought what matters is what is in your heart. 

  • @jimboofharrock Of course you are right. Someone should have told Rod Stewart that mind. Stewart himself was born in England but had a Scots father. Just as Ewan was born in England from Scots parents. At the start of this clip Stewart describes MacColl as an Irish folk singer! The song was on one of Stewart's early albums. If someone partly Scottish who's actually recorded the song can't get it right what hope for the rest of us :-)

  • @gaconnochie Cheers Gaconnochie and good luck with the music.

  • @Paradocksx song written by a scotsman in manchester england lol

  • Hey jinx21fan - well said man. But waste your time on the dickheads. Rod is a legend.

  • Hey goofs, if you don't like it,don't watch. Rod Stewart has contributed more to music and art than all your hate combined can undermine.

    Never once has Rod said his version has exceeded an original, in fact he has stated that his is just a version of respect for the song and/or artist.

    I happen to like this version, in fact if it wasn't for Rod ... I'd never have heard of this song period. So praise the toothless wonders all you want, they can't dream of touching as many people as Stewart.

  • @jinx21fan Rod Stewart is awful, every single song he ever wrote or sang was absolute filth. The fact that he is somehow popular is no more to the point than the fact that Justin Beiber is somehow popular.

  • rod is not good as shane....sry rod.....

  • shit version....Shane is the king

  • shit version.....

  • Rod Stewart sucks alot... wtf is this for gay version

    watch the pogues ffs

  • Not bad..

  • He has turned in to barry friggin Manilow

  • Poor version..

  • Jimmy Miller,born in Salford England by Scottish parents.

  • ouch,this version hurts.luke would be spinning in his grave.

  • This is realy verry fucking bad, you Rotten Seward

  • how can anyone say they dident like that like come on and yess the song is from englan BUTTTT it is big and always was big with irish people and i no this bc i am irish my self and i grow up with this song

  • blijven oefenen .............

  • pitiful, that voice was in bad need of a rest that night.

  • its irish in that it was more popular in ireland and they stole it

  • its true hetrodoxly we adopteded it lol

  • his ties. naebody or money can change that.on yigo.hail!hail!

  • great cover... he really brings the folk element out.

    SHANE MACGOWAN AND ROD STEWART DUET?????!!!!!!!!

  • Super Rod.............best!!!!

  • written by a Scottsman who lived in the Salford area as a kid.. The origional sung by Ewan Mcall has been around forever and has been sung by just about everyone.. I am not a Rod Stewart fan but I think he did a very good job with it..Some of you lot need to get a life!!

  • @bcleggy Here Here

  • I'm not really a RS fan, but I really like this. I think he's being very authentic in choosing this one. I like it.

  • sounds good as always, it´s a good song wheter or it´s the Dubliners, The pouges or Rod.

  • fuck off Stew wart your shite!

  • Well done rod thats how to fucking kill a song

  • too fuckin sweet sounding,it;s about life in a grimey industrial town and it not meant to sound sentimental,more like a lament.

  • When you've married a succession of super models and travel in your own private jet, this song no longer resonates.

  • You absolute goofs, spew your hatred elsewhere. Rod is not trying to claim this song, he is in fact paying honour to the great Ewan classic. You young pieces of no it all shit, your opinion matters not. In your pathetic lives, you shall never taste a tenth of the success Rod has. So spew your anger elsewhere, we see it for what is ... pathetic self loathing.

  • Please Rod stick to what ur best at.... and its not this. As a Dublin man this reminds me of my granny singing a guns and roses number

  • @jayyy25 - Whats Dublin have to do with this? Its about Salford . . . . which is a shitty old town, but it doesn't sound quite as poetic . . . . .

  • Rod, you cunt. You could fuck up a wet dream. Piece of shit doesn't even come close enough. Go sing Maggie May ya cockbag.

  • its funy to watch some one try an sing about some shite they got no experience with ya like Rod has some clue what Irish por is about

  • @JoeWeeksey -lol this gets funnier, it's not an Irish song, try again . . . . .

  • Hey, if you want my body AND you think I'm sexy...

    Slap me in the face and tell me to sit down.

    Thanks,

    Rod Stewart

  • WTF!!!

  • Can't believe a Scot like Rod said Ewan McColl was Irish! I think irish bands like The Pogues have made the song more famous, but McColl was English, with Scottish (!!) parents and and a touch of Irish in him.

    Great, great song though, sung well\

  • shANE MACGOWAN RUNS TH SHOW !!!!!

  • Luke Kelly sings the best version by far

  • Love it <3

  • this song was written by ewan McColl About a city next to manchester called Salford!

  • @Bardo1231 its my towon glasgow we are the people

  • who cares who wrote the song,im going to see rod in july at the secc,rod is the the no 1 hoops fan

  • Ewan McColl was born in England to Scottish parents and ur right he did write this song so where the hell did u get Shane MacGowen from I think Rod Stewart would know u idiot!!!!

  • Who did he call the song writer? It's Shane MacGowen, Rod !!!!!

  • Idiot. Shane obviously isn't the songwriter.

  • It was definitely written by Ewan MacColl in 1949.... Not Shane MacGowen.

  • Right. Written by Ewan McColl . Another fantastic tune he wrote is "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" about his lovely wife, Peggy Seeger.

    Peace,

    Rev Busker

  • The song is 100% about Salford, England.

    The Dubliners, Rod Stewart and the Pogues all did a fantastic versions. The truth is that the lyrics and sentiments can apply to many areas.

  • Theres nobody as good as Luke Kelly, God bless him, RIP........

  • love it !

  • I'm pretty sure Ewan McCol was Scottish, not Irish.

  • Rod, dinnae touch a Magic song m8, its Shanes!

  • @woodyfurball: Shane, dinnae touch a Magic song m8, its Ewan MacColl's.

  • doesnt matterv where he was born

    I smelt the spring on a Salford wind is correct and all those irish attempts to steal it r bollox its an english song about an english city by an english song writer

  • he's born in London that makes him ENGLISH

    YOU DICKHEAD he can be half Scottish but if born in England your English . and what the fook is wrong with that the half wit racist cares !!!!! I don't !!!

  • fair play, decent cover. always loved rod's voice

  • Never thought he could sing now I am sure he needs Guitar lessons.

  • cheers rod you have made me love the pogues even more :D

    listenin to your version just makes me realise that your crap and the pogues are amazing :P

    sorry rod fans lol ;) x

  • It gets worse for poor Rod. You should listen to the Pogues' blazing version of Maggie May

  • whats funny is this song is actually written about Salford, an English town

  • the song is much better from the pogues ... that is my opinion ...

  • ps rod ewan was born in salford

    but a nice rendition

  • holy this version sucks balls. go watch the pogues or Luke do it better

  • @horsesflu

    He might feel it, but he can't deliver it. Pogues version is much much better.

  • @horsesflu Dirty Old town should never have been sung like that,  so so lame. You are totally right< Shane is the man

  • Rod Stewart

    is English ! deal with it Rod you bellend

  • Hes scottish ya prick stain!! btw this version is shite!! luv rod but this version really is shite Luke Kelly is so much better!!!

  • DIRTY OLD TOWN

    ROD STEWART

    (Ewan McColl)

    Found my love by the gaswork croft

    Dreamed a dream by the old canal Kissed my girl by the factory wall

    Dirty old town, dirty old townI heard a siren from the dock

    Saw a train set the night on fireSmelled the spring on the sulfured wind

    Correct lyrics for this version people?

    OF COURSE...now if you dont mind i shall be wrapping up other discussions that i am correct in without bothering about popele mishearing lyrics

  • where have you got these Lyrics from, web address please? i understand rods accent perfectly well he's not changed the words. and what idiot would write "sulfured wind"? i assume you mean sulphured? (not only can't you spell you must have very poor pronunciation) he would have used "smoky wind" like other covers

    i look forward to you reply.

  • OK whatever...

    as youtube wont let me write the full address you'll need to search on the following:

    songlyrics(.com)

    metrolyrics(.com)

    lyricsfreak(.com)

    musicsonglyrics

    mp3lyrics(.org)

    lyricsplayground(.com)

    and countless others...remember your searching for the rod version...as the pogues and some others do sing smoky

  • also....theres two ways of spelling sulfured, you really should check stuff out before posting

  • He pronuncis it Sal-ford not sul.

  • or even pronounces

  • He "pronuncis" it sulfured...sul-fured (which i see you refused to comment on the 2 spellings....)

  • I also see no comment of how all those lyric websites got it wrong too, perhaps i should visit hetrodoxly(.com)'s lyric site...im sure they'll say its Salford...

  • I've not checked any websites because i know the words to the song, and as soon as you wrote he was brought up in Glasgow i knew you were a bull shitter, he says sal not sol your obviously not very good with cockney.

  • What a twat.

  • not rod's best. by now he must have forgotten where he came from. it's life.

  • Not his best ..true, he was born in Lndon but considers himself Scottish, and he sings this about Glasgow where he was mostly brought up., look at the stage, its a massive Glasgow Celtic FC badge, and im pretty sure theres some tartan there somewhere there usually is...so no...he's never forgotten where he came from

  • ok, don't get me wrong, I like Rod.

  • You've just made that up? he's one of the few people who've covered it that sing the original words, "Smelled the spring on the Salford wind" so it ain't about Glasgow is it.

  • Of course i made it up..it was all a big joke...like your lyrics, the actual lyrics are:

    "Saw a train set the night on fire, Smelled the spring on the sulfured wind "

    So i'll accept your apology and yes now we can also accept he is singing about Glasgow

  • You don't even know the words to the song, i can assure you Jimmy Miller who lived in Salford, writ the song for a play about Salford and sings Salford, but surely if rod was singing about his home town the place he grew up in and knew, it would be London? apology accepted.

  • i mean how stupid can you get....listen to 0:08 onwards....Ewan McColl wrote it...did you even watch the video?...fool, and heres the CORRECT lyrics for you at the follwoing websites...search it i dare you:

    songlyrics

    AND

    metrolyrics

    AND!!..

    musicsonglyrics

    and a million more

    uh huh....your wrong

  • lol, Ewan McColl was his stage name i knew him as jimmy, (Jimmy Miller) i have listened and he sings the original words,

    Smelled the spring on the sal-ford wind, your probably having difficulty with his cockney accent.

  • Amongst his other well-known songs is "Dirty Old Town", about his home town of Salford in Lancashire. It was written to cover an awkward scene change in his play "Landscape with Chimneys" (1949),

  • I don't have to search anything i already know i've been a big fan of Jimmy's for many years, you are the worse type of idiot, you know nothing but continue to argue

    The song was written in reference to Salford, a city in Lancashire, England, and the place where Ewan MacColl was brought up. When he first wrote the song, the local council were unhappy at having Salford called a dirty old town

  • Okay, your a close personal friend of ewan MacColl's now?...he was Jimmy a minute ago was he not?, this is irrelevant yet agin, are we not talking about the ROD STEWART version...the one i posted all those lyrics to you, where he sings SUL-FURED wind...about GLASGOW...your impossible, you dont seem to realise i dont care about the other versions, this is the comment zone for this version...the SUL-FURED wind version

  • I've just noticed more of your fantasy stuff, he never lived in Glasgow and was an avid Arsenal supporter until he became famous.

  • Inc ase you hadn't noticed id mentioned the Arsenal thing a while back, catch up son.

    Back to the original topic...ROD is singing about GLASGOW, if youd bothered going to 1 of his concerts and watche dthe big screen while he sings it while photos/videos of glasgow and celtic play then you'd know that....anyhow im bored of this game toodle oo

  • People are so uninformed about every thing! then ignorantly argue aggghhhhhh!!! MORONS!!!!

  • and it wasn't the 1st song he ever recorded - he didn't do it 'til about '69...Up above my head - a b-side, was the 1st time his voice was heard on record, '63 - loadsa demo's after that then Jeff Beck - loved Rod since early '70'S - and he didn't go Vegas he left for LA. shame he can't remember his own history and btw 'SALFORD WIND - manchester...

  • Not Irish. Ewan MacColl was born of Scottish parents in Manchester. Don't diss Rod Stewart cos he wrote a lot of good stuff in the early days before he went Las Vegas. This is a more authentic rendition than some... It's not a singalong or a pop song, it's quite a melancholic social commentary.

  • He has the words a bit wrong, this doesnt work , sorry rod ......

  • sorry rod luke kelly blows you out of the water.

  • the pogeus version is alot better there a great band rod stewart is a dick and sucks

  • Lovely Irish music. Just seen/heard thgis tune from The Pogues . Rod has more teeth ... more enjoyable ,)

  • It's not Irish, it's about Salford near Manchester England.

  • @hetrodoxly And Ewan McColl was Scottish.

  • @gaspode18

    Jimmy Miller was born in Salford Nr manchester England.

  • @hetrodoxly He thought of himself as Scottish (and his parents were Scottish) and that's good enough for me.

  • @gaspode18

    You no nothing about the man.

  • lol too nice singin for this song Rod, it doesn't sound dirty or old at all!

  • well said!

  • just been over to tenerife and to see rod stewart,i love rod ,but not this one pouges or me on karaoke but not rod for this one,he would need to speed it up

    tony bollington

  • why does Rod say Ewan was an Irish singer lol,

    English born, Scottish ancestry.

    MORE IMPORTANTLY - Does it matter?

  • やっぱり、歌 が上手だ、ロッド君。

  • what an insult to this great song.

    The song was written by the father of Kirsty MaColl who sang Fairytale of New York with The Pogues. Kirsty was tragicaly

    killed in a water ski accident

  • is maith liom

  • Anyone seen the play it is written for?

  • euan mcoll

  • phil coulter wrote this song ya bolox

  • Ian McColl did, I believe....

  • I'd be carefull about who you call a bollox, ya ill in formed bollix!

  • I read your profile Brian Kasey, and yes i can confirm, you are a complete and utter bollox, be informed before you comment on You aTube video, you give Irish people a bad name, did you ever think of moving to England? I would gladly subsidise your air / boat fair!

  • It's bad, but what has it got to do with Race?

    Is this all you have left? Who sings what?

    In which accent?

    let that chip on your shoulder fall to the ground, Paddy. Leave the past behind.Your years out of date,and you keep the hate & the killing alive.

  • aw here thats awful

    leave it to us irish please

  • Rod is a star and has sold millions of records but this is pure crap and he is only in the Halpenny place when compared to the genius of Luke Kelly.

  • worse cover EVER

  • May I say an english accent does not make you Irish or a scot.

    We prefer paddys irish to the queens english.

    Thats life makes us who we are different!!

  • I'm Irish and Scots-Irish and I have a southern accent, my ancestory comes from my heart.

  • you like in coo coo land

  • As i say Jimmy millerr???? i honestly didnt know that was his real name, i did know he was so badly wanted by the authourities that he went by several names, oh well you learn something new every day.

  • theres something universal about this song, i think everyone should cover it

  • Sorry, Rod -- I like your music, but the Pogues have it all over you, especially on this one. But I wouldn't expect Shane MacGowan to sing "Maggie May" either.

  • not in the same leagues as the pogues as much as i love rod.

  • too soft..

  • Rod Stewart covered this song long before The Pogues. Their version is great, but listen to Rod's cover on his debut album from 1969 and then see what you think. It is fantastic. Rod was on top form at that point in time.

  • This land was always ours

    Was the proud land of our fathers

    It belongs to us and them

    Not to any of the others

    Let them go, boys

    Let them go, boys

    Let them go down in the mud

    Where the rivers all run dry

  • the pogues any day of the week sorry rod hole

  • the pogues every time. this is just awful

  • Rod covered that song back in 1969 for the "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" Album.

  • Worst version of Dirty Old Town Ive heard.

  • I'll agree with ya there....jnot only is it bad but it doesn't sound right an English person singing it...