Liam Clancy - Dirty old town

I saw my love
By the gasworks croft,
Dreamed a dream
By the old canal,
I kissed my girl
By the factory wall,
Dirty old town,
Dirty old town.

Clouds are drifting
Across the moon,
Cats are prowling
On their beat,
Springs a girl
From the streets at night,
Dirty old town,
Dirty old town.

I heard a siren
From the docks,
Saw a train
Set the night on fire,
Smelled the spring
And the smokey wind,
Dirty old town,
D irty old town.

I'm going to make
A good sharp axe,
Shining steel
Tempered in the fire,
I'll chop you down
Like an old dead tree,
Dirty old town,
Dirty old town.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk

[vlikavec]

for you my friends ;D

[ianclivewright]

Disagree, laments should be slow, drifting aching clouds of love and regret, as harsh and old as the factory sirens screech across old sooted towns, the empty shell of youthful vigour.

Dirty old towns should be cold rooms, and icy loneliness, half remembered in quilt covered dreams, framed with the goosebump smiles of cloud tossed shades.

This should be slow, because memories are slow, fading streets and fading needs, no longer urgent, no longer ardent, but needed non the less.

[brianwalker2006]

why does one always have to be better? cant the slow ones and the fast ones be good? i like both to be honest !!!!!

[GERAINT17]

@maltavmalta Sounds nothing like Tommy. It's Liam

[maltavmalta]

@Dogote82 The original was written and performed by Ewan MacColl in 1949, and you can find it on Youtube. It is not that dissimilar from this version and the tempo is about the same.

[Dogote82]

@ianclivewright i am looking for a version just like you described but it is NOT by Liam. The voice sounds more like Tommy Makem but if he sings it i have yet to find it! seems like every version but this one is too fast and they shout the entire song :/

[Dogote82]

@maltavmalta who did the original version and is it on youtube? i have been searching for 8 yrs for a version LIKE this but the singer had a crooning voice more like Tommy Makem..

[maltavmalta]

This is close to the original version... but personalyy I like the later Luke Kelly version best. It has vigor and anger that just really seem to suit the lyrics, in my own opinion.

[vegasindigo]

@vlikavec The best version ever! RIP, LIam

[supsupese]

words cannot describe the feeling i get from this version

[macunfraidh]

This is my favourite version of this song. That F minor fall is brilliant.

[gaconnochie]

@thommo5701 They do mess about with trad songs but that isn't quite the same as song words being changed whilst the composer is alive and kicking! Mind Eric Bogle's words get mangled even more by various Irish bands covering his song "No Mans Land" which is often mistakenly called "Green Fields Of France" or "Willie McBride". I was in an audience when someone asked him if he minded the Irish bands singing the wrong words etc and he said "dinnae care as long as I get ma bloody royalties" :-)

[darkmark7732]

Another one! I like Liam but he sings this song like I'm being romanced by a green donkey! Shane MacGowan .....and or the Dubliners. R.I.P., Ronnie.