Two years ago today, the great Tommy Makem, the Irish folk singer whose voice has a place of high honor on the soundtrack of my life to date, died at age 74.
In Tommy’s honor, I thought I’d post a few videos of his live performances over the years decades. The first clip above is of “Brennan on the Moor,” one of my favorites, sung by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem at their reunion concert in 1984. The second clip above is of “Four Green Fields,” the great Irish nationalist ballad composed by Tommy himself, performed by Makem & Clancy (i.e., Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy) in 1983.
Immediately below are two clips I’d never seen before, though they’re from an occasion I’m well aware of: the March 12, 1961 “Ed Sullivan Show,” which launched Tommy and the Clancies to national fame. The first clip is of (again) “Brennan on the Moor” and “Balliderry”; then come “The Rising of the Moon” and “Portlairge”:
Much more after the jump.
Here’s another Ed Sullivan Show appearance, five years later in 1966, featuring “The Nightingale” and “Johnson’s Motor Car”:
I love “Johnson’s Motor Car” — though this recording leaves out the crucial word of the song’s best line (“to HELL with your English permit, we want your motor car!”), presumably because of the CBS censors. Heh. How quaint!
Additional Ed Sullivan Show clips of the boys can be found here and here.
More than a decade later, here are Makem & Clancy singing another one of my favorites, “The Mermaid,” in 1977:
Seven more years later, here’s another favorite, “The Irish Rover,” from the reunion concert in 1984:
I should note that “Brennan on the Moor,” “The Mermaid,” and “The Irish Rover” are three of the songs I most frequently sing to my daughters. 🙂 I’ve also been known to occasionally sing “Four Green Fields” and “Johnson’s Motor Car,” but I’ve kept those ones to a minimum since Loyette was a tiny baby, lest she show up at preschool someday shouting “To Hell with your English permit!” or “Three cheers for the I.R.A.!”, or disturbing the other kids with visions of “war and death, plundering and pillage,” and children starving, wailing and bleeding to death. Heh.
Anyway, back to the videos. From much, much, much later — sometime in the 2000s — here are the Makem and Spain Brothers, with “special guest” Tommy, singing yet another one of my favorites, “Rambles of Spring”:
Going back in time again now, here are all the boys, singing “The Holy Ground” in 1967:
Here they are on Pete Seeger’s show sometime in the mid-’60s, singing “The Wild Rover”:
And, in 1962, “Roddy McCorley”:
Finally, to properly finish off this tribute, here’s “The Parting Glass” from 1977:
P.S. Liam Clancy — lead vocalist in the above video of “The Parting Glass,” and the last member of the original foursome still living — is reportedly ill. (Hat tip: Mudcat.) Here’s hoping there won’t be a need for yet another tribute anytime soon.
P.S. This probably doesn’t belong in the post proper, but here is a YouTube clip of a song Makem wrote for a Gulf Oil commercial: “Bringin’ Home the Oil.” Heh. Even when he was being a whore, he and the Clancies could sure belt it out! 🙂
I was pleased to learn that you had taken Becky to hear Tommy Makem in concert. He was always a member of our extended family, and she got to meet him, so to speak.
Mom
oxo
Wow.
A fine & remarkable tribute, Brendan.
I was startled to see that it’s fully 2 years gone since Tommy passed. Somehow feels much more recent, to me. Dunno why exactly. Maybe it’s that he seems still Present. Ever-present. “Though all the bright dreamings we’d cherished / Went down in disaster and woe / The spirit of old still is with us / And never will bend to the Foe.” ~ from “Men of the West”
Tommy played the banjo & the bodhrain & of course the ould Tin whistle ;], not the Fiddle & he wasn’t from Sligo but when I think of the bard of Armagh, good ol’ Billy Yeats ;} still works for Me:
When I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Moharabuiee.
I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair.
When we come at the end of time,
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on the three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance:
And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With ‘Here is the fiddler of Dooney!’
And dance like a wave of the sea.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
As you noted, Liam Clancy has been struggling with serious illness – but as of July 20 at least he was well enough to post on his Messageboard his affectionate & amusing reminiscences of high old times with the recently-deceased Frank McCourt.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
And, the Spirit of old still IS with us — refreshed & renewed by a younger generation which Keeps the Faith and Innovates as well. For (as you also noted in the “Rambles of Spring” entry) Sarah Makem’s son has sons, who carry on brilliantly together with their soulmates the Spain brothers; and The Clancy Legacy, too, is kept alive & kicking, not only by the lovely & talented Aoife ;} but also by her robust-voiced brother Finbarr, children of the late great Bobby Clancy; AND by the fine guitar work of Liam’s son Donal, who joins with his cousins Aoife and Robbie O’Connell as “The Clancy Legacy” linked above.
So now, in lieu of “The Parting Glass” which you already posted by Liam, here’s his nephew Finbarr of The High Kings and don’t the four of ’em don the ould Aran fishernet sweaters as a ClancyMakem tribute — for to perform your old Bedtime song, Brendan :).