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In Concert (UK)

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  • In Concert
    • 1967 - CBS BPG 63070 (mono) & SBPG 63070 (stereo) LP (UK)
  • Side One
    1. Blackwater's Side (Liam Clancy)
    2. MacAlphine's Fuzilliers (Dominic Behan)
    3. Winds of Morning (Tommy Makem)
    4. Cockies of Bungaree
    5. William Bloat (Raymond Calvert - Arr. Adpt. Tommy Makem)
    6. Red-Haired Mary (Seán McCarthy)
  • Side Two
    1. Master McGrath
    2. Mick McGuire
    3. Peggy Gordon (Arr. Adpt. Peggy Seeger)
    4. In This Windy Old Weather (E. MacColl - S. Larner)
    5. March Medley — "Boys from the County Cork" & "Let Erin Remember"

  • The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
    • Pat, Tom & Liam Clancy & Tommy Makem
  • Credits
    • Produced by Teo Macero
    • Cover photo: CBS, Records Photo Studio/Don Hunstein
    • Recorded: March 18, 1967 — NYC
    • Arr. & Adap. by the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, unless otherwise noted.
  • Other releases include …

Sleeve Notes

From the stage of the auditorium, the people in the top balcony look very small. It's a long, long way up. In the middle of our first song one night, a fella up there lost his hat. The crowd cheered. It came tumbling down, balcony after balcony: "It's well your head wasn't in it!" someone shouted.

"God bless England," someone else called, seeing his chance at getting in a request.

"The Hell with England!" roared a guy in "the gods." Somebody offered us a beer from one of the expensive boxes — they had a case of it up there.

"God, the management will say we're a bunch of rowdies," I was thinking, they being used to symphonic orchestras and polite culture-seekers.

"Let's raise the roof on this place!" Tommie shouted. And off we go.

Every November and every March this roof-raising goes on. Seems to me it's been going on for years now, five or six anyhow. Most of the old favourites we sing there have been recorded by now, but the clear-running wells never seem to run dry. Songs, like jokes, seem to emerge endlessly from some underground source. For hundreds of years our gang have been pouring out songs about everything under the sun. They still are. And while ever we can sing for our supper or get anyone to join us in "the crack" as they say, we'll sing them.

So here's a bunch of new ones distilled from our last concert. Help us raise the roof with them.


BLACKWATER'S SIDE is a quiet song that I sing — kindly refrain from joining in. It's a conversation between two lovers overheard one morning on the banks of the River Blackwater in County Cork.

MacALPINE'S FUZILLIERS — When our fellas came to America, they became cops and politicians. But when they went to England, most of them became navvys or labourers. Someone once called us the Puerto Ricans of England. The Empire needed all us colonials to do the man's work. But now that we're emancipated and want a share of the wealth they're shocked. Frightful, what!? Some of these! people simply don't know their place!

WINDS OF MORNING was written by Tommy Makem on the New York subway, which always in spires him to make songs about mountains and sea and sweet, clean air.

COCKIES OF BUNGAREE — Since Paddy became a farmer, he's drawn to songs about the "hard life." The "Cockies" or "Cockatoo farmers" of Australia (we were down there a while back) are the poorest of the poor. They are so called because their main crop — an involuntary one — is the cockatoo — and you can't even eat the damn things. Even worse off than the "Cockie" is the travelling labourer who has to work for him.
(Arr. & Adap. by Liam, Tom and Pat Clancy and Tommy Makem)

WILLIAM BLOAT — "To Hell with the Pope," "No Surrender," "Hang King Billy" are familiar slogans in Belfast, a city where Protestants and Catholics man age to live together, leading highly Christian lives — hating each other passionately for the love of God. The song about William Bloat, a good Protestant, is really a commercial, one of the first, elabourate commercials for an Irish product (non-alcoholic). It's sung of course by Tommy Makem.
(Arr. & Adap. by Tommy Makem)

RED-HAIRED MARY is one of the delightful new songs coming hot out of the oven of big, bearded, good-natured tavern keeper Seán McCarthy, proprietor of the "Crubeen" pub in London for quite a while. I'm sure he's heard the makings of a lot of songs over the counter of his bar, and you're bound to hear more of them from us.

MASTER McGRATH was a greyhound who became an Irish national hero by beating an English bitch named "White Rose" and carrying back the coveted Waterloo Cup to Ireland three times. There's a big stone monument to him in the County Waterford. It's a hundred years since he chased the hare and yet his picture is still proudly displayed in half the pubs and barbershops of Ireland. The English sporting gentleman of the time couldn't believe there was anything on four feet that could beat "White Rose." The old broadside elabourates:

One of the gentlemen standing around
Said we don't give a damn for your Irish greyhound
And another he laughed with a scornful "Ha! Ha!
We'll soon humble the pride of your Master McGrath."

Then McGrath he looked up and he wagged his old tail
Informing his lordship "I know what you mean.
Don't fear noble Brownlow, don't fear them a gradh [my love]
I'll tarnish their laurels." says Master McGrath.

(Arr. & Adap. by Liam. Tom and Pat Clancy and Tommy Makem)

MICK McGUIRE — Tom holds forth on this, one of the rowdiest of all vaudeville songs.
(Arr. & Adap. by Liam, Tom and Pat Clancy and Tommy Makem)

PEGGY GORDON is a love song from Scotland. You can see the Scots' genius for making beautiful love songs wasn't limited to Burns.
(Arr. & Adap. by Peggy Seeger)

IN THIS WINDY OLD WEATHER was borrowed with thanks from Pete Seeger, the master of all Raise-the-Roof-ers. Tommy Makem leads the gang here.

MARCH MEDLEY consists of two tunes: "Boys From the County Cork" and "Let Erin Remember." The second is about the ancient glory of the Irish aristocracy, the first about a more recent difference of opinion with the "Black & Tans," England's improvised army sent over to deal with the "Irish Problem" after the 1916 Rebellion. But it's really not the wrongs of Ireland that make us play these tunes. I always know it's going to be another wild night when Paddy breaks out the harmonica and starts up the marches. The blood is up then. The small talk is over and the party is into its stride. The old Jameson Ten is working, the dancers line out, the Siege of Ennis and the Walls of Limerick are about to start. The first blast of fun is let loose — and that's where we leave you.
(Arr. & Adap. by Liam, Tom and Pat Clancy and Tommy Makem)

Liam Clancy