Black 47

I was listening to the car radio yesterday and stumbled across a channel on Sirius/XM that was playing Irish music, in honor of St. Patrick's Day. One of the songs played was "Funky Ceili," by Black 47, and it took me back about twenty-five years in a flash. Back then I was listening to Vin Scelsa on the radio and he often played them, and had them as guests on his show. Made up of Irish immigrants living in New York, they were one of the more popular groups that combined traditional Irish music with rock and roll.

There have been many Irish rock bands, most notably U2, but there is a special category, called Celtic rock, that consists of those that maintain their Irishness, taking the sound of a group like The Irish Rovers and adding electric guitar. In listening to a lot of Irish music yesterday I realized the instant tip-off is the use of uillean pipes, which is the Irish form of the bagpipes, and is the hallmark of any music designed to sound Irish, from Lucky Charm commercials to movies about the Irish or the Troubles, such as State of Grace.

Black 47 lasted for twenty-five years, playing live gigs in New York City and touring the world, but they also made quite a few albums. The one album I had was their second, Fire of Freedom, which was something of a concept album about the experience of being an Irish immigrant in New York. A song called "Livin' in America," sung from the point of a view of a woman working as a nanny and man working construction and their possible romance is a three-part through-line on the album. She sings, "Is that what my education was for? Wiping every baby's arse in America?"

The Irish depicted in the songs may complain about America, but it is understood that the alternative of staying in Ireland was worse. Larry Kerwin, one of the founders of the band, explains how he came to the United States in "Funky Ceili," when he impregnates his girl, Bridie, and her father tells him, "Castration, or a one-way ticket to New York.". "What could I do?" he laments to Bridie. But, as we all know, the Irish, no matter where they are, stay Irish, and so many of the songs are political in nature, exalting the proletariat and celebrating heroes such as James Connolly. The name Black 47 refers to 1847, the worst year of the Great Famine, which many Irish will tell you was not a famine at all, because there was a lot of food available. It was sent to England.

Performers like The Irish Rovers, Christy Moore, and rock bands such as The Pogues, the Dropkick Murphys, and Flogging Molly, kind of get trotted out every St. Patrick's Day. For a while Irish step-dancers were all the rage. But Irish music, as fun as it is, can't be listened to on an all-year-round basis. I think it's those pipes. After awhile they seem to be wiggling around in your head, and you just have to call a stop to it.