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The greatest Irish song of all time

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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,067 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    AlanG wrote: »
    Any number of Shane McGowans songs will last long into history - Turkish Song of the Damned, Fairytail of New York and Rainy Night in Soho are masterpieces. The Body of an American being a major part of one of the greatest TV shows of all time (The Wire) will ensure it is sung at funerals throughout America for years to come.
    Best of all is probably The Sickbed of Cuchulainn.

    That'll be sung at christmas for decades to come, long after most songs here are forgotten.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso



    Technically that’s Scottish/Australian.

    I’d go with Old Town by Phil Lynott.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,193 ✭✭✭bullpost


    That's correct. They're as Irish as they are otherwise I suppose. Scott now lives in Dublin and has for years. The rest are Irish. They've had some success in general but I'd imagine they identify closer to these shores. If they have a sway toward hailing from Ireland, then I'm going with that one.

    Whatever about the later stuff, there's nothing Irish about The Whole of the Moon.


  • Registered Users Posts: 573 ✭✭✭gigantic09


    AlanG wrote: »
    Any number of Shane McGowans songs will last long into history - Turkish Song of the Damned, Fairytail of New York and Rainy Night in Soho are masterpieces. The Body of an American being a major part of one of the greatest TV shows of all time (The Wire) will ensure it is sung at funerals throughout America for years to come.
    Best of all is probably The Sickbed of Cuchulainn.

    Agree that McGowan was a genius song writer. Hopefully the fact that all those songs titles are foreign ie Turkey, London newyork won't bar him from the discussion :).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,262 ✭✭✭Baron Kurtz


    bullpost wrote: »
    Whatever about the later stuff, there's nothing Irish about The Whole of the Moon.

    Okay. We'll just leave it so.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,130 ✭✭✭Silentcorner


    Zombie - The Cranberries, is by virtue of its global penetration, the biggest Irish song of all time, it has over 1 billion youtube hits, if you include all versions of it.

    It's mad to think of it really, there are very few hits from that era that has anywhere close to that, there isn't one song from the britpop era, or the 80s or 90s that can equal it....when you think about it, even if you don't like the track, that is very impressive!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,667 ✭✭✭Hector Bellend


    We don't need nobody else - Whipping Boy
    Hole of the Moon - The Waterboys
    Speed to my side - Rollerskate Skinny

    I dunno if they even count in the manner the OP wants it, but they do to me.

    Oh my god.

    This is the best typo I've ever seen in my WHOLE life.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,592 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    Lorelli! wrote: »
    How can you not like the lyrics "two heads are better than none. One hundred heads are so much better than one" :) only messing.

    Everybody likes Teenage Kicks!

    Yeah the lyrics are weirdly funny but compared to some of the others here a bit lacking :p

    I forgot how much of a rocking tune teenage kicks is


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,667 ✭✭✭Hector Bellend




    These guys should be superstars.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,262 ✭✭✭Baron Kurtz


    Oh my god.

    This is the best typo I've ever seen in my WHOLE life.

    That was pretty pathetic :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,914 ✭✭✭✭castletownman


    I see the Furey's mentioned earlier, and I think that they are responsible for two more all-time classics: The Old Man and When You Were Sweet Sixteen.

    Incredibly moving and indicative of that genre of music that has so many of our diaspora pining for home. I for one well up every time I hear The Old Man sung live.

    In terms of global success, it's hard to look beyond Zombie and Fairytale of New York, and your pick of U2 songs. But whether success=greatest is a separate issue.

    For me "Irish" constitutes traditional sort of music etc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,324 ✭✭✭.red.


    Zombie - The Cranberries, is by virtue of its global penetration, the biggest Irish song of all time, it has over 1 billion youtube hits, if you include all versions of it.

    It's mad to think of it really, there are very few hits from that era that has anywhere close to that, there isn't one song from the britpop era, or the 80s or 90s that can equal it....when you think about it, even if you don't like the track, that is very impressive!

    A lot of Irish people don't realise how big a band The Cranberries actually were. They were selling out big venues like our 02 in Asia and South America, but filling the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in their home country.
    Outside of Ireland they wouldnt be as big as U2, but would easily be the 2nd largest Irish band of all time.
    The YouTube viewing figures aren't all that surprising from a band that sold 40million records.


    The top Irish song for me would probably be Zombie or Put em Under Pressure, very different songs and for very different reasons.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,409 ✭✭✭AlanG


    .red. wrote: »
    A lot of Irish people don't realise how big a band The Cranberries actually were. Outside of Ireland they wouldnt be as big as U2, but would easily be the 2nd largest Irish band of all time.
    .
    Second largest band but Enya is far more successful, selling about twice as many records as the Cranberries - yet you almost never hear her played on the radio in Ireland.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,064 ✭✭✭sicknotexi


    With or Without you,Where the Streets have no Name or Bad from U2. Not Even a big U2 fan but their quality is undeniable.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭Amalgam


    AlanG wrote: »
    Second largest band but Enya is far more successful, selling about twice as many records as the Cranberries.

    People take the piss, but the likes of Orinoco Flow was a huge slow burner for her, if you're in some remote South American Village or the Middle East, the likelyhood is that Enya will be better known than the rest!

    The stats for the her albums and single are just.. impressive.

    Gilbert O'Sullivan would be another submarine artist, you might not have his name at the tip of your tongue for the domestic market, but he was huge overseas.

    I remember the NME would take the piss royally out of him, nasty nasty stuff, but he's outlived them, so there's that..


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND




  • Registered Users Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    Gilbert O’Sullivan is a terrific songwriter. Alone Again Naturally is one the saddest and most poignant songs I’ve ever heard, though I’d probably prefer the rough version by Christy Dignam to the original.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,785 ✭✭✭CrowdedHouse


    Gone Forever - Cry before Dawn


    Seven Worlds will Collide



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    Yeah the lyrics are weirdly funny but compared to some of the others here a bit lacking :p

    I forgot how much of a rocking tune teenage kicks is

    Isn't teenage kicks about struggling with the one eyed trouser python?


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,097 ✭✭✭piplip87


    Suspect device still little fingers


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    Amalgam wrote: »
    People take the piss, but the likes of Orinoco Flow was a huge slow burner for her, if you're in some remote South American Village or the Middle East, the likelyhood is that Enya will be better known than the rest!

    The stats for the her albums and single are just.. impressive.

    Gilbert O'Sullivan would be another submarine artist, you might not have his name at the tip of your tongue for the domestic market, but he was huge overseas.

    I remember the NME would take the piss royally out of him, nasty nasty stuff, but he's outlived them, so there's that..


    And The Fugees sampled her!


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,874 ✭✭✭selectamatic




  • Registered Users Posts: 13,575 ✭✭✭✭josip




  • Registered Users Posts: 9,847 ✭✭✭py2006




  • Posts: 0 Liam Full Sweeper


    Ronan Keating - A Fairytale of New York


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,496 ✭✭✭irishgrover


    Gone Forever - Cry before Dawn



    that album cover reminds me of that time in fashion where the big debate was which was cooler, a demin jacket or a leather jacket..... and it was only resolved when people realised, my god we can wear both at the same time...and then that became a thing..


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,631 ✭✭✭Doctor Jimbob


    Ronan Keating - A Fairytale of New York

    Reported.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,366 ✭✭✭Star Bingo


    The New Radicals - Life is a rollercoaster


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,555 ✭✭✭Roger Hassenforder


    Bad by U2 has fantastic memories.

    Irish college...Ceann Trá....red headed girl from Tralee...



    ...I've something in my eye BRB...


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  • Registered Users Posts: 505 ✭✭✭zanador


    Zombie - The Cranberries, is by virtue of its global penetration, the biggest Irish song of all time, it has over 1 billion youtube hits, if you include all versions of it.

    !

    If we're going by global penetration then U2 would have bigger songs than Zombie, I'd think?


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