Richard Thompson & David Byrne - Dirty Old Town
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- I met my love by the gas works wall
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
Spring's 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
I Smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I'm gonna make me a big sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
I'll chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
Dirty old town
It's nice to see ol' Richard "educating" David Byrne! Two of my greatests heroes on the same stage at the same time
Good man Richard,acoustic unplugged.More of this genre should be pursued...
According to the Google machine, An Acoustic Evening with David Byrne and Richard Thompson, recorded live at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity, Brooklyn Heights on March 24th, 1992, CD released the same year.
The song is about courting a girl in Salford which was at the time a very smoky dirty industrial city. The gas yard croft is a bit of spare ground in front of the gas works. There was nowhere very romantic to take a girl in Salford so a walk down the canal tow path would be a reasonable option. Many factories were built along the canal banks.
This is one of my favorite and first versions ever heard of this song.
Written by accident. Theatre Workshop were doing a version of "Romeo Juliet" based in Salford and were five minute short for a scene change so Joan Littlewood asked Ewan MacColl (her then husband) to write another song to fill the gap. By such accidents are classics born.
Many thanks for posting - two of my heroes that I never expected to see together singing this! I live across the canal from Salford and the song gets sung regularly still in the pubs. Some ignorant comments though..
great song to hear and to play
@andytownboy It should be "gaswork's croft" but various people have changed it for some reason. An early Clancy version has it "where the gaslight falls"
Dunno if it was the Pogues or the Dubliners who first screwed up the first line, but they've a lot to answer for. Croft. Croft! CROFT!!!!! It ain't hard.
The opening line is "gaswork's croft" as written by Ewan MacColl and sung here by RT. It's the Pogues who screwed up the opening line.
Folk music is meant to evolve. Lyrics rarely remain as they were first written and what's more it's not important.
Great song
"It's the Pogues who screwed up the opening line" They can screw up anything
GOING OUT TONIGHT, TO MY GOOD FRIEND, JIM SOUTAR.
@djangolad Folk music does evolve and there are many versions of various traditional tunes. Though this isn't a traditional tune. The words were sang incorrectly whilst the songwriter was still alive and kicking. I imagine the Dubliners simply made a mistake when singing gasworks wall and others learned the mistake from them. It is a big mistake though as it takes the song away from its roots. The 'gasworks croft' was a real place.
where and when WAS this? Excellent
Thought this was Dirty Old Town from Rei Momo
Same! I was curious, because I don't think DB has performed material from 'Rei Momo' live that much (if at all) since the 'Uh-Oh' days. Hopefully those songs find their way back to his live sets in the future, though!
I liked Byrne's singing better than Thompson's, but Thompson is a great guitarist.
I suspect it was less a mistake than the fact that they didn't know what a 'croft' was - it is a Lancashire word, after all.
You obviously are not familiar with Thompson's music.
@BerlinerStadtschloss Who are you to judge?
If you call that "music", the poo of my cats is a great piece of art.
6 years and no likes for that comment
@@MilesBellas 9 in the meantime. A real idiot - eating cat poo all day long
This guy Thompson should take singing lessons - got a voice like a dust-bin !!!
listen closer i say - he had humble beginings vocally, but has matured into a real singer.
check out his magnum opus - beeswing