Christy Moore, box set secrets and stuff

"Shut up. yer bollocks, I'll pick my own feckin' songs"; a picture of the house in case Russell's worried about Lorcan.

My family, and other animals, have their ancestral wheelbarrow and china pig in Co Kildare, Ireland; a few miles from the homelands of Ireland's great Christy Moore of Newbridge.  I first saw Christy in the 70s, both with Planxty and on his own.  Most recently, I saw him at the Sage, in my neck of the woods, when the above quote was cheerfully hurled at a pissed (for Americans, read drunk) audience member who wouldn't stop yelling for Spancilhill; a fantastic gig.  Christy's solo recorded output has been, to be honest, somewhat patchy: when he hits the heights, great; live, he is as good as it gets.

A few years back, he released a box set of unreleased stuff;  I have been re-listening lately.  It contained gems galore, and reflected all sides of his various musical personas.  Politics has been a constant thread, and whilst I've never been able to connect with his republicanism too easily, this theme comes all too compellingly. Anne Lovett was a fifteen year old girl;secretly pregnant in the hidebound Catholic rural Ireland of 1984 she took herself off to give birth in a grotto of Our Lady.  In the words of the song, 'it was a sad, slow, stupid death for them both'.  There is a great live version in the box, but the original featured the beautiful voice of Sinead O'Connor:

mp3 Christy Moore: The Middle of the Island buy here

There are some genuine secrets on the box set, hidden in the last tracks.  One is a version of his account of the old DTs.  Christy was a fierce one for the stout on the old days...

mp3 Christy Moore: Delirium Tremens

And celebrating, sort of, the locality.

mp3  Christy Moore: The City of Chicago

Sometime around 1980ish, it's all a bit hazy from those days, I saw him with his old band Planxty and they turned Dylan's I Pity the Poor Immigrant into an Irish ballad.  Try this version, about which I know nowt. 

mp3 Christy Moore: I Pity the Poor Immigrant

Finally, a song about what seems to have been the national sport; while we're on the subject, read John McGahern's The Dark (indeed, read everything by him).

mp3 Christy Moore: Strangeways

Buy the box set here, and see the man live if at all possible.