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Brokeback Glen
Can someone please explain to me why so many men sing "Danny Boy"? It is a beautiful song, and sooo sentimental and mournful and hence, perfect for St. Patrick's Day. But it's a love song (a depressing-as-hell one, with lyrics like "If I am dead, as dead I well may be...and all my grave will warmer, sweeter be"), from a woman to a man. It just strikes me as funny when I see some burly Irish tenor cop singing sweetly "Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you soooo."
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From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
I always thought it was like a father professing his love for his son or something like that, but yer right. Sorta gay. ;-)
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If the official parade (the one down 5th Avenue) can have some man singing that, they can darn well allow the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization to march.
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the lyrics are attributed to Frederick Weatherly-but many wonder why and how an englishman could have written a song that is so important to the irish...there is a lot of debate about whether he actually wrote it. he did not write the music-it was set to another song called "londerry air"
many people think it is either a lament for simpler times or a song from father to son...
traditionally it is performed by men.
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I did know this--you'll find "Londonderry Air" with different lyrics in hymnals, sometimes. I believe it's in the Episcopal hymnal; I'll see if I can dig up the original lyrics.
traditionally it is performed by men.
That's the thing, it sits better in a man's voice than a woman's! Even though the lyrics (as I see it) are from a woman to a man--but it sounds best with a man's voice. I have a 3+ octave range, and I have a hard time placing it in my voice.