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Rating: What does blues have to do with Ireland, I ask? What was this whole '80s craze of mixing Celtic with Afro, the moorlands with the cotton fields, beer with whiskey? Just a question of trends? And so U2 would come up with American-style pieces, O'Connor was all the rage with a Prince ballad, the Scottish Waterboys were gaining Irish musical citizenship with what belonged to the fisherman, yes, but it was still Blues...
In 1988, another quirky formation made its debut (certainly not the Pogues, anyway), ready to reshuffle the poker deck within a pack from a public park. In this album, you'll grapple with a pop rock preacher, you'll encounter his wild gospel ("I'm Sorry") even though you'll curse the '80s because the track is too keyboard-driven; you'll tap your foot with rhythm and blues ("Love Don't Walk This Way" and "Feet On The Ground"); you'll be anointed thanks to a blues mélange, as essentially the Hothouse Flowers do for their ballad "Forgiven." Up till now, inevitably, there's the sensation of being faced with something already seen, already heard, assimilated millennia ago, whose addition of the famous Dublin pesto doesn't pass it off as a new dish. It's blues, it's spiritual, it's black.
However, the Irish sermons of these hallucinated preachers leave you puzzled (the dish, if it surprises you, do you like it or not?): halfway between all-Irish fundamentalism and the exuberance of a pastor from a Tennessee country chapel, Liam Ó Maonlaí and his band combine Radio MotherMary-like choruses with tracks of epic-Celtic structure, on which they graft saxophones and spiritual choirs at the end; they offer pieces almost always with a spoken intro, as if they all were "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love," in short, they combine all that "doesn't unite" the two lands into tracks that nevertheless follow a trend started years ago by other people and other compatriots.
This is the album of the interlocutory debut for the most famous band of buskers in those years in Ireland. Buskers perhaps because, not to say for playing, but in the streets of Dublin, preaching is better than in pubs.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 I'm Sorry (03:36)
This song tells exactly how, when I was, while I was
Sitting back on my deep pile reclining chair
Thinking about my life and all the good things that happened
Well it just came to mind to me that
Yeah came to mind to me that
I ain't been treatin her too bad...too well too well
No I been pushin' her 'round
And you know
There comes a time in every mans life when he's got to
Look over his misdemeanours, misgivings, misfortunes and
Miss Whatever her name is ha ha
I'm sorry I'm sorry
Yeah and say you're sorry, so I say, I'm sorry
'Cos I been telling you lies, standing on your face
I been making you cry all over the place Lord
I should have known (known) should've known better
Well I could not phone (phone) but I could
I'm sorry
You know I'm crazy sorry sorry sorry baby
I think it's time I realised get down on my knees
And apologise
Oh Lord
I didn't know when I hurt you
I didn't know when you cried
I didn't know when you screamed Lord
I didn't know when you stopped to cry
I didn't know when you called
I didn't know when you hurt
I didn't know sweet Mama
I didn't know I should
I am
I'm sorry
05 Hallelujah Jordan (03:07)
Hallelujah Jordan he went to the nearest bar
He ordered whiskey and soda
See how far he'd get to forgetting her
Yeah
Hallelujah Jordan went to the nearest bar
He ordered whiskey and soda
See how far he'd get to forgetting her
Yeah
He met her at an all night cafe
And they sat all night drinking coffee and talking
A and they found they had a lot in common
And later on they went back to his place and they sat 'till dawn
Laughing, talking yeah
They found they had a lot in common
He was young
He had a young spirit
They could have kissed all night
And he knew that he loved her yeah
He was young
He had a young spirit
They could have kissed all night
And he knew that he loved her yeah
But now you'll find Hallelujah Jordan
In some unknown late bar
Trying to tell strange folks his secrets and his problems yeah
Yeah you'll find Hallelujah Jordan in a late bar the ghetto
Wine stains on his belly and oh he'll tell ya...
How she was flattered by a smart young man
He drove a fast car and ooh ooh she want it
Hallelujah Jordan you can tell me your secrets
You can tell me your problems
I think I know what you mean...
Hallelujah Jordan you can tell me your secrets
You can tell me your problems
I think I know what you mean...
Now Hallelujah loves the bottle more brittle than her body
More brittle than the heart she'd broken yeah...
Now Hallelujah loves the bottle more brittle than her body
More brittle than the heart she'd broken yeah...
Hallelujah left this town
The next drink he had he drowned oh
Finally drowned his sorrows yeah
07 The Older We Get (04:45)
As a child touching age we think that it's so
That life love and everything is easy to know
The old, they can't reach us,
Their ways are not ours
Though the furrowed our futures
Our freedom they bore
The older we get the further we see
The more we mean to each other
The more you mean to me
I believe in these people
I believe in this age
Though I hear about torment in lifes lonely page
Yet still we walk strong
We'll remember we're free
For the truth we are given
For what we believe
The older we get the further we see
The more we mean to each other
The more you mean to me
I have searched out the answers
To the mysteries the laws
Though still I find barriers
Yet still I would fall
But I struggle on
The truth that I seek
But I must remain strong
For the lonely the weak the weak the old
The older we get the further we see
The more we mean to each other
The more you mean to me
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