Top 50 Irish Songs?
What think ye of this list compiled by Nicholas at MusicToDie for? His top 50 Irish songs are the latest in a long line of posts highlighting the Best Ofs. It’s a pretty comprehensive run-down of home-grown music spanning thirty years or so…do you agree with his choices? Who should be number one? Does it raise any concerns for you regarding cultural evolution? Let us discuss 
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
I think it’s a diverse and comprehensive list. Good to see stuff like Messiah J, and Cathy Davey (though I think The Collecter or No Heart today surpass All of You). I definitely would have included Ash, My Bloody Valentine, Bell X1, Jape, JJ72, Mic Christopher, Whipping Boy, and possibly Mundy…
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Yes, it goes across the scale : All Of You seems a kinda obvious signature CD track? I like The Collector and Mr Kill myself. On revision, I think the new/random mentions are tokenistic and could be picked up by reading any one issue of HP. They’re a few decent contemporary names which pad out a trad/folk dominated list reflecting the writer’s preference…absolutely fine but in which case, perhaps the list should have been the top 50 trad/folk songs and the writer indulges sincerely?
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
a bit meh to be honest…
for a top 50 irish songs list a lot of them are fairly to “just good” songs from the last 10 years or so, but then again isn’t that the point of these polls?
June 4th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Nah, if anything the point is that they’re one person’s opinion and that person really likes their trad and folk! Urgh, in thirty years we saw an end to the Troubles and the arrival of broadband yet it seems in the eyes of the world our music is still stuck in a Connemara bothy brewing poitin and beards…
June 4th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I stopped reading after “real instruments.” No seriously, it was a decent list, nice variety.
That first paragraph is whacked out though. “Maybe because there are so many frustrated poets and novelists around.” Yeah, all six of them!
June 5th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
The Immediate, anyone? i’m not sure what song i’d pick. If there’s talk of the like of JJ72 and the Kinetiks though, surely they’d deserve a mention.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am
MMM, nowadays frustrated poets are more likely to scrawl “hey hoo, here we goo, how long we get, no one knooows” in the Bridewell prison cells than the aul’ triangle on the Royal Canal.
This guy’s firmly rooted in his trad and believes most Irish Indie draws from the UK/US? I might just send the Hassle Merchants round his gaff to drive that point home!
June 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
The sooner people realise that all Irish music is derived directly from Glen Hansard, who invented it from his own imagination, the better.