Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald tune was from an Irish dirge

Yesterday, on Beltane, Gordon Lightfoot died. When I was writing an blogpost about Bobby Sand’s songs Back Home in Derry, I took a lot of flack for saying that he did not steal or copy Gordon Lightfoot’s melody, Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, because that old Irish tune already existed. Bobby Sands was in solitary confinement during the time he wrote that song, he would not have had access to Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, but he certainly would have been familiar with the County Clare slide, most often used as a fiddle tune jig, The Road to Lisdoonvarna.

In several recent articles, I found that Lightfoot had acknowledged his use of the Irish tune. “I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old.” Why couldn’t I find that information back in 2013 when I was writing the Bobby Sands story?

Finally, I found a quote from Gordon that supports my theory. I wish I had found this quote when I was writing my blog post, Old Tunes, New Licks. It would’ve saved me a lot of grief. I wrote:

The melody of Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, recorded in December 1975, seems to suggest a similar pattern. What came first, Lightfoot's melody of The Wreck of the Edmund FG, or the Irish melody associated with Bobby Sands' Back Home in Derry?
I think what happened is that the melody itself (not Gordon's fabulous song lyrics) was based on an older Irish dirge—after all the ship had an Irish name, Fitzgerald, so an Irish melody was fitting. Also, many Canadian folksongs are from the Irish and Scottish folksong repetoire.
During the 1960s and 70s folksingers were raiding traditional music wholesale—Irish music was the hardest hit—most North American singer-songwriters did not credit their sources. At least two of my folk heroes Judy Collins and Joan Baez noted their folksongs as "traditional," but as Behan noted, Bob Dylan was among the most arrogant of songthieves.

The Lightfoot obituary went on to say: 

“The biggest came in 1976 after he [Lightfoot] read an article in Newsweek about the the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. He called the epic maritime disaster song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

“It was quite an undertaking to do that. I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old….I think it was one of the first pieces of music that registered to me as being a piece of music.” From Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian Folk-Rock Troubadour, Dead at 84 , Yahoo

After I wrote this piece, I found out from Mudcat the name of the Irish fiddle jig was The Road to Lisdoonvarna. Old melody. Full circle. Someone else said that Christy Moore set the poem to music, not Bobby Sands. Now that is ann angle I have not thought of as I understood it to be Bobby Sands’ melody as well. All the Google links suggest that Christy Moore borrowed Gordon Lightfoot’s tune. Egad! Circular file. Either way, it was an Irish tune shared across the sea. RIP Gordon Lightfoot. Safe passage.

Thatcher's Dark Legacy

I don't even begin to understand British politics but from what I can gather, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (PM 1979-1990) brought Britain, Scotland & Wales to their knees.

My Irish grannie, no Anglophile, was always reading and fond of quoting from the Brehon Laws, O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees, and the original 1894 Gaelic League edition of Dinneen's Irish Dictionary—while cursing the Irish equivalent of the devil incarnate, Oliver Cromwell, and current British politics in empty rooms. Such was my education.

Official news reports are extolling the virtues of the Thatcher Years, canonizing her at death, akin to how we whitewashed Governor/President Reagan's sins, then chiding us to not to speak ill of the dead. We Irish Americans have had our fill of revisionist Anglocentric history. Lest ye forget—Thatcher's dark legacy was a "political legacy of rampant inequality and greed, privatisation and social breakdown."

Thatcher's key policies, deregulation of the financial sector, the privatization of state-owned companies, and what she called Community Charge (a poll tax), devastated the backbone of the United Kingdom—the working class.

Thatcher ruthlessly and systematically destroyed the social fabric of the welfare state that protected the economic well-being of UK citizens. No wonder Scotland and Wales—hardest hit by Thatcherism—want to secede.

Irish mediator, Miceál Francis O'Hurley reminded me that "We only need remember that Pinochet was her friend to whom she extended protection. Aside from my many reasons as an Irishman to loathe her for just cause, her economic policies devastated several generations of English people." I am also reminded that she was also a good friend of Saddam Hussein. 

O'Hurley (no relation), who once worked on The Hill as a legistlative analyst, before emigrating to Ireland, knows the dirty laundry of Washington politics, jokingly trotted out the dog Latin axiom - semper ubi sububi. 

LOL, dirty laundry indeed. Knickers aside, the argument should support facts, not rely upon false syllogism (read: yellow journalism, or to further degrade the term—FOX News), so what little information I have on Thatcher, was viewed from someone else's warped lens. And so I read it all. But something keeps nagging me as I read the glowing tabloid eulogies.

I loved delving into rhetoric with Dr. Daniel Milia, my Irish professor at UC Berkeley. Indeed, quid est veritas?Brilliant stuff, rhetoric. That's what we employed when we read the medieval Irish manuscripts. What lens?

I am a poet, not a politician. All I can do is read voraciously and deduce until I become myopic. But this adulation makes me uneasy in my soul. All this sweeping under the rug stuff. Rhetoric is a lost art. The ability to lay one's hands, er mind, upon facts, and create a coherent train of thought. 

I am reminded that a filidh, the ancient Irish poet-seer, who was part-diviner, part-healer and part-councilor, was required to have a background in law as well—whether it be the laws of nature or laws of the heart, or the Laws of Bréifne.

O'Hurley stated "There was no contradiction that the land of Brehon laws also was the land of Saints and Scholars. When did we allow the law to be the stuff of fear and loathing and not the refuge of the poor, the widow and the orphan? Our [Irish]"backward ways" gave rights to women, the sick, the poor, etc., (even maternity and paternity leave) with which the West is now only 'discovering.'"

"Along with Reagan, their world view, inflicted through economic policies, bankrupted the poor, impoverished the middle classes, diminished education for all and instituted a regime of economic Darwinism. I admired her courage, and the sincerity of her beliefs— but then the Nazis all were courageous and firm in their beliefs too."

O'Hurley continued: "Historically, truth and facts have had little relation to decision-making. Only consider Joe McCarthy and how he and Tricky Dick Nixon shaped the nation."

Thatcher's Privatisation has been described as "the biggest electoral bribe in history." Thatcher also tried to sell off privatize social medicine, hospitals, waterworks, gas, electricity, etc., in other words: to put publically owned amenities already paid for by the people through taxes—into the hands of private investors so it wouldn't be financial a burden on the government. Sound familiar? The rich got richer under her stewardship. Can you spell Bush?

For many, Thatcher's reign saw the destruction of British industry, when she assaulted and declared civil war on the trade unions (especially coal, and print unions)—what she dubbed, "the enemy within." Then she turned around and privatized all but 15 publicly owned coal mines which left thousands out of work—most notably in Wales.

Under Thatcher's regime, direct taxes on income were lowered and to balance the shortfall, she increased indirect taxes. Meanwhile, working class unemployment (over 3.3 million), skyrocketed through the roof. Trade and industry fell by 38.2%. She hamstrung and garrotted the middle class, then drowned them.

As the recession of the early 1980s spiraled, Thatcher counter-measured by increasing taxes and cutting funding for social services, housing, and education (taking school lunch milk from the children—fergawdsakes—as bad as Reagan's proclaiming katsup as a vegetable). She then completely gutted funding for higher education.

The wholesale loss of employment, mass closure of factories, housing, and loss of basic social services fueled massive race riots in every major city which led to the reinstatement of the Vagrancy Act of 1824 to detain citizens based on "reasonable suspicion" which was heavily enforced in migrant and black communities.

She played the race card during reelection, saying, "People are really afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people of a different culture" which helped spark the 1981 race riots  in London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Brixton.

Then during the next decade, Thatcher introduced a per capita "poll tax"(at 20% +) to fund local government in order to—get this—lower the tax burden of large property owners and big businesses. Sound familiar?

When 1.8 million people point-blank refused to pay the head tax, Thatcher enforced draconioan measures, riots ensued. During the Poll Tax Riots, the Battle of Trafalgar, at Trafalgar Square, was among the most violent where hundreds were arrested and incarcerated.

Meanwhile, under Thatcher's regime, interest rates soared, value added tax (VAT) shot up to 15%; and tellingly, by 1990, when she resigned from office, inflation was back at 10%—the same level as when she implemented the reforms in 1979.

A modern day Cromwell, Thatcher's aggression towards Ireland was horiffic; Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said she had done "great hurt to working class communities across Britain and also people in Ireland".

Adams also accused Thatcher of "embracing collusion" and playing a "shameful role" in the IRA hunger strike of 1981. (BBC)

"As De Valera said about Churchill, she was good for the UK, but her policies were not good for Ireland," said Fianan Fail leader, former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. "She was a unique lady and a formidable lady. She was prime minister for the same length of time that I was. But nothing was achieved towards peace in Northern Ireland during Thatcher's time as prime minister." (Herald)

Thatcher also destroyed basic human rights in Northern Ireland. Catholics were stripped of civil rights. She made political prisoner Bobby Sands, an Irish martyr whose death led to a surge in IRA recruitment. Ironic, isn't it, that on this very day in 1981, Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone with 30,493 votes—almost 10,000 more votes than British Prime Minister Thatcher received.

(Political prisoner and IRA Hunger Strike leader, Bobby Sands (Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh 1954 – 1981) was arrested in 1976 at age 18, and imprisoned 14 years in the most brutal of British prison camps, the H-Block of Long Kesh—Great Britain's own Gitmo in Belfast, for "illegal possession" of a gun in the boot of a car. Not shooting anyone, or blowing anyone up.)

IRA prisoners had historically been treated differently than common criminals. They were treated as political prisoners. Thatcher’s decision to treat them like ordinary criminals was a disastrous policy measure. It lengthened The Troubles by at least a decade, if not a generation. It led to the inevitability of the hunger strikes and the polarization that followed. (Boston Globe)

Sands' MP election victory raised hopes that a settlement to raise Sands to political prisoner status could be reached—thus restoring basic human rights under the Geneva Convention, but Thatcher took a hard stance, stating that Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal, with no rights— not prisoners of war. Under Thatcher's tenure, Sands was tortured with daily beatings, water-hosing, mental abuse. Sands died in 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Said Thatcher, "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life." The mother of Joe McDonnell, one of the hunger strikers, said “Criminals don’t starve themselves to death to make a point.”

Boston Globe's Kevin Cullen writes, “Thatcher’s intransigence drove many young men into the waiting arms of the IRA. She was one of the IRA’s best recruiters. She pushed the end of the war back at least 10 years and consigned a generation to conflict.”

My grandmother cried the day Bobby Sands died. The only other time I saw her cry was when Jack Kennedy was shot. It left me shaken to the core. It made me sit up and bear witness.

Ironically, it was Reagan who told Thatcher that "she had to talk to the Irish government"—which led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. As Nelson Mandela once told Martin McGuinness, “You don’t make peace with your friends. You make peace with your enemies.”(Boston Globe)

Thatcher (bosom friend of Pinochet) denounced Nelson Mandela and the ANC as "grubby little terrorists, while backing South African apartheid. (she later reversed that position when it became economically and politically savvy to abolish Apartheid). 

Thatcher did more to polarize society and create a rift and division between the classes and between oppressors and the oppressed than any other Prime Minister. I won't even mention the Falklands farce—with a thousand dead and 2,500 wounded. For what? Cojones?

Thatcher's policies also foisted us into the first Gulf War (and ultimately to Iraq.) But I'm tired now, so in closing, yes, Thatcher was female, but no feminist. She was not a good role model for women—as Amy Tan's friend posted on Facebook (which got my blood boiling—and led to this diatribe).

Obama said that she had "broken glass ceiling for women." In his Guardian obit, comedian/actor Russell Brand quipped: "Only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards. She is an icon of individualism, not of feminism."

I fear Thatcher's death has already become a Welshman's holiday replete with epithets of verbal grave dancing.

Across Britain tonight, especially in Liverpool, Glasgow and Brixton, Thatcher's death is turning into an early Guy Fawkes birthday celebration. And they are gathering at Trafalgar Square. Poetic justice is served.

Twitter reported more than one million mentions of the word "Thatcher" in the four hours after the announcement of the former prime minister's death. (BBC)

"Ding Dong! The witch is dead" has become a national anthem. British filmmaker, Ken Loach “Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet. How should we honor her? Let’s privatize her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted.” Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle ‏(@frankieboyle) posted: "Finally, I get to wear my black suit and tap shoes together."

My sweetie in Scotland reports that: "They're also raising flags and having celebratory street parties—especially in the north and mining areas. Thatcher ironically caused the [resurrection of the] Scottish Parliament—in response to her policies that decimated Scotland during her time. The Poll Tax was her final undoing."

Stone-hearted Maggie was ruthless. She was a curious admixture of Iron Lady and Good Old Boys school. She championing warmongers Reagan, Bush & Bushs' worst politics served up with a sidedish of corrupt Wall Street bakers tossed in for good measure.

So tell, me how Thatcher's legacy was a good legacy? I don't understand. I don't wish to speak ill of the dead but I wonder how long will it take to reverse the damage done during Thatcher's reign. Perhaps a generation, more like a lifetime.

In the words of Bobby Sands, "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children."

Old Tunes, New Licks

Because my partner, Neil O'Neill is a Celtic folksinger, my ad-hoc job is to sleuth out the provenance of traditional Scottish and Irish folksongs, collect variants, and to write the liner notes. What I've learned is that new song lyrics are often set to old tunes or melodies, and updated every generation, and that the song is a compilation of melody or tune, and lyrics (words). 

The ballad our family traditionally sings at every funeral, Danny Boy, is a melody from an old Irish air "discovered" by a sister-in-law in the goldmines of Colorado [what was she doing in the mines?], Londonderry Air (AKA "Air from County Derry" or "Derry Air"), with words written by a London barrister and lyricist in 1910—a prime example of melodic borrowing.

Frederic Weatherly gave the ancient Irish tune, updated with his new lyrics to Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs in the new century (first record was made in 1915). So we tend to think of him as the author and composer of Danny Boy. But he didn't compose the melody of the song, just the lyrics. 

The story goes that the original air was collected from a blind fiddler by Jane Ross of Limavady in Northern Ireland, and published by musicologist and antiquarian, George Petrie in 1855, The Ancient Music of Ireland, by the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland.

World famous song Danny Boy is taken from a melody composed by O’Cahan bard Rory Dall O’Cahan. The original version concerns the passing of the Chief Cooey-na-Gall whose death brought an end to a long line of O’Cahan chiefs in Northern Ireland. —Wiki

Folksingers have been swapping tunes and lyrics for eons—sometimes, in their travels, the bits get separated from each other—a muffled line becomes a mondegreen, oftentimes new songs arise from the ashes of the old.

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl O' Moray
And Lady Mondegreen.

So much for laying the poor old dead Earl of Moray down on the green. And what about Lady Mondegreen? She had some melons. A Cuban favorite: José can you see by the dawn's early light? Imagine a rainbow Hendrix: 'S'cuse me while I kiss this guy. Who knew that Kumbaya is really Come by Here—oh Lord.

Our family simply slaughters the lyrics to Háva Nagíla at weddings. Gawd only know what we're boisterously singing while mangling the Grapevine. (Mondegreens in Hebrew are called watermelons.) Malachy McCourt thought The Hail Mary rosary phrase "amongst women" was "a monk swimming", which became the title of his book. Neil, who was an altar boy in Scotland, thought the Latin mea culpea was "Mexican cowboy." OK, so maybe he was stretching it a bit.

Many Irish songs and melodies that traveled to the New World morphed into what we think of as American songs—sometimes with watermelon mondegreens intact.