ORIGINAL VERSUS COVER: PART ELEVEN, DIRTY OLD TOWN

Ewan MacColl:


Here is my next post in the series in which I'll argue that the cover is better than the original version of the song. This time I'm going to compare Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's original version and The Pogues' cover version of the song, Dirty Old Town.

Dirty Old Town song was written by Ewan MacColl in 1949. The song is about Salford, an industrial town and now a city neighbouring Manchester. This is the second time I've picked on Ewan MacColl in this series, clearly I don't like folk songs. Featuring his wife Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl recorded a version of the song he wrote.

Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's Dirty Old Town:

However, it was The Dubliners' cover version of Dirty Old Town, released in 1968, that the song gained prominence. The Dubliners were a popular Irish folk band. I've never been into Irish folk music or even Irish music generally. It's the mysticism and the romanticism that rub me up the wrong way.

The Dubliners' Dirty Old Town:
Released as a single from their Rum Sodomy & the Lash album, The Pogues scored a relatively minor hit with their cover version of the Dirty Old Town song in 1985. Fittingly, The Pogues' version is played when the football players of Salford City walk onto the pitch before a game. And also fittingly, in 1987 The Pogues had a big hit with Fairytale in New York, a song which featured Kirsty MacColl, Ewan MacColl's daughter.

The Pogues' Dirty Old Town:


I like The Pogues' cover of Dirty Old Town by far the best. Though keeping to the song's folk roots, their cover injects a snarly punkish attitude into its proceedings.

I'm intrigued how this very English folk song became an Irish folk song, especially as The Pogues came from London not Ireland though they perhaps can be considered as London Irish. There seems to be a bit of Irish in many people, particularly when St Patrick's Day is celebrated. Not me, I'm Anglo-Saxon even though I'd secretly like to have Norman descent as the French seem far more sophisticated than the English!

Which version of Dirty Old Town do you like best, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's, The Dublners' or The Pogues'?

Below are links to my other blog posts in this 'original versus cover' series:

The Pogues:



Comments

  1. smartyJuly 21, 2024 at 2:00 PM

    The Pogues, of course. I have to say that the hair of the Dubliners' singer is rather remarkable though, hehe!

    ReplyDelete

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