We are happy to offer some special notes on all of the songs on the LIVE CD. Some of the text will be identical to that found on the CD, while there are special comments and further information added--and, of course, lyrics so that you can sing along!. We hope you will enjoy this companion to your CD purchase.
liner notes
Two songs about the Liffey River, Molly Malone and The Ferryman are sure audience favorites for singing along. Molly Malone is probably one of the best-known of true Irish songs sung by American audiences, but I'm always fascinated by how much native Irish really like this tune. It has that slow and sad aire that the Irish truly enjoy in a song...much more so than American pub audiences.
Brian often points out that the song is an allegory, and that Molly Malone is a symbol of all of the fishmongers who suffered and died from an outbreak of diphtheria bourne by the waters of the Liffey and spread through the fish markets of Dublin. There are many versions of lyrics for this song.
Molly Malone
In Dublin`s fair city where the girls are so pretty,
It was was there that I first met sweet Molly Malone.
She wheeled her wheelbarrow
through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying `Cockles and mussels alive alive-o`
Alive, alive-o, alive alive-o, :Chorus
Crying `cockles and mussles, alive alive-o’
She was a fishmonger but sure ‘twas no wonder,
For so were her father and mother before;
And they each wheeled their barrow
through the streets broad and narrow
Crying “Cockles and mussels alive alive-o”.
Chorus
She died of a fever and no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Mally Malone.
Her ghost whels her barrow
through the streets broad and narrow
Crying “Cockles and mussels alive alive-o”.
