New York- In yet another sign of the impending collapse of American society, the management and judges of the write-new-lyrics-for-Danny-Boy contest at Foley's Pub in New York have awarded their prize to none other than...me. Specifically, the second of the two rewrites I posted here on Tuesday. I would like henceforth to be known as Award Winning Songwriter® Dan Regan, if you please.I'd like to thank Shaun Clancy, the owner of Foley's. Thanks also to esteemed judges Malachy McCourt, Ciarán Sheehan, and Kathleen Biggins for their shockingly low standards.
If you live in, near, or plan on visiting New York City soon, please spend a good portion of your time, if not all of it, spending huge amounts of money in Foley's at 18 W 33rd St (between 5th & 6th Ave, just across the street from the Empire State building), which is my new favoritest pub in the entire world.
Posts
10 comments:
And we can all say we knew him back when..... Congrats Dan!
~Sarah
Awesome. Although, I would've picked the first one. According to their website, they will be singing your version of the song on St. Patrick's day. I hope it will appear on youtube shortly thereafter. Way to go, Uncle Bloggy!
So does that mean you're going to sing it for us? When is the concert?
Believe me, ifad...NOBODY wants to hear me sing this song or any other one.
Love it...and so proud of you...Shawn
Death to Danny Boy’s Depressing Lyrics
Foley’s Pub Taps Kansas City Man for Rewriting Happier Lyrics for Famous Irish Song
New York, NY, March 11, 2009 – Dan Regan, a founder of the Kansas City Irish Fest, has been named the winner of a St. Patrick’s Day contest to rewrite the depressing lyrics to the haunting Irish song Danny Boy. The winning entry was announced during Foley’s Pub & Restaurant’s world famous Pre-St. Patrick’s Day Party co-sponsored by Guinness on Tues, March 10. Regan will receive a $500 prize.
The new, happier lyrics were judged the best among hundreds of entries submitted to Foley’s, which last year gained worldwide fame for banning the singing of Danny Boy for the entire month of March. Pub owner Shaun Clancy cited the song’s depressing lyrics as the reason for the ban, and this year created a contest to rewrite the sad words that accompany the haunting melody.
Regan’s submission topped entries from across the globe, including the U.S. , Ireland , and Canada . The judges included Malachy McCourt, actor and author of Danny Boy: The Beloved Irish Ballad, tenor Ciarán Sheehan, star of “A Great Night for the Irish” at Carnegie Hall on March 12, and Kathleen Biggins, host of A Thousand Welcomes, an influential traditional Irish music program on WFUV 90.7 FM in New York City .
“The winning entry was cheerful and funny and referenced the tough economy,” said judge and long-time Irish radio host Kathleen Biggins. “What could be happier than the ‘frisky puppy dogs’ included in the lyrics?”
“The new words are so good, I should incorporate them into my Carnegie Hall show,” joked Ciarán Sheehan, who has starred in over a thousand performances of the Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera.
Dan Regan’s updated lyrics to the song Danny Boy are:
Oh Foley’s Pub, I’m entering your song contest
I hope I win; I sure could use the dough
I think you’ll find that unlike the old Danny Boy
My song is happy, cheery and does not blow.
Instead of graves, my song has frisky puppy dogs
Instead of prayers, my song’s a call for drinks
There isn’t snow or bagpipes wailing in the bogs
Oh Foley’s Pub, Oh Foley’s Pub, that old song stinks
Oh Danny Boy, it’s really nothing personal
For after all, my name is Danny, too
But when you’re sung, I get a pain abdominal
And then I count the notes and bars ‘til you are through
So here’s my song, it’s full of cheer and happiness
The perfect song to sing on Patrick’s Day
It has none of that old song’s maudlin sappiness
And now it’s done, please send the prize money my way.
“Bravo, Danny… Danny Regan that is, for breathing new life into the sad old ditty,” said Malachy McCourt, a renowned Irish raconteur and best selling author.
“Times are tougher for a lot of people this year, so instead of banning Danny Boy, we decided to give it a happier ending,” said Foley’s Pub owner Shaun Clancy, whose month-long ban of the famous song in 2008 caused uproar over its meaning and its place in Irish and Irish American culture.
Among the reasons Clancy listed for prohibiting Danny Boy:
– It is overplayed at the expense of other great Irish songs
– The lyrics were written by a man who wasn’t Irish (its tune, The Derry Air, is a traditional Irish song)
– Danny Boy is frequently played at funerals
– It is considered one of the “Top 25 Most Depressing Songs of All Time.”
The lyrics to Danny Boy were written in 1910 by Frederick Weatherly, a lawyer and songwriter who never set foot Ireland . It became a huge hit in 1915 for opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink and again in the 1940s, when Bing Crosby, the best-selling recording artist of his time, sang it. Over the years, Danny Boy has been recorded by musicians of all genres, including Johnny Cash, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Judy Garland, tenor Frank Patterson, The Pogues, Elvis Presley, and Cher, to name a few.
“St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of the achievement of people of Irish descent in America ,” said Clancy, a native of Butlersbridge, County Cavan in Ireland . “We’re fun-loving people. The Irish American experience does not have to be one of melancholy.”
O Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen and down the mountainside
The summer's gone and all the roses falling
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
O Danny boy, O Danny boy, I love you so.
But if ye come and all the flowers are dying
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
And I shall hear, though soft, your tread above me
And all my grave shall warmer, sweeter be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I will sleep in peace until you come to me.
About Foley’s
Foley's NY Pub & Restaurant (www.foleysny.com) is located at 18 W. 33rd St. , across from the Empire State Building . The "Irish Bar with a Baseball Attitude" features walls adorned with 2,000 signed baseballs, hundreds of bobbleheads, game-worn jerseys, stadium seats and other artifacts that make Foley’s one of the best sports bars in America. The pub became famous worldwide for banning the singing of Danny Boy in March 2008.
Just keep telling me you have no writing talent! Yeah, sure, uh-huh. I told you it was guffaw-worthy!
And you're right, nobody wants to hear you sing. I heard you sing once, and it was unfortunately Danny Boy. (I still shudder to think of it.) The only person who sings worse than you is me, and I promise I won't sing to you, ever.
Danny, we hardly knew ye!
Congratulations! Don't spend it all in one bar!
I'm so proud to know a song writer. I love the tongue and cheekiness to your lyrics Dan...how flattering that the great Malacy McCourt gets it...CONGRATS Danny!
Heading to Foley's this afternoon, possibly, if not Tuesday with the Driscoll's and the Armstrong's!
M A
Post a Comment