"Danny Boy"

Lyrics

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling

From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.

The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying.

'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,

For I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.

Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.

 

 

But

Ye'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 you tread above me,

And o'er my grave shall warmer, sweeter be,

And if you bend and tell me that you love me,

 

Then I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

 

"Danny Boy" is a song whose lyrics are set to the Irish tune "Londonderry Air". The lyrics were originally written for a different tune in 1910 by Frederick Weatherly, an English lawyer who never actually visited Ireland, and modified to fit Londonderry Air in 1913. The first recording was made by Ernestine Schumann-Heink in 1915. Weatherly gave the song to Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular in the new century. Weatherly later suggested in 1928 that the second verse would provide a fitting requiem for the actress Ellen Terry.

The song is widely considered an Irish anthem, and the tune is used as the anthem of Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games, even though the song's writer was not Irish, and the song was and is more popular outside Ireland than within. It is nonetheless widely considered by many Irish Americans and Irish Canadians to be their unofficial signature song. It is frequently included in the organ presentation at Irish-American funerals.

Though the song is supposed to be a message from a woman to a man (Weatherly provided the alternative "Eily dear" for male singers in his 1918 authorized lyrics [1]), the song is actually sung by men as much as, or possibly more often than, by women. The song has been interpreted by some listeners as a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

link...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Boy

 

 

    

 

 

Books

• Danny Boy: The Legend of the Beloved Irish Ballad ISBN 0-451-20806-4 by Malachy McCourt

Choral version with Paul McMahon-Tenor on CD Swoon Gold - ABC Classics

link:

Danny Boy — the mystery solved

1. ^ Classic TV, ISBN 0-7935-4762-8, 1996, published by Hal Leonard Corporation

 

 

Links

• The Legend and History of the Song 'Danny Boy'
• Malachy McCourt Interview re Danny Boy
• YouTube Video of Danny Boy