| "Dirty Old Town" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Side A of the UK single | ||||
| Single by the Dubliners | ||||
| from the album Drinkin' and Courtin' | ||||
| B-side | "Peggy Gordon" | |||
| Released | 1968 | |||
| Genre | Folk, Pop | |||
| Length | 2:53 | |||
| Label | Major Minor | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ewan MacColl | |||
| Producer(s) | Tommy Scott | |||
| The Dubliners singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio | ||||
| "Dirty Old Town" by the Dubliners on YouTube | ||||
"Dirty Old Town" is a song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 that was made popular by the Dubliners and the Pogues.
The song was written about Salford, then in Lancashire, England, the area where MacColl was born and brought up. It was originally composed for the 1949 play Landscape with Chimneys, produced by Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop and set in a North of England industrial town. [1] [2] With the growing popularity of folk music in the 1960s the song became a standard in the repertory of British folk club singers. [3]
In a BBC radio documentary about “Dirty Old Town”, Professor Ben Harker (author of Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl, 2007, Pluto Press) explains that although MacColl later claimed the song was written as an interlude "to cover an awkward scene change", studying the script of the play Landscape with Chimneys reveals the song occurs at the beginning and at the end of the play. Harker argues the song is important to the play because “it captures the movement from dreamy optimism and romance to militancy, frustration and anger. That’s the trajectory of the song and of the play.” [3]
The first verse refers to the "gasworks croft" which was a piece of open land adjacent to Salford gasworks, and then speaks of the old canal, which was the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The line in the original version about smelling a spring on “the Salford wind” is sometimes sung as “the sulphured wind”. But in any case, most singers tend to drop the Salford reference altogether, in favour of calling the wind “smoky”. (This is the case in MacColl's own 1983 recording of the song. [4] )
| "Dirty Old Town" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by the Pogues | ||||
| from the album Rum Sodomy & the Lash | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Genre | Celtic rock | |||
| Length | 3:45 | |||
| Label | Stiff | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ewan MacColl | |||
| Producer(s) | Elvis Costello | |||
| The Pogues singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Dirty Old Town" by the Pogues on YouTube | ||||
Released on Rum Sodomy & the Lash in 1985, the Pogues' version reached number 62 in the UK and 27 in the Irish charts when released as a single. [5] It has been certified Silver for sales.
The Pogues' version of the song is played during the team walk-on at Salford City FC. [6]
John Leland at Spin called the song, "a sparse melancholy reminiscence of love in an industrial sewer. The Pogues are a crudely affecting bunch of romantics." [7] AllMusic said, "while Shane MacGowan may not have written "Dirty Old Town", his wrought, emotionally compelling vocals made [it] his from then on." [8]
The Dubliners recorded "Dirty Old Town" as part of their 1966 album Drinkin' and Courtin'. [9] Luke Kelly, lead singer of the Irish band, claimed in live performances that the song was a "love song" to Salford. [10]
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Ireland (IRMA) [11] | 10 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI) [12] The Pogues version | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
The Pogues are an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in King's Cross, London, in 1982, as Pogue Mahone, an anglicisation of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse". Initially poorly received in traditional Irish music circles—the celebrated musician Tommy Makem called them "the greatest disaster ever to hit Irish music"—the band were subsequently credited with reinvigorating the genre. They later incorporated influences from other musical traditions, including jazz, flamenco, and Middle Eastern music.
James Henry Miller, better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was an English folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the instigators of the 1960s folk revival as well as for writing such songs as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Dirty Old Town".
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Luke Kelly was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become involved in the folk music revival there. Returning to Dublin in the 1960s, he became a founding member of the band The Dubliners in 1962. The Irish Post and other commentators regard Kelly, known for his distinctive singing style and sometimes political messages, as one of Ireland's greatest folk singers.
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Luke Kelly: The next song is also—this is very peculiar—a love song written to a place, not to a woman, but to a place. The place is outside of Manchester, called ... a place called, Salford.
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