Lanigan's Ball

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Lanigan's Ball (often also Lannigan's Ball ) is one of the most famous Irish folk songs and has been played around the world since at least 1860. It is usually played in a minor key.

While in Alfred Perceval Graves book "Songs of Irish Wit and Humor" from 1884 Lanigan's Ball still speaks of an unknown author, "Folk Songs of the Catskills", by Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht and Norman Studer, refers to the singer John Diprose , who in 1865 ascribed the text to a DK Gavan and the music to John Candy .

meaning

The lyrics are about Jeremy Lanigan, a hard-working young man who inherited a "farm and ten acres " after the death of his father and is now throwing a party there. As the site is Athy , County Kildare , in Ireland called. Jeremy hosts the party for friends and relatives who stood by him in difficult times: "Friends and relations Who didn't forget him when come to the wall" . The text of the song describes the people present and the drinks and food available. In the chorus , the narrator describes his time at Brooks Academy in Dublin , and how he learned new dance steps for the ball, i.e. the party:

Three long weeks I spent up in Dublin,
Three long weeks to learn nothing at all,
Three long weeks I spent up in Dublin,
Learning new steps for Lanigan's Ball.

and

She stepped out and I stepped in again,
I stepped out and she stepped in again,
She stepped out and I stepped in again,
Learning new steps for Lanigan's Ball

In one version of the song, "Miss Kerrigan" passes out, causing her "sweetheart Ned Morgan" to get angry and start a fight. In another well-known version, " young Terence McCarthy, he put his right leg through Miss Finerty's hoops" and that started the fight, "sticks his right foot through Miss Finerty's hoop , whereupon the fight begins" .

Recordings and cover versions

The song has been covered by many singers. The Irish band The Bards celebrated a great success in Ireland in 1980, Christy Moore had the song in 1983 on his LP "The Time Has Come" and in 2007 re-released on CD.

The Irish-American folk-punk band Dropkick Murphys released a typical "punk" version of the song with their sixth studio album The Meanest of Times . The title was changed to "(F) lannigan's Ball" and, although the text received major changes, the subject matter remained the same. Jump, Little Children released another well-known version of the song while retaining most of the lyrics. The folk rock band Enter the Haggis recorded a version with the traditional lyrics of "Lanigan's Ball" on their album "Aerials". The New York rock band "the Jim C Experience" released the song under the name "Glennigan's Ball". Fiddler's Green from Erlangen had the song on their album "King Shepherd". LeperKhanz plays the song on the album "Tiocfaidh Ar La".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Perceval Graves: Songs of Irish wit and humor. Chatto & Windus, 1884.
  2. ^ Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer (eds.): Folk Songs of the Catskills. SUNY Press, 1982, p. 601.

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