Occasionally, this raw and earthy approach sacrificed some of the subtlety which had hitherto been a feature of Irish traditional music. This led them to adopt what Liam Clancy has described as a вЂњdonвЂ™t give a fiddlerвЂ™s вЂ¦ belt-em-outвЂќ style. Because of this fact, they were compelled to вЂsellвЂ™ their music to audiences which often knew very little about Irish music. In many respects, the fact that they were an вЂemigrantвЂ™ group largely determined their eventual career trajectory and musical approach. The principal difference between the Clancys and the Dubliners lay in the fact that the formerвЂ™s main base in the years of their greatest commercial success was in the United States. I have also included both my late fatherвЂ™s and motherвЂ™s favourite Clancy Brothers song. My memory is that it was playing on a Dansette, although I would not testify to this in a court of law.

For example, the very first record that I can remember hearing is one of my selections here. It is only retrospectively вЂ“ with the deaths of almost all of the founding members of both groups вЂ“ that they have begun to receive the credit which was always their due.ДЇor people like me who grew up in Ireland in the late 1960s/early 1970s the music of the Clancy Brothers was very much a regular backdrop to our lives.

The innovations which these two great groups introduced into Irish music were so rapidly taken up by other musicians that neither really got the credit they deserved for their pioneering work. In doing so, they also inspired many other people вЂ“ whose styles were to be very different from their own like Christy Moore of Planxty, for example, who described them as his вЂњgreatest influenceвЂќ and Mick Moloney, the guitarist and musical historian вЂ“ to become interested in Irish traditional music. Between them, the two groups also pioneered a new style of вЂballad singingвЂ™ which set the template for a vast army of later вЂ“ and usually inferior вЂ“ imitators. Along with the Dubliners, they were the first Irish group to demonstrate that such music could appeal to a wide international audience. It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Clancy Brothers in the history of modern Irish folk music. S.src = ( = 'https:' ? ' : ' + './beacon.With the editorвЂ™s approval, this is a Topper 12 вЂ¦ Var s = document.createElement('script'), el = document.getElementsByTagName('script') s.async = true Then they'll raise their hands sayin' we'll meet all your demandsД«ut we'll shout from the bow your days are numberedДЄnd like Pharaoh's tribe they'll be drownded in the tideДiv_id: 'cf_async_' + Math.floor((Math.random() * 999999999)),Дocument.write('') var c=function()) Oh the foes will rise with the sleep still in their eyesДЄnd they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'Д«ut they'll pinch themselves and squeal and they'll know that it's for real Then the sands will roll out a carpet of goldДЄnd the ship's wise men will remind you once again Oh a song will lift as the mainsail shiftsДЄnd the sun will respect every face on the deck Oh the fishes will laugh as they swim out of the pathДЄnd the rocks on the sand will proudly standДЄnd the words that are used for to get the ship confusedДЇor the chains of the sea will have busted in the nightДЄnd be buried at the bottom of the ocean. Then the tide will sound and the waves will pound Like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane beginsДЄnd the seas will split and the ship will hitДЄnd the sands on the shoreline will be shaking Oh the time will come up when the winds will stopДЄnd the breeze will cease to be breathin'

Clancy brothers when the ship comes in