by philipchevron Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:55 pm
Aineen wrote:I was checking out another Pogues-related site where there is quite an analysis of Pogues songs. When ‘Thousands…’ is being discussed there is some question about “The Blackbird”. It's speculated that it refers to either the Irish ballad ‘The Blackbird’ or the Beatles ‘Blackbird’. I’m not sure if this has been asked on this forum, but I'm just wondering....
Philip, would you give us the definitive answer?
For the record, Behan is known to have loved the trad tune "The Blackbird" and did indeed dance to it on at least one occasion, albeit on Grafton Street, Dublin, not Broadway, New York.
As the four note acoustic guitar figure which plays counterpoint to the line (after "broke the silence" on Shane's version) quotes from neither the Beatles nor the Irish trad tune, you may wish to conclude that there is in fact no "definitive answer", the uneasy ambiguity of the line being part of its purpose.
[quote="Aineen"]I was checking out another Pogues-related site where there is quite an analysis of Pogues songs. When ‘Thousands…’ is being discussed there is some question about “The Blackbird”. It's speculated that it refers to either the Irish ballad ‘The Blackbird’ or the Beatles ‘Blackbird’. I’m not sure if this has been asked on this forum, but I'm just wondering....
Philip, would you give us the definitive answer?[/quote]
For the record, Behan is known to have loved the trad tune "The Blackbird" and did indeed dance to it on at least one occasion, albeit on Grafton Street, Dublin, not Broadway, New York.
As the four note acoustic guitar figure which plays counterpoint to the line (after "broke the silence" on Shane's version) quotes from neither the Beatles nor the Irish trad tune, you may wish to conclude that there is in fact no "definitive answer", the uneasy ambiguity of the line being part of its purpose.
