faithful departed

**Sat Mar 03, 2007 8:13 pm**

Hi Philip, there's a very grainy video clip on youtube of you and the radiators performing faithful departed on the late late show in the early 1980s.
I just wanted to ask you about the origins of the song. It is a polemic against the church's influence or there some other meaning? I'm asking because it's easily one of the best songs to come out of ireland over the past 25 years or so. i have to say i think it's one of the few cover versions christy moore does that actually does justice to the song. do you have any opinions on his version versus yours? and did the pogues ever think about doing their version? best stephen

**Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:33 am**

steve wrote:Hi Philip, there's a very grainy video clip on youtube of you and the radiators performing faithful departed on the late late show in the early 1980s.
I just wanted to ask you about the origins of the song. It is a polemic against the church's influence or there some other meaning? I'm asking because it's easily one of the best songs to come out of ireland over the past 25 years or so. i have to say i think it's one of the few cover versions christy moore does that actually does justice to the song. do you have any opinions on his version versus yours? and did the pogues ever think about doing their version? best stephen

I try not to write polemics as, God knows, writing songs is hard enough. The album Ghostown on which "Faithful Departed" first appeared was structured as a sort of midnight walk through Dublin by a contemporary Irish teenager (I was 17 when I started writing Ghostown and I turned 21 during its recording). The premise is a direct steal, albeit reversed, from Denis Johnson's 1928 play The Old Lady Says "No" in which the character of an actor playing Robert Emmet in a historical pageant suffers a blow to the head and imagines himself wandering in 20th Century Dublin. It tickled me that the phrase "The Old Lady Says No" scribbled on Johnston's manuscript when the Abbey returned it to him along with a polite rejection note, was apparently what passed for an internal memo at the Abbey. The "Old Lady" was Augusta Gregory and Johnson duly retitled his play with the rejection. The Abbey has continued to reject some of the greatest Irish plays of the 20th and early 21st century. It is almost an honourable tradition now. A revival of The Old Lady Says "No" was playing at the Gate Theatre, in the same building as the Rotunda maternity hospital in Dublin when I was born there in 1957. But I digress.

In the grey, post-DeValera Ireland of the Seventies, both the nationalist dream and the romantic literary aspirations have turned to shit, or at least to alcoholism and hypocrisy. Dublin is the capital of a post-imperial failed state. In this context, the kid (Johnny Jukebox) finds solace and inspiration in the ghosts of Dublin's past who accompany him on his midnight walks, the poets, patriots, priests, panhandlers and prostitutes of a Dublin which once dreamed of greatness. Johnny considers these characters to be more vibrant, more full of life, than the dull and authoritarian and punitive church/state consensus will allow in contemporary Ireland.

Some of this is felt as part of the punk rebellion that was in the air in Britain and the United States and which grew out of glam rock in the early 70s, when it suddenly appeared only slightly less possible to be Ziggy in Dublin than it did in London or the Bowery. Some of it is just a natural Irish refusal to conform to the mediocrity for which one appeared to be destined. I felt strongly that this Ireland, my Ireland, was in danger of settling for a great deal less than the one my forebears fought, loved, dreamed and sometimes died for. Above all, I saw the Catholic Church as an almost entirely malign and oppressive force in a country which had once been guided by beauty, poetry, music, dance, love and sheer bloody Paganism. I was taken with a quotation I came across from Kierkegaard in his Journal of 1840. ".....For the Irish have not the heart to baptize their children completely, they want to preserve just a little paganism and whereas a child is normally completely immersed, they keep his right arm out of the water so that in afterlife he can grasp a sword and hold a girl in his arm." It seemed to me that Kierkegaard nailed down with uncanny accuracy the Irish spirit I wanted to express in the song and on the album.

Johnny's "ghosts" are a mixture of the real (Jim Larkin, James Connolly, WB Yeats, Joyce, O'Casey, Pearse etc jostle with Jimmy O'Dea, Brendan Behan and Dion Boucicault etc in references or brief quotes) and the fictionally-real (Kitty Ricketts is, for example, a character in Ulysses, though Joyce based her on the real life brothel madam Becky Cooper). I invoked Connolly and Larkin because so much of the pre-1916 struggle in Dublin was rooted not so much in nationalism as in civil rights and the demand for a fair living wage. The 1913 Lock Out, in which several Dubliners died, is detailed in James Plunkett's great novel Strumpet City and the "They're Looting In The Town" section of Ghostown is inspired by this and by the looting that took place in Dublin in Easter Week 1916. My own grandfather was a forthright Labour Union man. Bill Graham, the late Irish critic, always believed "Looting" was the most prescient part of the album as it appeared also to uncannily predict the unrest in Dublin which would soon take place again outside the British Embassy. I met James Plunkett not long before he died, at a reception in Dublin honouring the career of Jimmy O'Dea (Plunkett had written, along with Flann O'Brien, a TV series for him in the early Sixties) and it turns out he too found inspiration in the Denis Johnson play: "Strumpet City in the sunset/ Suckling the bastard brats of Scot, of Englishry, of Huguenot / Brave sons breaking from the womb, wild sons fleeing from their Mother".

The chorus of "Faithful Departed" is taken almost directly from Joyce, from the "Hades" section in Ulysses when Leopold Bloom is among the mourners at Patrick Dignam's funeral: "How Many! said Mr Bloom. All these here once walked round Dublin. Faithful departed. As you are now so once were we". The notion of re-burying the Faithful Departed upright "so the sun doesn't blind you, and you don't have to gaze at the rain and the stars" is borrowed from a similar image in Bertolt Brecht's wonderful anti-war ballad "The Legend Of The Dead Soldier".

"Faithful Departed" has long been one of Shane's favourite songs, and Terry's too, but it does not appear to have found the same favour with the rest of the band, though it turns up at soundchecks occasionally. I am delighted that Christy Moore still regularly performs the song even after almost 30 years, though I have to say he has grown into the song over the years. What first attracted him to it was what he considered the power of the imagery, which was fine by me, but I sense that he has grown to understand the heart of the song too as he himself has grown older.

By the way, the grainy Radiators footage - the only contemporary film in existence of the band doing that song - is from the 1980 RTE TV show SBB Ina Shuí presented by Seán Bán Breathnach. We also performed "The Dancing Years", which was our new single at the time, on the programme.

**Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:44 pm**

Philip, the only version of 'Faithful Departed' I've heard is 'Ballad of the Faithful Departed', from the Kitty Ricketss 7". Is this different to the 'normal' version or are they one and the same? Beautiful song, either way.

**Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:14 pm**

Kilmichael wrote:Philip, the only version of 'Faithful Departed' I've heard is 'Ballad of the Faithful Departed', from the Kitty Ricketss 7". Is this different to the 'normal' version or are they one and the same? Beautiful song, either way.

The version on the b side of the August 1979 "Kitty Ricketts" single features Radiators drummer Jimmy Crashe (lead vocals), Pete Holidai (acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and myself (mandolin, acoustic guitar, tin whistle, backing vocals) and is a sort of early example of the practice of doing "unplugged" versions. But the main Radiators recording, with lead vocals and lead guitars by myself, and usually known as "Song Of The Faithful Departed" (as opposed to "Ballad of the...") stayed on the Ghostownalbum until March 1981 when it became our final, and probably rarest single. [A current eBay listing claims it's "The Ballad of..." but it's not, it's "Song of...", with "They're Looting In The Town" on the b side].

The cover photo on that single, by the way, is of myself at Yeats's grave in Co Sligo, snapped by Jimmy Crashe. The tombstone, famously, says

"Cast a cold eye on life, on death
Horseman, pass by"

In addition, the song has been recorded by myself (with Elvis Costello playing guitar, bass, organ and piano) in 1983, by Clan Na Gael/Seven Nations (1990, I think), Christy Moore (1983 and 2006) and Moving Hearts (1981). There may be other versions.

**Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:38 pm**

philipchevron wrote: Christy Moore still regularly performs the song even after almost 30 years,

If you asked 95% of Irish people who wrote/performed the song first Christy Moore would be the answer.

Even at the Point at Christmas people said to me "that was a great version of the Christy Moore song". Of course I had tremendous pleasure in pointing out their error.

Some People.......... :roll:

Philip, Best of luck tonight and for the rest of the US stint by the way.

**Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:42 pm**

Bud Byrne wrote:
philipchevron wrote: Christy Moore still regularly performs the song even after almost 30 years,

If you asked 95% of Irish people who wrote/performed the song first Christy Moore would be the answer.

Even at the Point at Christmas people said to me "that was a great version of the Christy Moore song". Of course I had tremendous pleasure in pointing out their error.

Some People..........

Philip, Best of luck tonight and for the rest of the US stint by the way.

Thank you Bud.

Sometimes when I do the song with The Radiators I precede it with something like "We had a request to do a Christy Moore song. Unfortunately, we don't know any Christy Moore songs, but here's one of our own, it's called Faithful Departed"

**Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:45 pm**

philipchevron wrote:Thank you Bud.

Sometimes when I do the song with The Radiators I precede it with something like "We had a request to do a Christy Moore song. Unfortunately, we don't know any Christy Moore songs, but here's one of our own, it's called Faithful Departed"

And quite right to...

**Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:28 pm**

philipchevron wrote:The version on the b side of the August 1979 "Kitty Ricketts" single features Radiators drummer Jimmy Crashe (lead vocals), Pete Holidai (acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and myself (mandolin, acoustic guitar, tin whistle, backing vocals) and is a sort of early example of the practice of doing "unplugged" versions.

Thanks for the info Philip. I've always loved the "Ballad" version (although I've not heard the other), it's a great companion to the 'Bringing it All Back Home' version of "Thousands Are Sailing", which has a similair acoustic feel.

Btw, have you ever thought of doing a 'Best of Philip Chevron' type compilation, featuring the above, 'The Captains and The Kings', 'For The Children', 'Under Clery's Clock', etc?

**Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:40 pm**

Kilmichael wrote:
philipchevron wrote:The version on the b side of the August 1979 "Kitty Ricketts" single features Radiators drummer Jimmy Crashe (lead vocals), Pete Holidai (acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and myself (mandolin, acoustic guitar, tin whistle, backing vocals) and is a sort of early example of the practice of doing "unplugged" versions.

Thanks for the info Philip. I've always loved the "Ballad" version (although I've not heard the other), it's a great companion to the 'Bringing it All Back Home' version of "Thousands Are Sailing", which has a similair acoustic feel.

Btw, have you ever thought of doing a 'Best of Philip Chevron' type compilation, featuring the above, 'The Captains and The Kings', 'For The Children', 'Under Clery's Clock', etc?

My "best" is yet to come, but thanks for the vote of confidence. :wink:

**Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:09 pm**

Thanks very much for the wealth of detail, Philip. Faithful Departed is such a great song and I can't quite understand why it doesn't seem to get the recognition it surely deserves. I'm going to enjoy exploring the references you've outlined. Hope the U.S. shows go well and hope to catch the Radiators on their next jaunt over to London. Steve

**Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:32 pm**

philipchevron wrote:
Kilmichael wrote:Philip, the only version of 'Faithful Departed' I've heard is 'Ballad of the Faithful Departed', from the Kitty Ricketss 7". Is this different to the 'normal' version or are they one and the same? Beautiful song, either way.

The version on the b side of the August 1979 "Kitty Ricketts" single features Radiators drummer Jimmy Crashe (lead vocals), Pete Holidai (acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and myself (mandolin, acoustic guitar, tin whistle, backing vocals) and is a sort of early example of the practice of doing "unplugged" versions. But the main Radiators recording, with lead vocals and lead guitars by myself, and usually known as "Song Of The Faithful Departed" (as opposed to "Ballad of the...") stayed on the Ghostownalbum until March 1981 when it became our final, and probably rarest single. [A current eBay listing claims it's "The Ballad of..." but it's not, it's "Song of...", with "They're Looting In The Town" on the b side].

The cover photo on that single, by the way, is of myself at Yeats's grave in Co Sligo, snapped by Jimmy Crashe. The tombstone, famously, says

"Cast a cold eye on life, on death
Horseman, pass by"

In addition, the song has been recorded by myself (with Elvis Costello playing guitar, bass, organ and piano) in 1983, by Clan Na Gael/Seven Nations (1990, I think), Christy Moore (1983 and 2006) and Moving Hearts (1981). There may be other versions.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=004

Winning bid: £22.00 !!!

**Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:31 am**

("Faithful Departed" has long been one of Shane's favourite songs, and Terry's too, but it does not appear to have found the same favour with the rest of the band, though it turns up at soundchecks occasionally.)

Whats the chance of a soundcheck version ending up on the forthcoming box set? Shane, Terry and your goodself Mr Cheveron, need to kick ass and get it in the set list, tis a fine and mighty song!

**Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:57 am**

I'm pretty sure an unplugged version of Faithful Departed is on the b-side of Philips' Captains and the Kings 7"... or am I dreaming. I must dig out that single sometime and see.

**Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:58 am**

Sorry, I forgot to add that for me, Faithful Departed is the finest Irish contemporay song written.