| Song Name: | Dirty Old Town - NOT Pogues! | By: | Ewan MacColl |
| Posted By: | sailaway | Difficulty: | Beginner |
| Key: | G | Genre: | Folk |
| Harp Type: | Diatonic | ||
| Created: | 2009-07-22 09:07:52 | Modified: | 2009-10-16 18:10:49 |
| Song: | "Dirty Old Town" is not Irish. It was written by Ewan MacColl about Salford, the town where he grew up. During rehearsals of a play about the industrial north by MacColl, they found that a scene-change was taking too long, so he sat down and wrote "Dirty Old Town" to cover it, completing it in about ten minutes. It is a tragedy that the Pogues ever got hold of "Dirty Old Town" and ruined it by raucous shouting. The melody and lyrics are dreamy and wistful: "dreamed a dream by the old canal", "clouds are drifting across the moon", "smelled the spring on a smokey wind" (Salford Council objected to "Salford wind"!)"saw a train set the night on fire" - wonderful imagery. The trouble with starting on 3+ as many tabs do, is that you can't get the E (in key of G) which is needed. So I suggest moving up the harp and starting on 7+, like this. 6+ 6- 7+ 8+ 8- 7+ 8+ 7+ 6+ I found my love by the gasworks croft 8+ 9+ 10- 9+ 8+ 8- 7+ 8+ Dreamed a dream by the old canal 10- 9+ 8+ 8- 7+ 8+ 7+ 6+ Kissed my girl by the fact'ry wall 6- 7+ 8+ 8- 8- 7+ 6- 7+ Dirty old town, dirty old town |
