The Only Irish Punk Playlist You'll Need This St. Paddy's Day
Irish Christmas is less than 48 hours away. It’s a day that I look forward to as much as any holiday on the calendar. So much so that the people I’ll be hitting the pubs with actually celebrate the indisputable Cry for Help that is September 17th, known among Guinness-soaked., wet-brained Micks as Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day. So we’ve got our trips all mapped out. The ingredients for boiled dinner ready to put on the stove. And our livers prepped and ready to roll.
If that’s you, and you’ve heard enough “Danny Boy” and “Green Alligators and Long Necked Geese” to last a lifetime, here’s one man’s playlist of Irish Punk songs to get you through the weekend. This is not what I listen to on St. Paddy’s, it’s pretty much what’s in my earbuds at the gym most of the year. That blend of traditional Irish music welded to the Punk genre with the blowtorch of modern angst, pro-union pride, working class anger, military hymns and humor, then cooled with a shower of sweet, sweet alcohol. Enjoy this Dirty Dozen with my compliments.
12. “Boys on the Docks,” Dropkick Murphys
A song about early Irish immigrants who were led by Johnny, who dedicated his life to helping them assimilate and make their new country a home. Performed with a pub song arrangement of acoustic guitars and handclaps in the studio, but punk electric guitar riffs in the live shows.
Lyrics:
And the boys on the docks needed John for sure.
When they came to this country he opened the door.
He said “Man I’ll tell ya, they don’t like our kind.
Though it starts with a fist it must end with your mind.”
11. “Streams of Whiskey,” The Pogues
You can argue they’re more of a traditional banjo and tin whistle band, but any group that formed as Pogue Mahone, which the Anglicized version of póg mo thóin, which means “kiss my arse” is counts in my book. And Shane MacGowan is the GOAT of frontmen. I could’ve picked virtually any Pogues song at random, including “Fairytale of New York,” even though it’s a Christmas song, and it would’ve belonged on this list. But I chose their most fun drinking song.
Lyrics:
When the world is too dark
And I need the light inside of me
I’ll walk into a bar
And drink fifteen pints of beer
10. “In Defense of Dorchester,” Street Dogs
I’m partial to this one not just because it’s a great jam, but also because I’m OFD. (If you have to ask, you’ll never get it.) In St. Mark’s Parish, since all my Dot Rat pals would want to know. My older brothers were raised there but my folks moved to the suburbs when I was like 2. Anyway, it’s not only a great piece of music, it totally goes against Punk tradition by being about pride in your town.
Lyrics:
Real communities, not idle zip codes
9. “Foggy Dew,” Young Dubliners
This song that commemorates the 1916 Easter Uprising is traditionally a slow, mournful ballad that’s been done by everyone from the Chieftains to the Wolfe Tones to Sinead O’Connor. And this version starts out that way, until it kicks into turbo and the pace quickens with screeching violin riffs and tin whistle. Which just heightens the anti-Brit sentiment.
Lyrics:
And the world did gaze in deep amaze
At those fearless men, but few
Who bore the fight that freedom’s light
Might shine through the foggy dew
8. “The Rocky Road to Dublin,” The Tossers
No St. Paddy’s playlist is worth even starting if you’re not going to include some version of this classic. Which has to hold the all time record for sheer volume of practically impossible-to-sing lyrics. I choose the version where the vocalist sound the drunkest.
Lyrics:
Took a drop of pure to keep me heart from shrinking
Thats the Paddy’s cure when’er he’s on for drinking;
7. “The Night Paddy Murphy Died,” Great Big Sea
Another traditional Irish song given a modern arrangement. Admittedly more Pop than Punk, but I love it. And this is my list and I’d do whatever the hell my pale Irish ass wants.
Lyrics:
As Mrs. Murphy sat in the corner pouring out her grief
Kelly and his gang came tearing down the street
They went into an empty room and a bottle of whiskey stole
They put the bottle with the corpse to keep that whiskey cold
6. “Tobacco Island,” Flogging Molly
The band does a lot of ballady numbers that are great. But Dave King’s vocals have never been better than in this 1659 story of being dragged off at the point of a musket by “Cromwell and his roundheads” to work the plantations in the Caribbean, getting daily beatings and losing all hope.
Lyrics:
All to hell we must sail
For the Shores of sweet Barbados
Where the sugar cane grows taller
Than the god we once believed in
5. “The Fields of Athenry,” Dropkick Murphys
I realize I have a lot of Murphys on here. Sue me. I can’t leave this one off. First because it’s an updating of one of the great Irish songs of all time. About a family man being shipped off to Botany Bay for the crime of stealing food so his child wouldn’t starve to death. By way of background, it was a favorite of USMC Sgt. Andrew Farrar Jr., who wrote to his family that he wanted the song played on the pipes at his funeral. Sadly, he was KIA soon thereafter, in 2005. And the Murphys fulfilled his wish. Standing outside my old church, St. Francis Xavier in Weymouth, MA. I can understand why he liked it so much. Semper Fi.
Lyrics:
Against the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they cut me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity
4. “Come Out Ye Black & Tans,” Irish Descendants
This is probably the most Irish song ever written, all things considered. Just boiling over with pride, bitterness, grudges, poetry, sarcasm, anti-British resentment and drunken aggressiveness. It’s about a family living among the people loyal to the Crown in Dublin and how the dad would “come home tight” and challenge them to come out of their houses and fight him in the street. This is why, if you’re in an authentic pub and ordering a drink that is Guinness floating on top of a lighter beer, you call it anything other than a Black & Tan, or else prepare for Shillelagh Law to break out all over your head.
Lyrics:
Come let us hear you tell how you slandered great Parnell,
When you thought him well and truly persecuted,
Where are the sneers and jeers that you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of ’16 were executed?
3. “My Head is Filled With Music,” The Real MacKenzies
This might not be the most well known on this list but it became a personal favorite of mine from the first listen. It’s about a soldier – probably Canadian since the band is from Vancouver – hitting the shore of Normandy on D-Day, and his commander orders him to play the pipes to lead the troops up the beach head. A story song filled with wailing bagpipes, heavy metal guitar riffs and Paul McKenzie’s pitch-perfect vocals.
Lyrics:
Piping through the gore and muck the
Germans thought me mad
Screelin’ ‘Highland Laddie’ raising
Courage in the lads
2. “Minstrel Boy,” Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
If this sounds familiar, it’s the closing theme to Black Hawk Down. So if you’ve heard it, it was in stunned silence with tears in your eyes and your fingernails dug into the arms of your chair. I guess sort of a pattern developed toward the end of this list since this is another song about a soldier with a musical instrument. In this case, a “warrior bard” who goes into battle armed with his father’s sword and his beloved harp. And the harp and he become metaphors for one another. Yes, it’s a slow ballad. But nothing sung by the late, great Rock God Joe Strummer of The Clash could ever not qualify as punk.
Lyrics:
No chains shall sully thee
Thou soul of love and brav’ry
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery
1. “The Worker’s Song,” Dropkick Murphys
This one just checks every box for me. A protest anthem for the working person who gets stripped of dignity every day by the suits through streamlining, automation, downsizing – even death – while they get fat off the labor of others. Working class pride expressed in furious vocals and chorus chants, all carried on a cushion of pipes, drums and whistles. A no-brainer as my top song on this playlist.
Lyrics:
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who’s given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we’ve never owned one lousy handful of earth?
Consider this my Irish Christmas present to you. Have a great holiday. Slainte.