Top 10 Songs by Flogging Molly
I love Irish punk music. My favorite contemporary band is Flogging Molly. I love the way that songwriter and singer Dave King mixes traditional elements into his music, and the combination of great lyrics and high-energy, thoroughly engaging music. Of course, one of my favorite songs here is not written by the band, but they take it and make it uniquely theirs in their rowdy, rocking version.
A lot of these songs call on personal history or Irish history and tell stories, which is what the Irish do best. Remember that even the sad ones have either beautiful or invigorating melodies, so that nothing ever has a hopeless feeling; even the ones where the narrator is dying, as in “Far Away Boys,” feel uplifting.
Some of the information here about the songs’ meanings came from things Dave King said in concert, or on the DVD that came with “Whiskey on a Sunday,” which was wonderful. If I’ve gotten any small detail wrong, my apologies.
It was very hard to pick 10 songs as my favorites, but here goes:
1. Factory Girls- Within a Mile of Home
This was the first easy choice for me. This song both hurts and pleasures my heart every time I hear it. I love the way the song uses the traditional song “Factory Girls” while actually telling the story of a factory girl: “She hears a chorus of Factory Girls, singing in the streets,” and the poignant line:”Drinking buttermilk all the week, and whiskey on the Sunday.” In just so few words, the song captures such a slice of Irish history.
2. What’s Left of the Flag-Drunken Lullabies
The second, and last, of my easy choices. It could be about any war. “Walk away, me boys, walk away, me boys, And by morning we’ll be free; Wipe that golden tear from your mother, dear, And raise
what’s left of the flag for me.”
3. Rebels of the Sacred Heart-Drunken Lullabies
I’m not Catholic, and I don’t know Catholic guilt, but I love this song, anyway. I love the proud, rebellious, “Ok, there’s no escape from guilt but I’m going to live my life anyway,” tone of it and the exuberant, hard-driving, swirling music makes my feet move and my heart pump.
4. Black Friday Rule-Alive Behind the Green Door
This is Dave King’s autobiographical song, about coming to America and discovering that due to a mix-up in his papers he can’t go home. I love the live version, because he throws everything into it. Football (soccer, to Americans,) “It’s a long way to Tipperary,” long, wild, soaring pieces of music; it’s just an epic piece.
5. The Son Never Shines on Closed Doors-Drunken Lullabies
The song is about Dave’s mother. It was eight years before he got to leave America to go see her, and she had had a stroke. When he opened the door, she didn’t recognize him. It’s a classic story of a mother’s longing for her missing son.
6. What Made Milwaukee Famous
The only non-original song in my picks, the band takes this country classic by Jerry Lee Lewis and turns it into a great, rowdy Irish drinking song. It is absolutely irresistable.
7. Whistles the Wind- Within a Mile of Home
The sad, lonely feeling of this one is haunting: “Well it breaks my heart to see you this way,
The beauty in life, where’s it gone?And somebody told me, you were doing okay,Somehow I guess they were wrong…”
8.Drunken Lullabies-Drunken Lullabies
This one is about the futility of endlessly fighting and killing in Ireland, or any other place that uses patriotism as a goad: “Cause we find ourselves in the same old mess, Singing drunken lullabies..” And the music is straight-out Irish punk at its best.
9. Far Away Boys-Swagger
Dipping once again into Irish history, this time working on the railroad in America and dying far from home. The melody is beautiful and the “Far away boys, far away boys..” chorus will stay in your brain.
10. If I Ever Leave This World Alive-Drunken Lullabies
This one is a promise that love can exist and sustain even if death should come between. It is a sweet love song, in the truest sense, only with a rollicking beat.
