Living and working in the nineties in New York I was reasonably familiar with
the presence of the Irish, particularly as cops and firefighters or
New York’s finest as my neighbor Bob Ryan would describe them. Bob
is a great man and third generation Irish and I don’t think the
Irish in him never left! The Irish community is one of the most
important ethnic groups in cities as New York and Boston. And all
these Irish boys and girls are around to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day on March 17! In NY the St. Patrick’s Parade is a massive green
parade passing by Fifth Avenue. Imagine: uniforms, cheergirls, drums
and pipers! Everyone wearing green at the workplace and in the
office, my contribution was usually a green-tie. At around 2PM when
the parade was finished the streets in NY were empty and the bars
were packed, drinking and singing and it was always a challenge to
find your way home. Getting to Grand Central and hopping on the New
Haven line direction Larchmont or Mamaroneck. Staying awake was the
trick because falling asleep you will certainly miss the station.
In
April 1995 I made a switch from wines into music. The German media
giant Bertelsmann music arm BMG offered me a job as vice president
global marketing with an underlining assignment: turn the company
around! The BMG Classics division was losing money for many years and
it better started showing results. Music as a business was new for
me, music as enjoyment was in me since I was 9 or so. I think my first single was "I've got to get a message to
you" from, yes the Bee Gees! BMG Classics was the owner of
classical music, jazz, worldmusic and soundtracks. Irish music was in
those days labeled as “worldmusic”.
It’s that time that Irish music and St. Patrick’s Day got a different meaning to me. BMG Classics managed the legendary label RCA Victor, many years ago this was the home of no less than the King, Elvis Presley!. In my days it featured artists such as: The Chieftains, James Galway, Phil Coulter, Aine Minogue, Cherish the Ladies and a few more. All these folks had an Irish or Boston Irish origin. St. Patrick’s Day became a hard day’s night for all of us working with the label. Most of these artists toured New York, New Jersey and Boston and we showed our dedication and support and went to the shows.
A
typical St. Patrick’s Day for me was around noon meeting the
artists in town, usually a lunch and briefing, some press events and
at 5PM in the stretch limo with the Chieftains to the Late Show with David Letterman at
the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Letterman invited the Chieftains many times
and they performed live, it was always a laugh with Paddy Maloney,
the bands capo, being interviewed with the sometimes very dry
Letterman. Around 8 PM cabbing to James Galway at Alice Tully Hall,
he played the more serious repertoire and included of course Danny
Boy. Jimmy the great flutists was from Belfast Northern Ireland. The
evening continued with the Chieftains, the majority of the
Chieftains’ are from Dublin, and their many guests included artists
and talent such as Ashley McIsaac and Carlos Nunez plus at least two
dozen Irish dancers in Carnegie Hall. The audience, of course with
Irish blood usually started clapping (really annoying) and dancing
after the first tunes from the band. After the concert we met in
Carnegie Hall’s greenroom and continued the evening at the
Fitzpatrick Hotel on Lexington, it was Paddy Maloney’s favorite.
Needless to say the Fitzpatrick was Irish! If that was not enough
and the Guinness kept flowing we made a stop at an Irish pub where of
course there was live music going on. I remember a gig were one member
of the Clancy Brothers was playing in the early hours. To my
knowledge none of the legendary Clancy Brothers are still alive.
Chieftains are together for over 40 years and is a remarkable bunch
of top musicians being held together by their leader Paddy Maloney.
Over the years the band played traditional Irish tunes as well as
bluegrass, country, classic and rock and had always a host of guest
touring with them of featured on albums such as the Long Black Veil.
This Grammy award winning album was spiced up with artists such as
Mick Jagger, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Roger Daltrey, Mark Knopfler,
Marianne Faithful and many more. A classic from the album is Van
Morrison “Have I told you lately that I love you”. Recently The
Low Anthem joined them onstage during their recent tour in the US
North East.
The
first time I met Paddy was in Dublin at the famous Windmill Lane
Studios. The Chieftains were recording “Tears of Stone”, with
a.o. Joni Mitchell. Halfway a session Paddy invited me leave the studio and talk a bit. In his old Mercedes we drove to a pub talked about
BMG, the Chieftains, music and new projects and he suggested having a sample of Guinness,
it was 9:30 AM and I was just of the Air Lingus (all green interior,
a tad hard for the eyes I must say) plane from NY-JFK, thus why not.
And after a few samples we were heading back to the studio. At the
same time and on another floor U2 was recording the vocals of their
album “Pop” (not their greatest). I am a U2 fan since their early
days thus I was keen to get a glimpse of what these lads were doing,
unfortunately that was not possible. Much to our surprise around 3PM
Bono showed up with his wife Ali and 2 daughters and spend a few
minutes with us to say hi to Paddy and the others. After all they are
all “Dubliners”. Since I was very well aware of the success of
the Long Black Veil album with the many rock artists I asked Paddy
innocently why don’t you make a song with Bono, without any
hesitation Paddy’s answered: He can’t sing! I have seen many
concerts of the Chieftains and U2 and each time these famous words
are playing around my head… he can’t sing!
Outside
Ireland, London and the US East Coast St Patrick’s Day it’s
basically a none event, for me ever since my music days in New York I
experience St. Patrick’s Day from a different angle and I am
pleased to notice that the roots of Celtic music continue to exist
and expand. These days through my loudspeakers blurs the music of: bien entendue the Chieftains, the Pogues, Floggin Molly Drunken
Lullabies
and Dropkick Murphys and Sunday afternoon, March 17, 2013 I will enjoy a sample of Guinness to the health of Paddy and the luck of the Irish!
Happy
St Paddy.
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