Nuvem
17th September 2010, 23:12
Dick Gaughan is an Irish Scotsman born in 1948. He is a very talented guitarist, singer and songwriter, specifically in the Gaelic Folk genre. He's also an outspoken Socialist, Anti-Theist and Irish Republican and has supported worker empowerment all across the UK and Ireland for years;
"Lists his greatest influences as Karl Marx, Groucho Marx, Flann O'Brien, Bert Jansch, Betty Frieden, John Lennon, Vladimir Illych Lenin, Hugh MacDiarmid, Tim Berners-Lee, Davy Graham, Doc Watson, Hank Williams, Jeannie Robertson, Ewan MacColl, Somerled, Bertolt Brecht, his mother (Gaughan's mother, not Brecht's), his father (likewise), his grandparents, Calgacus, Dolina MacLennan, Crazy Horse, Sandy Denny, Martin Carthy, Clarence White, Sean O'Riada, Jack Mitchell, John MacLean, Big Bill Broonzy, Hamish Henderson, Robert Burns and everybody else he ever met, read, saw, heard or spoke with." (From his official website, http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/index.html - Boldening added for emphasis)
Since the 1970s he's been turning out a continual stream of brilliant music, much of it of his own writing, many excellent covers and others conversions of poems into song. There's too much content here to conceivably embed this post with windows to Youtube, so I'll just bombard your eyes with links of some of his best known work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6tGpyay0D4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ7oYCx6tBw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q38wBcVdJXM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2AHZ22SJ8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJIrAkJnS1I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP15bKvUpdw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nf1mtMMdt8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWzzvnPOyTM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PInNrFZQEwk&feature=related
The Red Flag, a collaborative (and charmingly Gaelic) edition recorded by Billy Bragg and Dick Gaughan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tItSl_RKc
This is just an introduction to Dick Gaughan's work. Anyone interested should pursue more info at his home website, which was made and is managed by Gaughan himself- I'll link it again at the end of the post. Frankly, this man is a national treasure for both Scotland and Ireland and for workers everywhere.
http://www.efmf.ab.ca/004.performers/004-01.pastyears/2009/2009-p.images/2009-p.DickGaughan.jpg
"I come like a comet new born
Like the sun that arises at morning
I come like the furious tempest
That follows a thundercloud's warning
I come like the fiery lava
From cloud-covered mountains volcanic
I come like a storm from the north
That the oceans awake to in panic
I come because tyranny planted
My seed in the hot desert sand
I come because masters have kindled
My fury with every command
I come because man cannot murder
The life-giving seed in his veins
I come because liberty cannot
Forever be fettered by chains
I come because tyrants imagine
That mankind is only their throne
I come because peace has been nourished
By bullets and cannon alone
I come because one world is two
And we face one another with rage
I come because guards have been posted
To keep out the hope of the age
From earliest times the oppressed
Have awaked me and called me to lead them
I guided them out of enslavement
And brought them to high roads of freedom
I marched at the head of their legions
And hailed a new world at its birth
And now I shall march with the peoples
Until they unfetter the earth
And you, all you sanctified moneybags
Bandits anointed and crowned
Your counterfeit towers of justice
And ethics will crash to the ground
I'll send my good sword through your hearts
That have drained the world's blood in their lust
Smash all your crowns and your sceptres
And trample them into the dust
I'll rip off your rich purple garments
And tear them to rags and to shreds
Never again will their glitter
Be able to turn people's heads
At last your cold world will be robbed of
It's proud hypocritical glow
For we shall dissolve it as surely
As sunlight dissolves the deep snow
I'll tear down your cobweb morality
Shatter the old chain of lies
Catch all your blackhooded preachers
And choke them as though they were flies
I'll put a quick end to your heavens
Your gods that are deaf to all prayer
Scatter your futile old spirits
And clean up the earth and the air
And though you may choke me and shoot me
And hang me your toil is in vain
No dungeon, no gallows can scare me
Nor will I be frightened by pain
Each time I'll arise from the earth
And break through all your weapons of doom
Until you are finished forever
Until you are dust in the tomb" -Revolution, from the album "A Different Kind of Love Song"
http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/index.html
"Lists his greatest influences as Karl Marx, Groucho Marx, Flann O'Brien, Bert Jansch, Betty Frieden, John Lennon, Vladimir Illych Lenin, Hugh MacDiarmid, Tim Berners-Lee, Davy Graham, Doc Watson, Hank Williams, Jeannie Robertson, Ewan MacColl, Somerled, Bertolt Brecht, his mother (Gaughan's mother, not Brecht's), his father (likewise), his grandparents, Calgacus, Dolina MacLennan, Crazy Horse, Sandy Denny, Martin Carthy, Clarence White, Sean O'Riada, Jack Mitchell, John MacLean, Big Bill Broonzy, Hamish Henderson, Robert Burns and everybody else he ever met, read, saw, heard or spoke with." (From his official website, http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/index.html - Boldening added for emphasis)
Since the 1970s he's been turning out a continual stream of brilliant music, much of it of his own writing, many excellent covers and others conversions of poems into song. There's too much content here to conceivably embed this post with windows to Youtube, so I'll just bombard your eyes with links of some of his best known work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6tGpyay0D4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ7oYCx6tBw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q38wBcVdJXM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2AHZ22SJ8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJIrAkJnS1I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP15bKvUpdw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nf1mtMMdt8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWzzvnPOyTM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PInNrFZQEwk&feature=related
The Red Flag, a collaborative (and charmingly Gaelic) edition recorded by Billy Bragg and Dick Gaughan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tItSl_RKc
This is just an introduction to Dick Gaughan's work. Anyone interested should pursue more info at his home website, which was made and is managed by Gaughan himself- I'll link it again at the end of the post. Frankly, this man is a national treasure for both Scotland and Ireland and for workers everywhere.
http://www.efmf.ab.ca/004.performers/004-01.pastyears/2009/2009-p.images/2009-p.DickGaughan.jpg
"I come like a comet new born
Like the sun that arises at morning
I come like the furious tempest
That follows a thundercloud's warning
I come like the fiery lava
From cloud-covered mountains volcanic
I come like a storm from the north
That the oceans awake to in panic
I come because tyranny planted
My seed in the hot desert sand
I come because masters have kindled
My fury with every command
I come because man cannot murder
The life-giving seed in his veins
I come because liberty cannot
Forever be fettered by chains
I come because tyrants imagine
That mankind is only their throne
I come because peace has been nourished
By bullets and cannon alone
I come because one world is two
And we face one another with rage
I come because guards have been posted
To keep out the hope of the age
From earliest times the oppressed
Have awaked me and called me to lead them
I guided them out of enslavement
And brought them to high roads of freedom
I marched at the head of their legions
And hailed a new world at its birth
And now I shall march with the peoples
Until they unfetter the earth
And you, all you sanctified moneybags
Bandits anointed and crowned
Your counterfeit towers of justice
And ethics will crash to the ground
I'll send my good sword through your hearts
That have drained the world's blood in their lust
Smash all your crowns and your sceptres
And trample them into the dust
I'll rip off your rich purple garments
And tear them to rags and to shreds
Never again will their glitter
Be able to turn people's heads
At last your cold world will be robbed of
It's proud hypocritical glow
For we shall dissolve it as surely
As sunlight dissolves the deep snow
I'll tear down your cobweb morality
Shatter the old chain of lies
Catch all your blackhooded preachers
And choke them as though they were flies
I'll put a quick end to your heavens
Your gods that are deaf to all prayer
Scatter your futile old spirits
And clean up the earth and the air
And though you may choke me and shoot me
And hang me your toil is in vain
No dungeon, no gallows can scare me
Nor will I be frightened by pain
Each time I'll arise from the earth
And break through all your weapons of doom
Until you are finished forever
Until you are dust in the tomb" -Revolution, from the album "A Different Kind of Love Song"
http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/index.html