0:00:02 > 0:00:05ELVIS: # Oh, Danny boy... #
0:00:05 > 0:00:08Danny Boy has captivated millions.
0:00:08 > 0:00:13Elvis Presley believed the song must have been "written by angels".
0:00:13 > 0:00:16There is something about the lyric.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18It is so personal yet universal.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22And it sounds like it's absolutely speaking to the centre of you.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25From its birth in 1913,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29when an English barrister added lyrics to an ancient Irish melody,
0:00:29 > 0:00:34Danny Boy has travelled on a quite unprecedented journey.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy
0:00:37 > 0:00:39# The pipes are calling # Oh, Danny boy...#
0:00:39 > 0:00:42It became an anthem for the troops during World War I.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48For the Irish diaspora, it triggered tantalising memories
0:00:48 > 0:00:50of the land they'd left behind.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55All you had to do was hear Danny Boy and you were there!
0:00:55 > 0:00:57# But come ye back... #
0:00:57 > 0:01:021940s Hollywood musicals also embraced Danny Boy,
0:01:02 > 0:01:08while country musicians tapped into the song's dark themes.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09It just puts it out there -
0:01:09 > 0:01:12he's dead, somebody is walking above his grave...
0:01:12 > 0:01:14It's chilling in that way.
0:01:17 > 0:01:24In the 1980s, Danny Boy helped Barry McGuigan unite a troubled Ireland.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Whether you were Catholic or Protestant,
0:01:26 > 0:01:30they all felt that Danny Boy belonged to them. They owned it.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34It even allowed New Yorkers to grieve in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38That song moves people,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40and isn't that the idea?
0:01:40 > 0:01:42You want to move people?
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Throughout these very different eras, Danny Boy has survived.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48And flourished.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50It's going to go on for ever, that song.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Because it touches something deep in the soul.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy
0:01:56 > 0:01:57# I love you so... #
0:01:57 > 0:01:59It has mystery, Danny Boy.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01And that's a great thing for a song to have.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04# Danny boy, I love you so. #
0:02:15 > 0:02:17DANNY BOY PLAYED ON FIDDLE
0:02:17 > 0:02:21In 1851, in the County Londonderry town of Limavady,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24according to local myth,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28a music collector, Jane Ross, was intrigued by a beautiful melody
0:02:28 > 0:02:31she heard drifting across the town's main street.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35It was being played by a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry.
0:02:37 > 0:02:43One day Jane heard Jimmy playing this beautiful melody,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46so she went across and she asked him to play it
0:02:46 > 0:02:49over and over and over again,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53until she had taken down every note.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Jane Ross passed it on to Dublin antiquarian George Petrie,
0:02:56 > 0:03:02who published it in 1855 in The Ancient Music of Ireland.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05This help spread the tune further afield.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08It became known as the Londonderry Air.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Whoever had originally created this ancient melody,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15had constructed something quite brilliant.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21I think there's something about the way music works on our emotions
0:03:21 > 0:03:25that is more visceral and powerful, in a way, than words.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34# Dah, dah, dah, dahahh... #
0:03:34 > 0:03:36It's quite an unusual opening.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39And it doesn't start on a downbeat,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42it leaves three notes before you have the first downbeat.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45So you've got this slight sense of floating.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53It's one of these tunes that gives you the opportunity to use
0:03:53 > 0:03:56a lot of major chords, alternating with minor chords.
0:04:03 > 0:04:09Each phrase has a very similar, arched structure,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13and so it rises and then falls.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14It's almost like the sun coming out
0:04:14 > 0:04:17and then the clouds passing over it again, all the time.
0:04:17 > 0:04:18Which is very Irish!
0:04:19 > 0:04:21But I think that's what gives the song its poignancy.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24# Lah dah dah dahhh... #
0:04:24 > 0:04:26WORDLESS VOCALISING
0:04:26 > 0:04:28It's this... # Five, six, seven, eight... #
0:04:28 > 0:04:32..that are the degrees of scale, or... # Sol, la, ti, do... #
0:04:37 > 0:04:41And then it has got this wonderful leap up to the third.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44# Lah dah dah DAH... #
0:04:44 > 0:04:46And then an ending phrase,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49which starts with the same notes that the whole song started with.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52But then...
0:04:58 > 0:05:01It has a little ending phrase which is kind of tying it up
0:05:01 > 0:05:03and putting a little ribbon on it.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13By 1910, the Londonderry Air had yet to enter the gardens of middle England.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18That year, a successful English lawyer based in Bath,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22who moonlighted as a popular lyric writer, put pen to paper.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Fred Weatherly was a barrister.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33He lived between 1848 and 1929,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36but all his life he was a songwriter.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39He seemed to have a facility for writing verses very easily.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Weatherly was prolific.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47As well as penning over a thousand lyrics for tunes of the day,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50he wrote children's books, novels and poetry.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57But in 1910, Fred was uncharacteristically stumped.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01He just couldn't find a melody to fit his Danny Boy lyrics to.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06So he shelved the freshly-inked verses and waited for inspiration.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Fred was still waiting two years later, when he was visited
0:06:13 > 0:06:16by Eddie and Margaret, his brother and sister-in-law,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18who lived in Colorado.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Eddie had emigrated to the States and married Margaret,
0:06:23 > 0:06:24the daughter of an Irish immigrant.
0:06:26 > 0:06:32While growing up, Margaret had fallen in love with the old Irish airs her father sang to her.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41Fred later claimed that "a sister-in-law" had posted him
0:06:41 > 0:06:44the Londonderry Air sheet music from across the Atlantic ocean.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51In Fred's autobiography, he specifically uses the words
0:06:51 > 0:06:54"sent by my sister-in-law from America."
0:06:56 > 0:07:00That's therefore the story that was handed down in the family.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Quite why he uses those particular words,
0:07:07 > 0:07:14when it now appears that he was actually introduced to it first-hand,
0:07:14 > 0:07:16is a bit of a mystery.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23For decades, the world believed this was the truth -
0:07:23 > 0:07:27that Fred had been sent the sheet music all the way from Colorado.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31But new research by Fred's great-grandson,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33based on Margaret's writings,
0:07:33 > 0:07:38reveals how she sang the melody to Fred at his home in Bath.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44And she said that she then sang the melody of the Londonderry Air,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48and Fred, sitting at the piano, took up the melody
0:07:48 > 0:07:52and said, "This is the most beautiful melody I have ever heard."
0:07:52 > 0:07:55After waiting two years for a melody to fit his Danny Boy verses,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Fred, who had never set foot in Ireland,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01quickly realised that with just a few tweaks
0:08:01 > 0:08:04they would fit the Londonderry Air perfectly.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Weatherly, when he did that, was, like, "Hallelujah!"
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I have hit the jackpot here - emotionally.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15Financially, it's probably going to work out too!
0:08:15 > 0:08:18There's that feeling as a songwriter,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21when you get it right! I bet that's what Weatherly did - "Yeah!"
0:08:24 > 0:08:27But not everyone was thrilled.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Margaret Weatherly had planned to set her own lyrics to the air.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35When Danny Boy was published,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38she felt from then on that her words would never be heard.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43And that in many ways her birthright had been stolen by Fred.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49- SCRATCHY RECORDING - # Oh, Danny boy... #
0:09:01 > 0:09:06Danny Boy was published in 1913, on the eve of World War I.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08With no credit given to Margaret.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14Its lyrics immediately intrigued people.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21There's been a lot of speculation about Danny himself,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23and the pipes that are calling him.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25Calling him where?
0:09:25 > 0:09:27Calling him to what?
0:09:27 > 0:09:33People are very ingenious when it comes to inventing scenarios
0:09:33 > 0:09:38that fit the deliberately ambivalent nature of Weatherly's lyrics.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46As World War I began, Danny Boy, soaked in images of loss,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49but also hinting at a possible reunion,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52took on a special significance during these terrible times.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Quite a number of people actually see in the lyrics of the song
0:10:11 > 0:10:14a young man going off to war.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17The pipes are calling.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22Inviting a young man to take up uniform and go off to the war.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31The tune, the melody, is so evocative
0:10:31 > 0:10:36and the words that Weatherly put to the tune of Danny Boy
0:10:36 > 0:10:43just evoked a sense of longing, I think it is.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47And if you look at the postcards of the time,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49they are beautifully drawn,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53beautifully coloured, with soldiers saying goodbye and leaving,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57and so the notion that even war itself was sentimental.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01What's powerful about this song is that it's not sentimental,
0:11:01 > 0:11:06and yet everything in the song suggests it should be.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14The sentiment involved, knowing that they are going to be
0:11:14 > 0:11:16in war, under high risk of death,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20means that they are living on the edge.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Danny Boy sums up that edge,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25in exactly the same way as We'll Meet Again does.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29"If, when you come, all the flowers are dying,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34"If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39"Please come and find the place where I am lying,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42"And kneel and say an Ave there for me."
0:11:46 > 0:11:50A Long Way To Tipperary, Danny Boy -
0:11:50 > 0:11:54these were songs that became emotional anthems for the people
0:11:54 > 0:11:58who had to do the unthinkable, which was to possibly die.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02English opera singers like Elsie Griffin
0:12:02 > 0:12:06even sang Danny Boy while entertaining the troops in France.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13The song perfectly evoked all the hopes and fears of the British soldiers who fought during the war.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21You have First World War, you had the production of phonographs,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23you had the record industry taking off at the same time.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27You had the popularity of the music hall,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30the popularity of particular singers
0:12:30 > 0:12:33who gathered international reputations.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35It wasn't long before it gathered quite an appeal.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Over 200,000 Irishmen fought in World War I.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43Those that returned
0:12:43 > 0:12:47brought Danny Boy back from the trenches with them.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51But Ireland was now a very different place from the one they had left behind.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57In 1916 in Dublin, the revolutionary leaders of the Easter Rising
0:12:57 > 0:12:59had demanded independence for Ireland,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02after centuries of being ruled by England.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06When they were executed by the English,
0:13:06 > 0:13:11their deaths provoked a new desire for freedom amongst Irish nationalists.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15As WB Yeats declared - "A terrible beauty is born."
0:13:20 > 0:13:24The song had certainly an appeal to the Irish,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27particularly during the turbulent years leading
0:13:27 > 0:13:34from the uprising in 1916 through to the War of Independence.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42Many people could relate very easily with Danny Boy at this stage,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45with threats of death, with hopes for the future.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55Danny Boy caught the mood of change during this era.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58But the lyrics were not intended to be political.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05For some Irish, Danny Boy didn't give them all that it wanted,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08so it was decided to add a third verse.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14This third verse, in fact, actually was political.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17# But if I leave
0:14:19 > 0:14:24# And should you die for Ireland... #
0:14:27 > 0:14:30With the missing third verse, this is precisely what it does.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34It takes the story of Danny and the original voice
0:14:34 > 0:14:35of the first two verses,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39and projects it into a particular political context -
0:14:39 > 0:14:43that of Ireland attempting to free itself.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50After signing the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53the South of Ireland became a free state,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55separating from the North,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57which was now part of the United Kingdom.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Fred Weatherly appreciated that the song was resonating with
0:15:00 > 0:15:05the Irish, but he firmly believed that his tune was non-divisive.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09In his 1926 autobiography, Fred wrote that it was
0:15:09 > 0:15:13"Sung all over the world by Sinn Feinners and Ulstermen alike."
0:15:14 > 0:15:20So he had this notion of the song being all inclusive,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and indeed it is.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26So the song works on a personal level and a subjective level.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30It works on a political level, but transcends politics.
0:15:41 > 0:15:49# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
0:15:49 > 0:15:57# From glen to glen, and down the mountain side... #
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Danny Boy was now moving across the Atlantic.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Huge numbers of Irish had left for the New World
0:16:03 > 0:16:05in the 19th century.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09This mass migration to America continued in the 1920s
0:16:09 > 0:16:12and they took Danny Boy with them.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19A song like Danny Boy takes on a life of its own abroad,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21more so than it would at home,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25because they're home, they didn't leave.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27So, you know, it really it is the longing
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and loss of someone who's said goodbye or are the immigrant.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33And that's why it's so powerful in America.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36All you had to do was hear Danny Boy and you're there.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41It is a song about longing.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43And the Irish are very good at longing.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45They're very good at yearning.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Their poetry is full of it.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Their culture is full of it. Their stories are full of it.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53TRADITIONAL IRISH FOLK MUSIC
0:16:59 > 0:17:02For decades, Irish immigrants had
0:17:02 > 0:17:05been treated as second-class citizens.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07But in the 1920s and '30s,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10they were now imprinting themselves on American life.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15We broke open American society and we did it in several ways.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21With words, with boxing and sports and politics.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25We laughed at ourselves, we danced, we gloried, and in the meantime,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28were taking in songs like Danny Boy.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33# Remember then...
0:17:38 > 0:17:42The Irish tenor John McCormack was internationally
0:17:42 > 0:17:44famous during this time.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46He helped establish the tune in the States
0:17:46 > 0:17:48beyond the Irish-American communities.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55It is incredible to think, without the use of the internet
0:17:55 > 0:17:57and mobile phones,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59all of these incredible tools we have now, that man physically
0:17:59 > 0:18:04went round that enormous country and stood up, when I suppose sound equipment
0:18:04 > 0:18:10was at its most basic, and fill a room the size of a baseball stadium.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Because people came in their thousands to hear him sing.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15RAGTIME-STYLE MUSIC
0:18:28 > 0:18:31It was only a matter of time before Danny Boy moved into
0:18:31 > 0:18:341940s Hollywood...
0:18:34 > 0:18:38with the help of John McCormack.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41I think his version of Danny Boy would have been
0:18:41 > 0:18:45one of the conduits through which the Londonderry Air in its Danny Boy
0:18:45 > 0:18:50format would have made its way into Hollywood.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55Once there, I think film-makers would have realised its potential.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04The golden age of Hollywood musicals, featuring
0:19:04 > 0:19:08stars like Judy Garland and Diana Durbin, was in the ascendant.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Diana Durbin was awesome. Judy Garland was a rival.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19Judy Garland considered her a rival, that's how big she was.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24You have promise, and in a few years, a very few years, possibly,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26I want you to come to me again.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Through the picture, Diana Durbin is trying to impress
0:19:32 > 0:19:35Charles Laughton because she wants a job.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38She's being very phoney, she's putting on airs.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43And, of course, what better song to show who she really is,
0:19:43 > 0:19:45what her emotions are, the depth of her feeling,
0:19:45 > 0:19:50her ability to act, to deliver, than Danny Boy?
0:19:50 > 0:19:52I like that.
0:19:52 > 0:20:00# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling... #
0:20:02 > 0:20:05'He hears it and he goes, "This woman can act, she's got depth,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07'"she can do it.'
0:20:07 > 0:20:10And that's the way Hollywood says,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12"That's how you know she's for real, people.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15"This is how you know, cos she's delivering Danny Boy."
0:20:15 > 0:20:18And boy, does she deliver!
0:20:18 > 0:20:20We'd...better get to work.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25What happens is, I think,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29is Danny Boy breaks free o' its Irish moorings
0:20:29 > 0:20:34and becomes part of the American soundscape.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40JAZZ VERSION OF DANNY BOY
0:20:40 > 0:20:42And it becomes a standard,
0:20:42 > 0:20:48and it becomes a testing ground for people to try out new things with.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54So you have all the big jazz orchestras all have a go at it,
0:20:54 > 0:20:59because it's long enough established for people to recognise what it is,
0:20:59 > 0:21:04but yet to think, "This is different from the last version I heard.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06"This does something slightly different,
0:21:06 > 0:21:11"harmonically or in terms of its orchestration or its arrangement."
0:21:13 > 0:21:17So I think it becomes an established part of the soundscape.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21And one of those songs, one of those pieces of music that's
0:21:21 > 0:21:25instantly identifiable, yet endlessly adaptable.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28BLUESSTYLE SINGING
0:21:28 > 0:21:36# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
0:21:38 > 0:21:42# From glen to glen... #
0:21:42 > 0:21:47Danny Boy tapped into black American moods of melancholy and hope.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51# The summer's gone... #
0:21:51 > 0:21:55So you can feel this kind of yearning for something beyond,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57yearning for something lost.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Which I think the African-American community would have connected
0:22:01 > 0:22:03with in this song.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08Because this Irish song and the blues are so close together.
0:22:08 > 0:22:17# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
0:22:17 > 0:22:24# Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow... #
0:22:26 > 0:22:28In the second half of the 1950s,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32the biggest black crossover star of the day was drawn to Danny Boy.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37The time, time of strife.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42The place, the place is Ireland.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49And as Irish legend has it, when the last rose of summer fell,
0:22:49 > 0:22:55and all the men of Ireland were to gather together and to take up arms,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59there were songs for those that stayed at home,
0:22:59 > 0:23:01and for those that went away.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04And all of Ireland was sad.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Harry's opening monologue, I think, is all about universalism.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12I think it's about the brotherhood of man.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16# Oh, Danny boy
0:23:20 > 0:23:27# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #
0:23:27 > 0:23:32He's pulling it apart to find the power that constant usage
0:23:32 > 0:23:37and constant listening has somehow deprived us of.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39# ..The mountainside... #
0:23:41 > 0:23:44So going back, as it were, to the to the initial power of the song
0:23:44 > 0:23:47and saying, "Listen again.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51"Listen to the way I'm singing it very slowly,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54"thinking about every word.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58"Can you hear in it what I hear in it when I sing it?"
0:23:58 > 0:24:02And that's the challenge he makes of the listener.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06# But come ye back
0:24:06 > 0:24:13# When summer's in the meadow
0:24:14 > 0:24:20# Or when the valley's hushed
0:24:20 > 0:24:25# And white with snow
0:24:27 > 0:24:34# I'll be here in sunshine
0:24:34 > 0:24:38# Or in shadow
0:24:41 > 0:24:47# Oh, Danny boy
0:24:47 > 0:24:52# Oh, Danny boy
0:24:52 > 0:24:57# I'll miss you so. #
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Harry Belafonte included Danny Boy on two massive-selling
0:25:03 > 0:25:06albums in the late 1950s.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Propelling the song far beyond the Irish
0:25:08 > 0:25:10and black populations of America.
0:25:17 > 0:25:23JACKIE WILSON: # Oh, Danny boy
0:25:27 > 0:25:33# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #
0:25:34 > 0:25:35At the very same time,
0:25:35 > 0:25:37rhythm and blues singers were
0:25:37 > 0:25:40teasing out a hidden side of the tune.
0:25:41 > 0:25:47# And down the mountain side... #
0:25:50 > 0:25:56Jackie Wilson's version is completely different from everybody else.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02I picture slow dancing, wearing a wiggle dress...in a...
0:26:02 > 0:26:05smoky lounge.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07# It's you, it's you... #
0:26:09 > 0:26:12You know, you're dancing with your friends, your boyfriend
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and the lights are low and that's what you dance to.
0:26:18 > 0:26:27# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow... #
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Getting a few kisses on the neck from your partner. It's totally...
0:26:31 > 0:26:35He makes it almost sensual and sexy.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43The song is also about your youth passing,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46it's about a moment in time that's ending.
0:26:46 > 0:26:54It's about when you were really happy or you were really...grounded
0:26:54 > 0:26:57in a feeling that this is the person you should be with.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01# Oh...
0:27:01 > 0:27:09# For me. #
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Rock'n'roll music, if you like it, if you feel it,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14you can't help but move to it.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17That's what happens to me, I can't help it,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19I have to move around. I can't stand still.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21I've tried it, I can't do it.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23# Well, it's one for the money
0:27:23 > 0:27:24# Two for the show
0:27:24 > 0:27:27# Three to get ready, now go, cat, go
0:27:27 > 0:27:31# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes... #
0:27:31 > 0:27:33In 1958, the very same year
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Jackie Wilson was recording Danny Boy,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38the sky-rocketing career
0:27:38 > 0:27:40of the most iconic rock'n'roll star in the world
0:27:40 > 0:27:43was suddenly put on ice.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Drafted into the US Army, Elvis Presley was stationed
0:27:47 > 0:27:49thousands of miles away in Germany.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53That was a huge break for him, then,
0:27:53 > 0:27:55because he became real again.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57In other words, he was himself.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59No-one could get at him.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04He became thoughtful, the lyrics, the songs he chose,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07became very much lyric, rather than rock, orientated.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09He started doing ballads.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13He had a huge range in his voice, Elvis.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15And, of course, he recorded Danny Boy.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20Danny Boy had been a Presley family favourite.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23MUSIC: "Danny Boy" by Elvis Presley
0:28:23 > 0:28:27# Oh Danny boy... #
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Just before Elvis left for Germany, his mother, Gladys, died.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34He had been incredibly close to her.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38He'd sit there and play music and songs that reminded him of home
0:28:38 > 0:28:41and he was desperately homesick.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47He was definitely singing Danny Boy
0:28:47 > 0:28:50to think of home and his dad and his family.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57# And all the roses falling... #
0:28:57 > 0:29:01I think he's singing it the way the song should be sung -
0:29:01 > 0:29:05you know, the original versions from the early 1900s
0:29:05 > 0:29:11are so operatic and...almost forceful.
0:29:11 > 0:29:18# But come ye back when summer... #
0:29:18 > 0:29:23And he's singing it with such a delicacy.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28You can hear the heart break and he's plucking those guitar strings
0:29:28 > 0:29:30like they were heart strings.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33And he thought it was such a beautiful sound,
0:29:33 > 0:29:34that it was hymnal, almost.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36It was spiritual, for him.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40"Written by angels" was a phrase that came to be associated
0:29:40 > 0:29:41with Elvis and that song.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45So I think that's what he saw in the song, and he was lonely -
0:29:45 > 0:29:50you can imagine a guy, used to all the adulation and everything,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54and being damned by preachers, because he was shaking his hips.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56Then all of a sudden,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00he goes to this place and he finds a spiritual way
0:30:00 > 0:30:02of expressing himself through music.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06And Danny Boy was one of the songs he used to do that
0:30:06 > 0:30:09and he found out that he wasn't the Devil after all.
0:30:13 > 0:30:14Fred Weatherly's Danny Boy
0:30:14 > 0:30:17was now infiltrating more and more genres of music.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21# Oh, Danny boy
0:30:21 > 0:30:26# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #
0:30:26 > 0:30:30Well, Irish music and country music are really related,
0:30:30 > 0:30:31because the Irish came over
0:30:31 > 0:30:33and went to the Appalachians,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37and then eventually down into Nashville,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41and the music...it didn't change that much.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44I mean, Danny Boy sounds like a country song.
0:30:44 > 0:30:50# It's you must go and I must stay... #
0:30:50 > 0:30:54Country music, the narratives are so powerful.
0:30:54 > 0:31:02There are real topics about...longing and home
0:31:02 > 0:31:04and death and travel
0:31:04 > 0:31:08and loss - loss beyond the loss of a love,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10but loss of one's family, loss of one's home.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13# ..are in shadow... #
0:31:13 > 0:31:16There's always a little mini-drama going on in those songs,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19and of course, within Danny Boy, that's exactly what's going on -
0:31:19 > 0:31:21there's a little drama happening.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29# I hear the train a-coming
0:31:29 > 0:31:31# It's rolling round the bend
0:31:31 > 0:31:35# And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when... #
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Johnny Cash's life was full of mini-dramas.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44The mid-1960s was a turbulent time for this outlaw country star.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46His addictions and destructive behaviour
0:31:46 > 0:31:48resulted in a number of arrests.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54Cash released his version of Danny Boy in 1965.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59One of the first stories I ever remember my dad telling
0:31:59 > 0:32:02was one that an Irish immigrant told him,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06and according to that particular source of information,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08there was this boy named Daniel McKinney
0:32:08 > 0:32:10working in the fields one morning,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13and across the fields came his sweetheart, Rosalie,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17she came crying, with tears in her eyes.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Later, someone put down into a song
0:32:20 > 0:32:23some of the things Rosalie told Daniel.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27She said, "Daniel, there's a bloody war a-raging
0:32:27 > 0:32:30"and I've come to tell you that they're wanting you to fight.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33"Go, fight for Ireland, but come back to me, Daniel.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35"I'll be waiting."
0:32:35 > 0:32:38He's trying to establish, for the listener,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40the importance of this song,
0:32:40 > 0:32:42for him, as an artist -
0:32:42 > 0:32:44where he learnt it,
0:32:44 > 0:32:45who he learnt it from,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48why it was important to somebody like his father,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51with whom he has a troubled relationship.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56And that troubled relationship continues on into the performance.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01# But if you fall
0:33:01 > 0:33:05# As all the flowers are fallin'
0:33:07 > 0:33:11# And if you're dead
0:33:11 > 0:33:14# As dead you well may be... #
0:33:14 > 0:33:18My dad has a lot of respect for his parents
0:33:18 > 0:33:24and he was brought up thinking that no matter...what the parent did,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27you had to respect them, you had to show respect.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31I think there was something deeply lacking in his relationship
0:33:31 > 0:33:32with his dad, you know?
0:33:32 > 0:33:35# ..an Ave there for thee
0:33:38 > 0:33:42# But come ye back
0:33:42 > 0:33:47# When summer's in the meadow
0:33:48 > 0:33:55# Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow... #
0:33:55 > 0:33:58And we know he's a troubled personality,
0:33:58 > 0:34:03so that personality makes its way into the lyric
0:34:03 > 0:34:07and then we see it in a different...perspective.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10no longer as a straightforward love song.
0:34:10 > 0:34:15# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy
0:34:15 > 0:34:18# I love you so. #
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Johnny Cash glimpsed the dark shadows
0:34:23 > 0:34:25flickering across Danny Boy.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40The song's success in country music, Hollywood and black America
0:34:40 > 0:34:44all boosted its reputation back in Ireland.
0:34:44 > 0:34:54# ..here in sunshine
0:34:54 > 0:35:00# Or in shadow... #
0:35:00 > 0:35:04By the 1960s, the song that English barrister Fred Weatherly
0:35:04 > 0:35:06wrote decades earlier
0:35:06 > 0:35:10had now seeped into the very fabric of Irish life.
0:35:12 > 0:35:22# I love you so. #
0:35:25 > 0:35:27You sort of grew up
0:35:27 > 0:35:29with Danny Boy just being there,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32the way the Our Father is there.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35It's part of growing up, it's everywhere.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38The down side of it was...everybody has a drunk uncle
0:35:38 > 0:35:41who sings Danny Boy, especially at family events,
0:35:41 > 0:35:43like weddings, when you cringe.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46But despite the number of times it has been brutalised
0:35:46 > 0:35:48by drunk men at weddings,
0:35:48 > 0:35:49it's still a great song.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52# But come ye back
0:35:52 > 0:35:56# When summer's in the meadow
0:35:56 > 0:35:58# Or when the valley's... #
0:35:58 > 0:36:01It's usually at the end of an evening,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03just before you're thrown out.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07I mean, when it gets to Danny Boy,
0:36:07 > 0:36:09it's time to go.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15Any person who wishes to parade...
0:36:15 > 0:36:19SHOUTING AND SCREAMING
0:36:19 > 0:36:22But by the late 1960s, the Troubles began.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Violence, both Republican and Loyalist,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34mostly dormant since the early 1920s,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38reasserted itself, blackening the mood of the country.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47You'd just see that pall of gloom descend on everything.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50And people walking with slumped shoulders
0:36:50 > 0:36:53and no activity at night, people wouldn't go out at night.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Live entertainment was not happening.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00It was very dark and what we badly needed then was a hero.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09It was a very difficult time,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11it was a very sad time,
0:37:11 > 0:37:13a treacherous time,
0:37:13 > 0:37:14and every corner you turned,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17the flagstones were painted one colour or the other.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28Barry McGuigan was a Catholic, born in the border town of Clones.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35I spent my life crossing divisions and crossing barriers and borders
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and breaking down these supposed no-nos
0:37:39 > 0:37:42and it was very important to me.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44I mean, the girl I grew up with and loved,
0:37:44 > 0:37:46she lived across the road, she happened to be a Protestant.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49And she happened to go to school in the North.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52And I'd spent my entire life travelling into the North,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56boxing in the North, not...just not taking notice
0:37:56 > 0:37:59of the potential dangers.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01That's it - McGuigan is through...
0:38:01 > 0:38:03During his amateur years,
0:38:03 > 0:38:08McGuigan realised boxing could be a unifying force.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12I think sport has a unique ability to bring people together -
0:38:12 > 0:38:15different races and different religions.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18And I've seen it in my own life. I'm proof of it.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22And, you know...and Danny Boy...
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Danny Boy had a lot to do with that too.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30At the beginning of the 1980s,
0:38:30 > 0:38:32now a professional featherweight boxer,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35McGuigan had a quick succession of wins.
0:38:35 > 0:38:41Then, in 1985, he challenged the Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza
0:38:41 > 0:38:43for the biggest prize of them all - the world title.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49We knew that when I fought for the world title that we would have to
0:38:49 > 0:38:51play an anthem.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53I didn't want to play either the Irish national anthem
0:38:53 > 0:38:55or the British national anthem. It was important,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58and all the way through my career
0:38:58 > 0:39:01I didn't want people feeling ill-at-ease going to my events,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03I wanted to make them feel not threatened
0:39:03 > 0:39:05because there was enough threatening stuff going on all around us.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08And, so, we all decided Dad would sing Danny boy.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Barry's father, Pat, was a professional singer
0:39:14 > 0:39:19and had been Ireland's entry in the 1968 Eurovision Song contest.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23But in 1985 at Loftus Road,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26this would be the biggest audience of his career.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29It was Phil Coulter who arranged the version of Danny Boy
0:39:29 > 0:39:32that Pat would sing that evening.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Would Pat have the bottle for it?
0:39:34 > 0:39:38Because bearing in mind it's Barry's dad who's fighting
0:39:38 > 0:39:40for the world title, it's a very emotional song.
0:39:42 > 0:39:48# ..to glen and down the mountain side
0:39:51 > 0:39:55# The summer's gone
0:39:55 > 0:40:00# And all the flowers are dying... #
0:40:01 > 0:40:04It was very important to me but it was also very important to him
0:40:04 > 0:40:06because he was telling me how much he loved me, and I was
0:40:06 > 0:40:11going into battle, and I was doing something that was very dangerous,
0:40:11 > 0:40:15and, you know, lots of people have been killed in boxing bouts.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18So, for him, it was not just singing to the audience,
0:40:18 > 0:40:20but it was a message to me.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25# But come ye back
0:40:25 > 0:40:32# When summer's in the meadow
0:40:32 > 0:40:38# And when the valley's hushed
0:40:38 > 0:40:43# And white with snow
0:40:43 > 0:40:47# 'Tis I'll be here
0:40:47 > 0:40:53# In sunshine or in shadow... #
0:40:53 > 0:40:57Jim Sheridan was there that night.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59It was electric.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04It was really powerful. And we needed that win, you know?
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Needed that something good to happen.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:41:13 > 0:41:17It was a religious event, you know? Everybody was singing.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21I looked around and everybody, but everybody, was singing
0:41:21 > 0:41:24because we were getting behind our boy.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26We were confirming our Irishness.
0:41:26 > 0:41:31Pedroza, 5'10", four inches taller, long reach.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36The world title fight went to the very final round.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38Paddy Byrne in my corner said to me,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41"Barry, you've got three minutes to beat one of the best
0:41:41 > 0:41:45"featherweights this century." I say, "Is this the last round?"
0:41:45 > 0:41:48"Yes, it's the last round." That's how pumped up I was,
0:41:48 > 0:41:53that's how enthusiastic I was, and that's driven and determined I was.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57And a part of that drive was to make sure that
0:41:57 > 0:42:00I would win it for the people of Ireland, North and South.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02By unanimous decision...
0:42:02 > 0:42:04CHEERING
0:42:04 > 0:42:10- ..Barry McGuigan...- McGuigan is the champion of the world!
0:42:10 > 0:42:14I think it's Seamus Heaney says, "There was one amongst us who stood taller than the rest."
0:42:14 > 0:42:18And for such a short fella, he stands very tall in our history.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22And he is absolutely a prime example of how
0:42:22 > 0:42:25when you're the best at something, regardless of what
0:42:25 > 0:42:28somebody else's politics are, that's enough and people will follow.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32And he became absolutely the epitome of what it was
0:42:32 > 0:42:36to succeed at sport, and to rise above political division.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43Danny Boy had shown the world it was the perfect vehicle to bridge
0:42:43 > 0:42:45the divide between the two communities.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49This song is probably the greatest ballad that was ever written.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53And the words are very clever, but the melody is the thing.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56You can wrap that melody around everything.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58And it means so much to you.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00If you look, in sunshine, or in shadow,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04the song is both uplifting and melancholic.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07I'd like to think I brought some sunshine into people's life
0:43:07 > 0:43:09when I was fighting, I know I did.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13And the melancholy was also something they could remember
0:43:13 > 0:43:18and they could relate it to certain aspects of their life.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20And Danny Boy is just a hugely, hugely amazing song.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28RAPPING: Danny boy, Danny boy The pipes are calling...
0:43:28 > 0:43:33By the 1990s, Danny Boy was even entering the world of New York hip-hop.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37Danny boy! You know it's Danny boy!
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Danny boy!
0:43:40 > 0:43:46So huge was the song's reputation now that it was ripe for subversion.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48DANNY BOY SCRATCHED ON TURNTABLE
0:43:48 > 0:43:52Larry Kirwan and his Irish-American band, Black 47,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56were taking the now sacred status of Danny Boy
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and undermining it for their own fun.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05My idea was to have a new Danny Boy,
0:44:05 > 0:44:10an Irish, gay construction worker.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13# One day on the job the foreman said
0:44:13 > 0:44:16# Danny boy, we think you're a fag
0:44:16 > 0:44:18# With your ponytail and that ring in your ear
0:44:18 > 0:44:21# We don't need no homos foulin' up the air... #
0:44:21 > 0:44:25He has interpreted Danny Boy
0:44:25 > 0:44:31as a gay labourer, singing to his lover!
0:44:31 > 0:44:34Here was this song that was right in front of you,
0:44:34 > 0:44:40and you have to deal with the hero, and the hero is not unlike you.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43The only difference is, he is a different sexuality.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48And it just pisses people off!
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Oh, it was like putting Silent Night to jazz, you know?!
0:44:52 > 0:44:55HE IMITATES WHINGEING CHILD
0:44:55 > 0:44:58But that's Larry, and he's not gay, I mean, he's...
0:44:58 > 0:45:03But that was just his way of kind of making a bit of fun of it.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08# But come ye back
0:45:08 > 0:45:13# When summer's in the meadow... #
0:45:13 > 0:45:16American movie directors like the Coen Brothers
0:45:16 > 0:45:18also realised they could have fun with Danny Boy
0:45:18 > 0:45:21and exploit the song for its ironic potential.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25# ..and white with snow... #
0:45:25 > 0:45:30They found what they believed was the most beautiful,
0:45:30 > 0:45:33the most evocative Irish song
0:45:33 > 0:45:35that they could find,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37and they cut it with real violence.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48The scene itself is operatic.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53# ..the flowers dying
0:45:53 > 0:46:01# If I am dead, as dead I well may be... #
0:46:01 > 0:46:05The scene at the window, where the man uses the machine gun
0:46:05 > 0:46:07and he shoots out the gunman,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11that's teased out to its cartoonish extreme.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20The action lasts for the entire length of the song.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23The song ends when the action does.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27To the very last chord of the orchestra,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29which ends with the explosion of a car.
0:46:31 > 0:46:37# ..and tell me that you love me... #
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Everybody suspects that it's a lullaby,
0:46:41 > 0:46:47or, you know, a nice song, a song of peace and longing,
0:46:47 > 0:46:52and to contrast it with that level of violence is really smart.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55You know? I'm not sure an Irish person could do that, you know?
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Despite these occasional moments of mischief,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11by the end of the 20th century
0:47:11 > 0:47:14Danny Boy was increasingly viewed as a secular hymn.
0:47:15 > 0:47:20There's sadness, there's loneliness, there's moments together.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23There's beauty, there's flowers dying, there's flowers blooming.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26There's kneeling and saying a prayer there.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29But there's also, "This isn't the end, we'll meet again."
0:47:34 > 0:47:36The Londonderry Air had been played
0:47:36 > 0:47:39at the funerals of both President Kennedy and Princess Diana.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44While Danny Boy itself was performed at Elvis Presley's wake.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49There's a wonderful sense of, even though
0:47:49 > 0:47:51we know this is the end, it's not the end.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55And I love that about it, and I think that's what comforts people about it.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04But in June 2001, when Danny Boy was sung
0:48:04 > 0:48:08during the funeral of Irish-American actor Carroll O'Connor,
0:48:08 > 0:48:12certain people believed enough was enough.
0:48:13 > 0:48:19The archdiocese of New York, of Rhode Island, of Boston,
0:48:19 > 0:48:25banned the singing of any secular songs
0:48:25 > 0:48:29or any playing of secular music at funerals.
0:48:30 > 0:48:35It so happened that these archdioceses put that ban into effect
0:48:35 > 0:48:39just before 9/11.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44And such bad timing you never saw in your whole life.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03Firefighter Tim Geraghty was part of the rescue effort on 9/11.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08Tim lost many firefighting friends that day.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14Following the terrorist attack, he continued to work at Ground Zero.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19So, your days were spent, you know,
0:49:19 > 0:49:21being down there with the ironworkers,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24and all the other rescue workers, and if they found something
0:49:24 > 0:49:26you'd go in and assist, you'd go in and dig by hand
0:49:26 > 0:49:29and you'd do what you could,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33and you'd maybe pull somebody out, and it quickly became a rescue...
0:49:33 > 0:49:36a recovery effort, rather than a rescue effort.
0:49:39 > 0:49:44343 New York firefighters, many of them of Irish descent,
0:49:44 > 0:49:46lost their lives on 9/11.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53We would break for lunch in this cantina,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55and one day this captain I was working with
0:49:55 > 0:49:57tapped me on the shoulder and said,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59"Hey, do you see that guy who's serving you food?"
0:49:59 > 0:50:03I go, "Yeah." He says, "That's Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor."
0:50:03 > 0:50:07And I looked at him, I said, "Yeah!" I go, "That's Ronan Tynan."
0:50:07 > 0:50:11And he asked Ronan to sing a song.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15So, Ronan finally agreed, and he had this big chef hat on,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18so he just takes the chef hat off, he has a big spoon in his hand,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21and he takes the spoon and he just starts singing Danny Boy.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26# Oh, Danny boy
0:50:26 > 0:50:31# The pipes, the pipes are calling
0:50:31 > 0:50:35# From glen to glen
0:50:35 > 0:50:38# And down the mountain side... #
0:50:40 > 0:50:43And within an instant, his voice filled the whole room,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45and the place went silent.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49And he sang that song, and I'll tell you what,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52there was men in there that were moved to tears.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55It was like one of those moments, it was a goosebump moment,
0:50:55 > 0:50:59and it was dead silent, and he sang Danny Boy, and he finished,
0:50:59 > 0:51:01and it was still silent,
0:51:01 > 0:51:05and he took his chef hat, he put it back on,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07and he just sat there and he was, like, "Next!"
0:51:07 > 0:51:09And he just started serving food again.
0:51:09 > 0:51:16# And I shall sleep in peace
0:51:16 > 0:51:23# Until you come to... #
0:51:25 > 0:51:29In the aftermath of 9/11, contrary to the wishes of those
0:51:29 > 0:51:34Catholic dioceses, Danny Boy was performed at a number of funerals.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Why can't Danny Boy be played?
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Because the song moves people, and isn't that the idea?
0:51:42 > 0:51:46You want to move people, you want people to remember,
0:51:46 > 0:51:50you want people to think about why they're at a funeral.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Sacred music is what your mother sang to you when you were a child,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57that's what's sacred,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00and if someone wants that for their son who's been killed,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03that's bloody sacred, and so that's what they told
0:52:03 > 0:52:07the archdiocese and so forth, and that's how Danny boy,
0:52:07 > 0:52:12or the Londonderry Air, got played and sung at most of these funerals,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and they said to the archdiocese,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17"Up yours, we're going to do anyway,
0:52:17 > 0:52:19"and you can excommunicate us if you want."
0:52:19 > 0:52:22JAZZ VERSION OF DANNY BOY
0:52:28 > 0:52:31# Oh, Danny boy
0:52:33 > 0:52:37# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #
0:52:37 > 0:52:42As Danny Boy was recorded again and again, vocalists of the 21st century
0:52:42 > 0:52:44like Tara O'Grady
0:52:44 > 0:52:49looked back into the past to breathe new life into the song.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53I've taken a sad song and changed it.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55I swing it, so it's a little more up-tempo
0:52:55 > 0:52:59because I don't want to be sad when I'm singing it.
0:52:59 > 0:53:06It's got soul, and more so than any other Irish traditional song.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08I think that's why you can take it anywhere.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10# ..when summer's... #
0:53:10 > 0:53:13But even in the new Millennium,
0:53:13 > 0:53:18singers still struggle to reach that infamous Danny Boy high note.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22I mean, as a singer, Danny Boy is quite an undertaking.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24You don't quite realise it, because most people go, oh, yeah,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Danny Boy... # Oh, Danny boy The pipes, the pipes are calling. #
0:53:28 > 0:53:30Sounds kind of OK, not too much of a range.
0:53:30 > 0:53:39# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow. #
0:53:39 > 0:53:41And then you get to the first chorus.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45# And I shall hear though soft you tread above me. #
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Right, so again, getting up there, but not crazy.
0:53:48 > 0:53:56# 'Tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow. #
0:53:56 > 0:53:59You see, that's the part everyone has trouble with!
0:53:59 > 0:54:04# Then you shall hear whisper that you love me. #
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Now I'm doing that in my kind of falsetto voice.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09I just go up like, # Der... #
0:54:09 > 0:54:13I do the falsetto thing that I hear often, and you'll hear in,
0:54:13 > 0:54:18like, doo-wop or jazz or blues singers, they'll just do this.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21That's the only I could figure out how to do it, how to cover it,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24otherwise if I didn't do that, I couldn't go up there.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27So be very careful what key you start it in, because you're going
0:54:27 > 0:54:33to end up on very dangerous ground if you don't hit those notes.
0:54:36 > 0:54:41Danny Boy is easily Fred Weatherly's most famous lyric.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45He had died a national figure, and a rich man, in 1929.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51But his Irish-American sister-in-law, Margaret,
0:54:51 > 0:54:53who introduced him to the Londonderry Air which had
0:54:53 > 0:54:58fitted his Danny Boy verses so perfectly, was not so fortunate.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02Fred's brother, Eddie, and Margaret,
0:55:02 > 0:55:07had been receiving a small allowance from Fred until his death.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10But when Eddie died during America's Great Depression,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12Margaret's life fell apart.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Fred's great-grandson, Anthony Mann,
0:55:17 > 0:55:19has recently discovered writings of Margaret's
0:55:19 > 0:55:22in which she expressed her anger at Fred
0:55:22 > 0:55:26for failing to acknowledge her role in the creation of Danny Boy.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32"How could he leave the false statement that he had
0:55:32 > 0:55:36"Danny Boy sent to him? It is a bitter pill to me.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40"I always felt pain that I lost something."
0:55:40 > 0:55:42Margaret didn't have a legal case to stand on
0:55:42 > 0:55:49because he didn't plagiarise her, but I think there's a moral issue.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52I think Margaret gave something of her to him
0:55:52 > 0:55:56in her interpretation of music which Fred somehow was able to use to make
0:55:56 > 0:56:00this Irish song, so I think he owed her
0:56:00 > 0:56:04and should have acknowledged her personally, which he didn't.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10Soon after she wrote this, Margaret mentally deteriorated.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12In 1939, the Irish-American woman
0:56:12 > 0:56:16who had been written out of Danny Boy's history by Fred Weatherly,
0:56:16 > 0:56:20died, penniless and insane.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26# But come ye back
0:56:26 > 0:56:32# When summer's in the meadow... #
0:56:32 > 0:56:372013 was the 100th anniversary of the publication
0:56:37 > 0:56:39of Fred Weatherly's Danny Boy.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41This was celebrated
0:56:41 > 0:56:44during the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture year
0:56:44 > 0:56:46with a mass sing-along.
0:56:46 > 0:56:47# 'Tis I'll be here
0:56:47 > 0:56:53# In sunshine or in shadow... #
0:56:53 > 0:56:57People in Derry, everyone likes to think they can sing, whether they
0:56:57 > 0:57:04can not is irrelevant, so we have kind of bragging rights on Danny Boy.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09It was very emotional when we had thousands of people
0:57:09 > 0:57:12in the Guildhall Square singing Danny Boy.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17I suppose that was the song coming home after all of this time,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22and also, it was Derry reclaiming the song, saying,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24"Don't forget, this is our song."
0:57:32 > 0:57:35It seems to move every generation.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39It's one of those songs that is here, it's hovering, it has wings,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41it's a free thing all by itself, and you can't tame a song like that.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45Well done, everyone!
0:57:47 > 0:57:50I know it comes out of the past, it comes here in the present,
0:57:50 > 0:57:53and you know that it's not going to not go on.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55It's going to go on for ever, that song.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00It's kind of like Guinness at this point. It's everywhere.
0:58:00 > 0:58:08# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling... #
0:58:08 > 0:58:12It's probably a journey that will never end, and when you come
0:58:12 > 0:58:16and all the flowers are dying, and they will be for a long time,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20but then they will bloom again, and Danny will still be
0:58:20 > 0:58:26on the road, and you never know, because somewhere, the pipes,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28the pipes will be calling.
0:58:28 > 0:58:33# Whoa, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy, the pipes are calling
0:58:33 > 0:58:34# Oh, Danny boy
0:58:34 > 0:58:39# From glen to glen and even down the mountain side
0:58:39 > 0:58:45# The summer's gone and all the roses falling
0:58:45 > 0:58:49# It's you, it's you must go and I must abide
0:58:49 > 0:58:51# Oh, Danny boy
0:58:51 > 0:58:55# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow... #
0:58:55 > 0:58:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd