It s as if we re the lace curtain Irish and they re the shanty Irish. Here they come, a-hootin and a-hollerin and a-blundering into town to embarrass us all in front of the neighbours.
The news that Black 47 are to fly over from New York later this month for a couple of dates has made some folk in these parts more nervous than a rattlesnake in a room full of rocking chairs. It s not only the fact that this incendiary rap, rock and reggae sextet arrives trailing a fearsome live reputation and could probably have any of our local heroes for breakfast, over easy. There s also the small matter of their pesky politics, that fierce insurrectionary glow which seethes at their core like molten coke at the heart of a forge.
A while back, Black 47 caused ripples of uneasiness to lap on the shores of the auld sod because their worldview came with a distinctly green rinse. Now, however, they are viewed with suspicion because they have a worldview at all. This is an era when the only time you ll hear an Irish musician speak of revolution is in a wet-eyed conversation about the good old days of vinyl and turntables.
Even Polygram Ireland, the label who are, theoretically, releasing Green Suede Shoes, the latest Black 47 album, seem uncomfortable and a little perplexed about the band. If their promotion strategy had a logo, it would be a furrowed brow emblazoned with the slogan Huh?
Ever alert to toxins in the air, Black 47 s linchpin, Wexford-born Larry Kirwan, admits that his excitement about the Dublin show is laced with a degree of trepidation.
I d like to think that the Dublin show was just another show but it s not, he affirms down the line from his New York apartment. I m a bit apprehensive, to tell you the truth. When you go away, you go away for a reason. Even though I still consider myself totally Irish, I m just not sure how I fit in anymore, into the whole scene, and I don t just mean the music scene.
I d like the band to be really accepted over in Ireland but I m apprehensive that it mightn t be. One thing I do like about the Irish is that they do have a liking for melody and good words. My feeling is that they would like the band. We ll soon see. I kinda feel responsible for the guys in the band. I m the one who s from there. Now, they re comin over. I d like to see them getting a fair shake.
throb and BULGE
In pure entertainment terms, a Black 47 concert should be one of the gigs of the year, any year. Having honed their sonic onslaught as the longstanding and legendary house band at Paddy Reilly s, a small, sweaty Irish alehouse on New York s East Side, they now play over 150 nights out of every 365, slaying audiences in the aisles at every venue.
We play all over the States but our real strongholds are the big, old-line Democratic cities, Kirwan declares. Right across the country Chicago, Boston, Albany, Buffalo the big old rust belt. Wherever people feel that they won t have the same living standard as their parents, that s Black 47 country.
A Black 47 song is like no other. Their tunes thrash, throb and bulge like a shotgun in a Bugs Bunny cartoon after someone plugs the end and pulls the trigger. The lyrics are as bright as the Manhattan skyline, fast, furious, frenzied and often very funny.
Green Suede Shoes is their fourth album but only the second to be made widely available over here. The third collection, Home Of The Brave, was produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads fame. On Green Suede Shoes, Kirwan himself decided to pilot the controls.
I wanted to go back to the roots of Black 47 and to get more of a live sound from it, he avers. I spent a lot of time just analysing what the band s live sound was. I listened to a lot of live tapes and realised there was a lot of dissonance. A lot of jamming would go on. I hadn t realised just how much the songs changed from night to night. We never do the same set twice.
The minute we come onstage, Black 47 start striving to break down the fourth wall. The first four or five songs are concerned with that, with getting people into it. From then on, the interaction between the audience and the band takes over. I wanted to capture as much of that raw energy as I could on this album.
totally pissed off
In the past, Kirwan has written passionate, personal, literate songs about figures such as James Connolly and Michael Collins. On Green Suede Shoes, he turns his forensic attention on a more recent historical totem, on a track entitled Bobby Sands MP .
I m not sure about the way Bobby Sands is seen in Ireland now but, around the world, he s seen as the symbol of a person fighting for his individual dignity and individual ideals, asserts Kirwan. I didn t want to write a Ra Ra song about him. I wanted to show the complexities of the man. The way I got that was realising that he had a son. Having children myself, I realised that no matter how much he was into his ideals, the fact he was going to leave his son on his own without a father must have struck him pretty heavily.
If you can get em from the human level, the politics will follow. I don t try to tell people what to do in politics, even though Black 47 is a very political band. We formed because of politics. It s not something we really have to work at. It s just part of the fabric of the band.
The album also features a song celebrating the life and work of the late Rory Gallagher.
I was totally pissed off with his obituaries, Kirwan says. I was astounded by them. They were all based on this idea that Rory didn t seem to make it in the same way other people did. Whereas, to me, Rory was the consummate live performer, the hard-working man who went out there and did 150 shows a year and they were all spectacular. The obituaries were only concerned about the fact that he wasn t as big as U2, he didn t make it as big as The Rolling Stones, he didn t join The Rolling Stones.
No-one seemed to take into account the complete joy he gave to so many people. I didn t know him very well but it struck me that he was living to his potential all the time when he was onstage. I wanted to commemorate him and to thank him for all the joy he gave me and all the other people I know who he gave joy to. n
Black 47 play Dublin s Midnight at The Olympia on Saturday, April 26th, and The Talbot Hotel, Wexford, on Sunday, April 27th.