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Damien Dempsey

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    #122
    Gerard.C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭Gerard.C


    fh041205 wrote: »
    Right, almost everyone has said this. So time for a show of hands.

    Which of you (internet people) who are fans of Damien Dempsey, who previously had zero knowledge of the Dubliners existance, have since become avid fans based purely on Damien Dempsey collaboration or whatever you want to call it. Answer honestly now!!!

    I knew the dubliners before I got into Damo, but what has this got to do with anything? If he's getting younger people into music that we as a nation are forgetting, so what? There's no harm whatsoever in that.

    Personally, I think Damo is the brightest light to shine from this country in a LONG time. He's without any doubt my favourite artist in the world right now, his passion in unbelieveably infectious. He's fantastic live, one of the best I've seen, and anyone who judges him based on his accent or where he's from (this is coming from a tipp man too!) is pathetic.


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    #123
    fh041205
    Registered Users Posts: 992 ✭✭✭fh041205


    Gerard.C wrote: »
    I knew the dubliners before I got into Damo, but what has this got to do with anything? If he's getting younger people into music that we as a nation are forgetting, so what? There's no harm whatsoever in that.

    Very true indeed. IMO that is the most reasonable justification of his 'covers' album. However, I conjecture that he has failed in this. It struck me that fans of his kept referring to this without saying that it had happpened to them. Thats all I'm getting at for the moment. Thanks for your reply.


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    #124
    Gerard.C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭Gerard.C


    fh041205 wrote: »
    Very true indeed. IMO that is the most reasonable justification of his 'covers' album. However, I conjecture that he has failed in this. It struck me that fans of his kept referring to this without saying that it had happpened to them. Thats all I'm getting at for the moment. Thanks for your reply.

    But how can you say he has failed in it? If the idea is to get through to young people, how are we to know if he did? I wouldn't expect 11 year olds to be posting on boards about Damo like

    For what its worth, around this time last year I went to an all ages Damo gig in cork and there was 20 to 30 younguns running around and enjoying the music, and Damo was visably delighted with the response the young gave him. He was playing lively songs for the kids to dance to and was giving them fantastic words of encouragement inbetween songs. The man is nothing short of a hero


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    #125
    Gerard.C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭Gerard.C


    Whiskey Devil wrote: »
    I would say the vast majority of Damien Dempsey fans were not aware of The Night Visiting Song, School Days Over, Johnny Jump Up etc. as they are not the first songs people associate with the Dubliners or Luke Kelly. I don't believe for a second that he released any album for money or greater recognition. Look at a video of him singing live and you will struggle to find any performer other than Luke Kelly or Christy Moore that sing with such passion and love for what they do.

    If he wanted to be George Murphy he would have recorded Dirty Old Town, The Irish Rover, Molly Malone, Rare Old Times etc. Instead he recorded songs that your average Irish person (shamefully imo) doesn't know whatsoever.

    He's one of the brightest lights in Irish music. Give him a break!

    Fantastic post!! You goin to see him over the xmas?


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    #126
    fh041205
    Registered Users Posts: 992 ✭✭✭fh041205


    Gerard.C wrote: »
    But how can you say he has failed in it? If the idea is to get through to young people, how are we to know if he did?

    Precisely. Too many people claimed this without proving it. Therefore I suggested the opposite might be true, with equally little proof. Proof by contradiction is on my side here though.


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    #127
    Gerard.C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭Gerard.C


    fh041205 wrote: »
    Precisely. Too many people claimed this without proving it. Therefore I suggested the opposite might be true, with equally little proof. Proof by contradiction is on my side here though.

    Well, I kinda did prove it in my last post. What more do you want?


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    #128
    fh041205
    Registered Users Posts: 992 ✭✭✭fh041205


    Gerard.C wrote: »
    Well, I kinda did prove it in my last post. What more do you want?


    I wan t people to stop claiming he has inntrouced a new generation (who otherwise would not have listened to the music) to the Dubliners, the pogues, the clancys etc. as a direct result of his album containing these songs.

    I wondered if that was the case with anyone on here. The answer so far is no.


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    #129
    Glassheart
    Closed Accounts Posts: 501 ✭✭✭Glassheart


    I love the guy.

    He has the ability to occasionally write some dodgy lyrics but i think he's a terrific tunesmith.Those songs really get stuck in your head...

    His gigs have to be seen to be believed.Always a really positive experience.:)


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    #130
    TheCandystripes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 553 ✭✭✭TheCandystripes


    a boring cretin.


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    #131
    Whiskey Devil
    Registered Users Posts: 908 ✭✭✭Whiskey Devil


    Whiskey Devil wrote: »
    I would say the vast majority of Damien Dempsey fans were not aware of The Night Visiting Song, School Days Over, Johnny Jump Up etc. as they are not the first songs people associate with the Dubliners or Luke Kelly. I don't believe for a second that he released any album for money or greater recognition. Look at a video of him singing live and you will struggle to find any performer other than Luke Kelly or Christy Moore that sing with such passion and love for what they do.

    If he wanted to be George Murphy he would have recorded Dirty Old Town, The Irish Rover, Molly Malone, Rare Old Times etc. Instead he recorded songs that your average Irish person (shamefully imo) doesn't know whatsoever.

    He's one of the brightest lights in Irish music. Give him a break!


    Next Sunday in the Pavilion in Dun Laoghaire. :) Can't wait..


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    #132
    manwith3butocks
    Registered Users Posts: 46 ✭manwith3butocks


    He's an absolute star and a gentleman. Really genuine when you talk to him, proud to have him as an ambassador.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPEOmHxaY1o


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    #133
    Michael Collins
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 1,846 Mod ✭✭✭✭Michael Collins


    Damien Dempsey Documentary (aka DDD):

    http://www.veotag.com/player/?pid=c3663fc8-6fb5-4a46-98a8-1a0c1b007d66


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    #134
    Whiskey Devil
    Registered Users Posts: 908 ✭✭✭Whiskey Devil


    The documentary is excellent. Has some great interviews with Damo in America and Dublin before he 'made it' and lots of well known guests. I'd love to get the full VT of him singing 'It's Important' with Christy Moore in the pub. Does anybody know where it was recorded?


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    #135
    CSC
    Closed Accounts Posts: 653 ✭✭✭CSC


    Is it the old Rocky Sullivan's in New York?


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    #136
    Whiskey Devil
    Registered Users Posts: 908 ✭✭✭Whiskey Devil


    CSC wrote: »
    Is it the old Rocky Sullivan's in New York?

    I don't think he'd have met with Christy Moore in the States as he hasn't toured there for years. I'm pretty sure it's when he returns to Dublin - could be wrong though. :confused:


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    #137
    theyellowtinker
    Registered Users Posts: 15 ✭theyellowtinker


    Have to say I liked his first 2 albums and like his dictinct sound..evenstill i reckon he is well overated. Yeah a few catchy origionals but he is completely blown out of proportion as regards his ability and talent, particularly the irish ballads .
    Indeed, hes not not a scratch on any of the legendary balladeers ie Luke & Christy, but why the feck does he have to be? Lets just leave him be the dodgy, unique but likeable singer songwriter that he is without entering him into folk legend just coz he released a weak duplicated recording of over trodden ballads done a generation earlier.
    The only songs not well trodden are the mickey bags (Twangman) one &
    Madam Im a darlin..
    All youve got to do is log onto his site and read his biog which reads as a load of b***ix if you ask me.. the Irish Lion blah blah.. are we really in that much need of hero??


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    #138
    Brendan Jabbers
    Registered Users Posts: 13 ✭Brendan Jabbers


    I realise I'm in the underwhelming minority, but I can't stand the guy. I think he's a real chancer - and yet I also enjoyed his earlier work (Seize The Day and Shots) and went to see him several times. Many times I would be stopped in my tracks by the sheer naivety of his lyrics (and not in a good way). It's peculiar that the island that produced Yeats, Behan, Kavanagh et al has also produced probably the two worst lyricists to have worked in the popular music genre - Dempsey and Dolores O'Riordan.
    Gems such as "Coming down on the ground in a small house, you're a man but you feel like a small mouse" (nothing worse than those BIG mice), "I look to the East, I look to the West, to the North and South and I'm not too impressed" and "when the Devil gets into my head, I'm so blue" (well, you would be, wouldn't you?) are just embarrassing.

    I saw him most recently in Manchester last Autumn and it was easily my worst gig of the year. A horrible crowd (it was a small venue, fortunately) of beered up Mancs (or that was how they sounded) drowning out the music, a constant chant of "Damo" throughout and music that wore its right-on credentials on its sleeve, then shoved its sleeve in your face - dropping names like Bob Marley, Phil Lynott and, weirdly, Tony Benn.

    To quote the "Workers' Liberty" website: "(Tony Benn was) a member of the government that brought in the Prevention of Terrorism Act to enable the police to hold Irish people in jail without charge or trial and to deport them...he was a member of the Government that put the troops on the streets in 1969, and of the Government that surrendered to the Orange general strike in 1974 and brought in the Prevention of Terrorism Act at the end of that year.

    "He was still a member of that Government when, from 1976, they withdrew the political-prisoner rights conceded by the Tory government after 1972. They thus sparked the...hunger strikes of 1981, when ten men died".

    In short, I don't doubt Dempsey's sincerity, but I believe he is a dilettante, and that he is naive and gauche, writing about things which he doesn't fully grasp.


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    #139
    squonk
    Registered Users Posts: 8,603 ✭✭✭squonk


    I tried listening to. Few of his albums but always had to stop before he end because I got sick of listening t him bitching, moaning and preaching about various causes. I caught one of his gigs on TG4 a few years ago and that put me off wanting to ever see him live. All I remember is him rabbiting on ad nausuem over "800 years of oppression". Get over yourself mate. To my mind the reason he gets on so well with Christy Moore is that they both have the same inflated opinions of their ability to change the world by adopting causes, writing songs about them and spouting ****e at gigs. Good for them but ultimately that ends up getting on punter's tits after a while.

    I've heard some radio play of Damo's new single. Very lackluster. More of the same tedious ****e but the single provokes no reaction in me whatsoever so I'm guessing he's either sold out, bought into his publicity or is going through a fallow period. Either way I wouldn't cross the road to see him.


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    #140
    CuriousPete
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭CuriousPete


    Damien Dempsey is great. Irish music is moving forward with people like Damien. He gets my approval.


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    #141
    Pink Fox
    Registered Users Posts: 70 ✭✭Pink Fox


    He singing is too much like shouting for my liking, but I like seeing him on a talk show, he is honest and sincere


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    #142
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users Posts: 6,500 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    Brendan Jabbers wrote: »
    In short, I don't doubt Dempsey's sincerity, but I believe he is a dilettante, and that he is naive and gauche, writing about things which he doesn't fully grasp.


    You know I'd agree a lot of what you say to be honest.

    Having said that, I was listening to shots yesterday and I really enjoyed it.

    Sometimes he gets it bang on and sometimes you just cringe listening to the lines.....even within the same song.

    Spraypaint BackAlley is a song with really fine lyrics.

    On the other hand, I wouldnt be a big fan of Colony.

    But actually for me the big thing with Damien Dempsey is the way he delivers it.

    Cursed with a Brain is probably the best example for me.

    I wouldnt be a huge fan of the message of the song, its a little bit cliched....

    But its an absolutely class song, the production of it and the way he delivers the song and also the guitar chords, it is class.

    The other thing is, that cant be questioned really......is that he is the only person singing about this stuff. Nobody else really covers these topics. Is it any surprise that people like songs they can relate to?

    I couldnt say what any Snow Patrol song is about.....or any Script song.....or any Radiohead song for that matter.


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