Re: "Danny Boy" on Shamrock Day?

Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <F9ydnefTBLjlqEjanZ2dnUVZ_tzinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Kip Williams  <kiptw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Harry Mary Andruschak wrote:
>>> Not in one New York Irish-themed pub...
>>>
>>> http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0307/dannyboy.html
>> Back in the 70s, my grandfather was in Ireland listening to live music.

>> He requested "MacNamara's Band" and the scornful reply was, "That song 
>> was written in Brooklyn!"
> 
> A whole LOT of what USians consider Irish music was written in
> Tin Pan Alley, first to appeal to homesick Irish and, by a rapid
> transfer, to late-nineteenth-century folk who were suckers for
> sentiment.  (After all, the homesick Irish were probably too
> broke, at that stage in their development, to buy sheet music.)

Ethnic tunes, I'm convinced, gave a lot of Americans the opportunity to 
feel emotional in vicarious ways. Minstrel songs, in particular, went 
right to the emotions a lot of times, and of course the Irish songs did 
much the same. I generally make a mental distinction between real Irish 
songs and songs -about- Ireland, or Irish immigrants.

Similarly, the 60s explosion of Central American Brass pop was about 60% 
songs written by North American- (and Germanic-) sounding names, 
performed by about 90% American artists. Going back through the history 
of Latin American tunes that were hits up here, we see that they largely 
originated from that well-known alley as well.

Italian songs, on the other hand, seem to be mostly written by Italians. 
Go figure.

Kip W