The Clancy Brothers: Finnegan’s Wake
The Clancy Brothers, who played with Tommy Makem until 1969, were great talkers as well as great singers. About half of the above version of Finnegan’s Wake is a reading by Tommy Clancy from the James Joyce novel that is based on the same story: A man revives at his own wake when whiskey thrown by one mourner at another hits him.
Perhaps I’m thinking this way because Easter just passed, but there seems to be a religious subtext:
The corpse revives! See how he raises!
Timothy rising from the bed,
Says,”Whirl your whiskey around like blazes
Thanum an Dhul! Do you thunk I’m dead?”
The clip, by the way, is from the old David Frost show. Here are a later version of the same routine and the lyrics. Information about the influential Irish band is available at the group’s Facebook page and at more than one site.
Here are The Irish Rover, The Drunken Sailor, Rocky Road to Dublin and Beer, Beer, Beer.
by 
[...] at Minton’s Oscar “Papa” Celestin: Marie Laveau/Oh! Didn’t He Ramble The Clancy Brothers: Finnegan’s Wake Gary Clark Jr.: Bright Lights The Clash: The Magnificent Seven Patsy Cline: Crazy George M. [...]
[...] Oscar “Papa” Celestin: Marie Laveau/Oh! Didn’t He Ramble The Clancy Brothers: Finnegan’s Wake Gary Clark Jr.: Bright Lights The Clash: The Magnificent Seven Patsy Cline: Crazy George M. [...]
[...] been doing this website, one of my favorite clips is The Clancy Brothers’ rendition of Finnegan’s Wake. There also is Black 47 and Flogging Molly, which whom I (and many others, of course) share a great [...]
[...] AllMusic’s bio begins by contrasting The Dubliners to The Clancy Brothers. It sounds like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Indeed, the early days of all four bands were [...]