This is the song of my people. My grandfather sang this version to his children, my father sang it to us as a lullaby, and I did the same. Now I’m just hoping for a grandbaby to continue the tradition. Thank you.
@@fatavv please, don't multiply the hate in the world. I doubt, that the person who likes this song supports this war. Sure, if he did - he's an dumbass. The goverment of Russian Federation hates equally ukranian and their own people as well.
*speechless* This song imho is one of the best anti-war-songs ever and I loved it for decades and knew many great versions - but this version - it's as if the song had embodied itself. This version should be shared and shared, over and over again, should be shown in every school as part of musical education AND political education.
The island of Ceylon is known today as Sri Lanka. This is a song on the kandyan wars fought in Sri Lanka. Kandyan wars are the final wars in Indian subcontinent by the British empire. As a Sri Lankan this song is important to us as well. Interconnected history right across the world.
I don't know much about this song's historical facts and I don't know anything about this perfomer. But, here is the interesting thing about it... It works wonders when you have to put baby to sleep. I discovered this with my son 5 years ago, and now doing the same thing with my baby daughter who is two months old. Just play this on RU-vid, put the cellphone near and carry the baby and walk similarly to army marching up and down the apartment. I'm really grateful for this video. Greetings from Croatia.
While on the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo While on the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo While on the road to sweet Athy A stick in me hand and a drop in me eye A doleful damsel I heard cry, Johnny I hardly knew ye. With your drums and guns and drums and guns, hurroo, hurroo With your drums and guns and drums and guns, hurroo, hurroo With your drums and guns and drums and guns The enemy nearly slew ye Oh my darling dear, Ye look so queer Johnny I hardly knew ye. Where are your eyes that look so mild, hurroo, hurroo Where are your eyes that look so mild, hurroo, hurroo Where are your eyes that look so mild When my poor heart you first beguiled Why did ye run from me and the child Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye. Where are your legs with which ye run, hurroo, hurroo Where are your legs with which ye run, hurroo, hurroo Where are your legs with which ye run When first you learned to carry a gun Indeed your dancing days are done Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye. I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo I'm happy for to see ye home All from the island of Sulloon So low in flesh, so high in bone Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye. Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg Ye're an armless, boneless, chickenless egg Ye'll be having to put a bowl to beg Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye. I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo I'm happy for to see ye home All from the island of Ceylon; So low in the flesh, so high in the bone. Johnny I hardly knew ye. They're rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo They're rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo They're rolling out the guns again But they never will take our sons again No they never will take our sons again Johnny I'm swearing to ye.
The past lives on. I just realized something, to me, personal and stunning, listening to this Irish singer, about the intricacies of the English language. Or more specifically, the Irish VERSION of English, which has it's own distinct cadence and phraseology. On my mother's side, there is a substantial Irish ancestory - literally those whom fled the Potato Famine around the year 1850 and arrived in the upper South or lower Midwest of America, near the Mississippi River, at that distant time, being raw frontier. A couple generations later, mother met and married a man from the, at least then, a more educated, more prosperous northern Midwest. She had a "southern" accent, very different from my proper, dignified, Midwest American, fathers, which I also share, not southern, at all.. Here is the thing - the way my mother spoke and put things, was slightly nonstandard and peculiar. I had always assumed it was due to a lower education level, or due to the southern American English aspect, but more so, almost, it's funny but accurate to say it, almost an old, "colonial American" twang and language style. But now, listening to this Irish speaker, it suddenly became clear, how different the accent but how familiar his cadence sounded, much like what my mother was really speaking , which was with a deep background of IRISH English, overlaid with a superficial southern American English accent. Wow ! It is stunning that not merely biology lived on, but a manner of speaking, also sometimes lives on, for many, many generations passed its point of origin. Bits and pieces of an ancient past are everywhere around us not very far below the surface.
The English spoken in Ireland is called Hiberno English . It came into being from native Irish speakers changing their Irish into English, it is very warm and very different from standard English. The Irish language is structurally different to English and this difference carries over in older speech and persists today. It's wonderful, as is the Irish language, an teanga gaeilge.
I have seen the full video somewhere else and his explanation of this song is superb. Here, that introduction was simply omitted. Too bad... But, yes, this guy has no match...
I love Irish music. I was playing at the drunken LASS, HOOLIGAN'S & SCOTTY O'NEILS ONCE A WK; you'd have thought i was IRISH..¿₩TH? YOU'D BE WRONG; I'M A WELSCH, ENGLISH, & DUTCH BLEND, (0H NO, & a Touch of RUSSIAN..) DR. ZIVAGO i HOPE..❗❔❗
Thanks, @@stphnmrrs3982, after a good deal of google searching, I found Luxon, you can see below, and thank you very much for adding the banjo player, Bill Crofut. I guess the original poster thought that they were so famous everyone would instantly know them. That is a very young, Benjamin Luxon there, whose rendition of the song, is nothing short of, magnificent. I did not know of him, or his deeply rich baritone. I'm going to have to check out his operatic performances. Thanks again, Stephen!
@@mobystwin I moved to eastern Massachusetts in 1974 and quickly found the classical music station WCRB and its "Saturday Night" program every Saturday night. The host, Richard L Kaye, frequently played recordings of both "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," and the equally wonderful mesh of "Simple Gifts/Lord of the Dance." Later he added "The Fox." For the 1986 concert, Kaye announced it as a "Public Service Announcement." It was, indeed.
