Flour Power

I’ve mentioned this song in a previous post, and since it’s such a big thing here I think it deserves a whole post about it.

Galway Girl was written by Steve Earle and recorded with the Irish fiddler Sharon Shannon, and tells the “semi-autobiographical story of the singer’s reaction to the beauty of a girl he meets in Galway”. Although the song was recorded in 2000 it only became really famous in 2007, when a studio version of the track (recorded by Mundy and Sharon Shannon) reached #1 in the Irish Singles Charts and ended up being the biggest selling download in the Republic of Ireland and winning a Meteor Music Award. The song was also the highest selling single in Ireland in 2008. It was also part of the 2007 movie P.S. I Love You.

Here’s video of a live performance by Sharon Shannon and Steve Earle:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-PM_4aeE4

And the lyrics:

Well, I took a stroll on the old Long Walk
Of a day -I-ay-I-ay
I met a little girl and we stopped to talk
Of a fine soft day -I-ay-I-ay
And I ask you, friend, what’s a fella to do
‘Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue
And I knew right then, I’d be takin’ a whirl
‘Round the Salthill Prom with a Galway girl

We were halfway there when the rain came down
Of a day -I-ay-I-ay
And she asked me up to her flat downtown
Of a fine soft day -I-ay-I-ay
And I ask you, friend, what’s a fella to do
‘Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue
So I took her hand, and I gave her a twirl
And I lost my heart to a Galway girl

When I woke up I was all alone
With a broken heart and a ticket home
And I ask you now, tell me what would you do
If her hair was black and her eyes were blue
‘Cause I’ve travelled around, I’ve been all over this world
Boys I ain’t never seen nothin’ like a Galway girl

A note about the lyrics: there are two local references in the song. The Long Walk is a pier road in the historic part of Galway, accessed through the Spanish Arch (just around the corner from my place). The Promenade (Prom) in Salthill (the oldest of Galway suburbs, just across the river from the center) is about two miles away to the west, by the sea and overlooking Galway Bay, with bars, restaurants and hotels (one of those places I have to visit when the weather gets better).