On the FECC forum, someone had posted that Danny Boy is to be banned in a bar in Manhattan throughout March because…….

 

"It's overplayed, it's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time, and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St. Patrick's Day celebration," says Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant, just off Fifth Avenue opposite the Empire State Building.

 

Of course, the Elvis fans on the site were defending Elvis’ version of the song, and it is a beauty, but I was particularly taken by this post by ‘Elvis_Priestly’ who is, in actual fact, a real life priest who happens to be a huge Elvis fan too. Read his lovely response :wub: I hope he doesn’t mind me posting it here B)

 

Despite being Irish I am not into Irish music at all, and Danny Boy would be easily written off by me as the most mawkish of Irish folk sentimentality.

 

But, on Elvis's anniversary last year, when I was lucky enough to be in Graceland, I loaded JRS on my mp3 player to listen to while I walked around the house. I reached Danny Boy in the racquetball court, the bit where the piano is, and just stood looking at the piano thinking of his last night playing there and listening to his beautiful voice and the inflection and emotion in his voice as he sang it. I remember thinking, with great sadness, "Why did you loose confidence? Why wouldn't you go into a studio? How could you have thought you or it wasn't worth it?" And then I choked up. And then the line "you'll come and find the place where I am lying and kneel and say an ave there for me", well I'd waited twenty years to do just that and so I did. This song at that time, in that place is what let me cry my eyes out (discretely) like an eijit. Elvis's music has so often been cathartic for me in good times, bad times and stressed times in my 20 years of being a fan and, rightly, at this moment it was cathartic for me in thankfulness for having discovered Elvis and my sadness I'd never get to watch him live or be his mate. Since then it has risen to near the top of my "favourites" list. Having just before Christmas got Tucson '76 I can say I love that live version hearing him directing and navigating himself through it while imbuing it with the raw unpolished emotion its meant to contain.

 

Ban everyone else's version, if you must, but keep E's - he knew what he was singing!

 

I can relate to what he says, not just because of the experience of visiting Graceland, but the fact that Elvis songs have helped me so much through a variety of emotional experiences over the last few years. I can relate to the words and take comfort in them, because Elvis had an exceptional talent, not just of being a wonderful singer, but of truly conveying the sentiments of the lyrics. That is a special gift that not every singer possesses, but that Elvis had in bucketloads :wub:

 

And as for the Father listening to JRS as he toured the house, I think I, too, would have been in bits. I can remember looking down on the Jungle Room as I listened to a brief clip from the album on the headphones, and it was such a surreal moment, gazing down at the place where he actually sang those words. As for the Racquetball court, each time I stood in that room gazing at the TV screen showing Elvis singing the beautiful American Trilogy from Aloha, I’m not ashamed to say I cried. For me, it was Aloha that reignited my interest in Elvis, so it will always be special to me, and watching him sing the ultimate version of that wonderful song, in that room, was just too much for me. The same feeling I got at the graveside listening to the words of Lead Me, Guide Me and If I Can Dream :wub: One day I will return, I really hope I do :D

 

Danny Boy is a great song, it was played at my dad's funeral. It was one of his favourite songs. :)

 

I get emotional when i listen to alot of Elvis songs.

 

One day Carol, we will go to Graceland together and enjoy every moment of it.

 

 

Well done to the priest, another great Elvis fan :cheer:

One day Carol, we will go to Graceland together and enjoy every moment of it.

Yaaaaay!! Can't wait until the day the two of us invade Memphis :yahoo:

Yaaaaay!! Can't wait until the day the two of us invade Memphis :yahoo:

 

 

I bet we won't be asked back :lol: :w00t:

I bet we won't be asked back :lol: :w00t:

Yes, but at least we'd make our mark :yahoo: Once seen, never forgotten :naughty:

Yes, but at least we'd make our mark :yahoo: Once seen, never forgotten :naughty:

 

 

Just like Elvis. YaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaY!! :yahoo: