“…Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene”
And then the chorus gradually paints more sorrow:
“Did they beat the drum slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
And the drums were beat slowly. Matt Kelly plays subtle military type ruffles, accompanied by Scruffy Wallace on the bagpipes. Incredible.
Following folk tradition is the song “I’m Shipping up to Boston”, in which the lyrics, previously unpublished, were written by Woody Guthrie. The Warrior Code is the second time that Guthrie’s daughter Nora gave the Murphys permission to go through archives of her fathers work in order to set his words to music.
The best tribute to history and to the present is in the stirring “Tessie”. In the summer of 2004, the Red Sox management approached the Dropkick Murphys with a request to come up with an anthem to rally the Sox to victory. “Tessie” was based on an old cheer of a group of fun loving Boston fans of the 1900’s, the Royal Rooters. They’d sing the popular Broadway tune for fun and as a way to rattle the opposing teams. The original song had nothing really to do with baseball, but for whatever reason, especially in post-season games, the song worked and World Series contests were won. The Murphys reworked the song quite radically, and the current exhilarating version includes Bronson Arroyo, Lenny DiNardo and Johnny Damon singing backup vocals along with the band. And as we now know – once again – the song worked.
And so does The Warrior Code.
Article comments
1 - Bob A. Booey
That Red Sox song sounds really cool. I'd like to hear it.
I always get the Murphys confused with Flogging Molly. Those damn Irish-American street-punk bands.
There's a band from Chicago called The Tossers that does similar kind of stuff, but less hardcore and more Irish ditty-ish.
There's a Scottish band called The Real McKenzies that plays Scottish punk, complete with bagpipes.
That is all.
2 - John Bil
GreenDay are a bunch of little sissies. My grandma could knock them out.
3 - Mary K. Williams
Bob, soon as I can figure out how to translate my CD into an mp3 file, you'll be in line to get a file.
The song IS great. If you're inclined, it's also on the Fever Pitch DVD.
Flogging Molly is cool too, havn't heard them in a while.
4 - Mary K. Williams
John-
Grandma sounds tough - wonder why she really wants to take out Green Day?
Good thing this post was about the Dropkick Murphys - whew!
5 - Mark Saleski
nice review. looks like this is another cd i must pick up...especially since i don't have 'Tessie' yet.
6 - Chris
Dropkick murphys Rock man. Them and all other irish punkers. Blood or whiskey Bitches.