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Dirty Old Town
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Wikipedia article
"'Dirty Old Town'" is a song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 that was made popular by The Dubliners and has been recorded by many others.
History
The song was written about Salford, Lancashire, England, the city where MacColl was born and brought up. It was originally composed for an interlude to cover an awkward scene change in his 1949 play 'Landscape with Chimneys', set in a North of England industrial town,Ewan MacColl Songbook but with the growing popularity of folk music the song became a standard. The first verse refers to the gasworks croft, which was a piece of open land adjacent to the gasworks, and then speaks of the old canal, which was the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The line in the original version about smelling a spring on the Salford wind is sometimes sung as the sulphured wind. But in any case, most singers tend to drop the Salford reference altogether, in favour of calling the wind smoky.
The Pogues' version of the song is played during the team walk-on at Salford City FC.
Charts
The Dubliners version
Certifications
References
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